With July coming to an end, so concludes the string portion of our Summer Listening series with a selection of concertos for the double bass. To quote Gunther Schuller, some of these concertos are "far removed from the genre and character pieces that have weighted down the bass repertory for decades and centuries," including his own and that of Missy Mazzoli. Others, such as those of Gian Carlo Menotti, Robert Xavier Rodríguez, and Tan Dun happily embrace the history of this grand and foundational instrument, while more still lie in between the two poles.
Richard Rodney Bennett
Double Bass Concerto (1978), 20 minutes
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John Harbison
Concerto for Bass Viol and Orchestra (2005), 20 minutes
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View the score
Anders Koppel
Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra (2000), 17 minutes
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View the score
Missy Mazzoli
Dark with Excessive Bright (2018), 13 minutes
string orchestra
Watch a short film on Dark with Excessive Bright on YouTube | View the score
Gian Carlo Menotti
Concerto for Doublebass (1983), 23 minutes
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Listen on YouTube | View the score
Paul Ramsier
Divertimento Concertante on a Theme of Couperin (1965), 16 minutes
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Listen on Spotify | View the score
Robert Xavier RodrÃguez
Ursa, Four Seasons for Doublebass and Orchestra (1990), 19 minutes
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View the score
Gunther Schuller
Concerto for Double Bass (1968), 16 minutes
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Listen on Spotify
Nikos Skalkottas
Double Bass Concerto (1940), 20 minutes
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Listen on Spotify | View the score
Tan Dun
Wolf Totem (2014), 22 minutes
2+pic.2+ca.2+bcl.2+cbn/4331/tmp.4perc/hp/str
Listen on Spotify | View the score
Watch Tan Dun and Dominic Seldis discuss Wolf Totem on YouTube
For more information on the music and potential guest soloists, please contact Andrew Stein-Zeller.
