Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata No.2 Op. 5, for Double-Bass and Piano

20.90

  • ISMN: 9790216210744
  • Composer(s): Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Edition: Da Vinci Edition
  • Format: A4 - Paperback
  • Genre: Chamber
  • Instrumentation: Double-Bass, Piano
  • Pages: 64
  • Period: Romantic
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SKU: DV 20848 Category:

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From the INTRODUCTION By Saveriano Paoli

Domenico Dragonetti has undoubtedly been one of the most influential figures in the history of the double bass; this quote by musicologist Francesco Caffi says a lot about what an out of the norm player he was:

The physical quality is his huge hand: endowed, first of all, with prodigious strength so that its grip on the strings of the instrument is the equivalent of the grip of a blacksmith’s vice… A hand endowed with five fingers so long, big and agile, that all five, including the bent thumb, go up and down the fingerboard each playing a note. (Caffi, 1855)”.

Dragonetti was renowned for his astonishing technique for his time, as much as for his refined and powerful musicality. Such qualities, obviously, brought him money and fame, which allowed him to travel and work in the most prestigious European halls and with the best orchestras, one for all the Philharmonic Society in London. His travels took him eventually to Vienna, where he met the composer Ludwig van Beethoven. This moment was the beginning of one of the most productive and influential friendships in music history.

Composer(s)

Ludwig van Beethoven: (b Bonn, bap. 17 Dec 1770; d Vienna, 26 March 1827). German composer. His early achievements, as composer and performer, show him to be extending the Viennese Classical tradition that he had inherited from Mozart and Haydn. As personal affliction – deafness, and the inability to enter into happy personal relationships – loomed larger, he began to compose in an increasingly individual musical style, and at the end of his life he wrote his most sublime and profound works. From his success at combining tradition and exploration and personal expression, he came to be regarded as the dominant musical figure of the 19th century, and scarcely any significant composer since his time has escaped his influence or failed to acknowledge it. For the respect his works have commanded of musicians, and the popularity they have enjoyed among wider audiences, he is probably the most admired composer in the history of Western music.