Born in Crema, Dec 22, 1821
Died in Parma, July 7, 1889
- Giovanni Bottesini [PRONUNCIATION] was a virtuoso double bass player. He studied violin as child, but when his father found that the only scholarships left at Milan Conservatory were for double bass or bassoon, Bottesini learned the double bass in a matter of weeks and won the scholarship.1
- Bottesini was called “The Paganini of the Double Bass.”2
- In addition to being a double bassist, Bottesini was a distinguished composer and conductor of opera. In 1871 he directed the premiere of Aïda at Verdi’s request.3
“How he bewildered us by playing all sorts of melodies in flute-like harmonics, as though he had a hundred nightingales caged in his double-bass!”
Hugh Reginald Haweis, writer on music and contemporary of Bottesini 4
Sources
- Rodney Slatford, “Bottesini, Giovanni,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 5, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000003691.
- Hugh Reginald Haweis, Memories of a Musical Life (New York: Carl Fischer, 1909), 13.
- Yngve B. Olsson, liner notes to Bottesini: Gran Concerto in F sharp minor; Gran Duo Concertante, Thomas Martin, double bass, José-Luis Garcia, violin, Emma Johnson, clarinet, English Chamber Orchestra, Andrew Litton, Naxos 8.570397, CD, 2008.
- Haweis, Memories of a Musical Life, 13.