Double bass virtuoso and composer Giovanni Bottesini was quite well known in his own time, but his popularity has proven difficult to translate for the present day. A few players, such as bluegrass-classical bassist Edgar Meyer, have performed his music, but until now a full-scale effort at historical reconstruction has been lacking. That's what you get from Italian bassist Alberto Lo Gatto (he's one cool cat), with pianist Luca Antoniotti and soprano Emanuela Galli. The historical-performance aspect encompasses two major ...
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Double bass virtuoso and composer Giovanni Bottesini was quite well known in his own time, but his popularity has proven difficult to translate for the present day. A few players, such as bluegrass-classical bassist Edgar Meyer, have performed his music, but until now a full-scale effort at historical reconstruction has been lacking. That's what you get from Italian bassist Alberto Lo Gatto (he's one cool cat), with pianist Luca Antoniotti and soprano Emanuela Galli. The historical-performance aspect encompasses two major features, both of them important. The period instruments make more of a difference than usual in music of the Romantic era. Lo Gatto plays a 19th century Italian bass with three gut strings, the historical accuracy of which is attested to by a delightful cartoon reproduced in the booklet. Antoniotti plays an 1871 piano, and the two instruments cut the music down to the small-hall dimensions for which it was intended. They are ably supported by Galli and the Pan Classics engineering...
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