Concerto No.2 'Haydn' A series of works based on the surviving two bars of Hayd...(+)
Concerto No.2 'Haydn' A series of works based on the surviving two bars of Haydn's 'lost' Double Bass Concerto. Based on the two surviving bars of Haydn's 'lost' Double Bass Concerto and dedicated to David Heyes, this magnificent new concerto is a tour-de-force from a respected and leading Czech bassist-composer. In a tonal and accessible style, there are musical and technical challenges for the advanced bassist and this edition is only available in solo tuning. Influenced by the late 18th-century style, but imbued with Czech lyricism and influences, this new three-movement concerto is a major addition to the repertoire and utilises the entire range of the double bass. The concerto has been performed throughout Europe many times, most recently in Macedonia and Serbia by the composer. Miloslav Gajdos has composed and transcribed many works for double bass in a 40 year career and is Professor of Double Bass at the Vejvenovsky Conservatoire in Kromeriz (Czech Republic) alongside many international recitals and masterclasses. Concerto No.2 'Haydn' is available in three orchestrations alongside the published edition with piano. Please contact the publishers for more information about the various orchestrations. Performance Level: Advanced Miloslav Gajdos is one of Europe's most active and inventive bassist-composers. He was born in northern Moravia in 1948 and initially learned violin before transferring to the double bass, studying with Alois Kriz, Jiri Bortlicek and Ludwig Streicher. He has been Professor of Double Bass at the Vejvenovsky Conseravtoire in Kromeriz (Czech Republic) since 1971, and was a member of the Olomouc Symphony Orchestra for a number of years. He is Director of the Gregora International Double Bass Competition, founded in 1979 and held every two years in Kromeriz, and has been a juror at many competitions in Hungary, Germany and the Czech Republic. Miloslav Gajdos is a prolific composer and arranger and, for almost 40 years, has produced a vast body of original works and transcriptions for double bass which are performed worldwide. His original works combine Czech lyricism and melody with brilliant technical demands, and music from one to sixteen double basses. He writes in a traditional and accessible style, producing music for every level of performer, particularly for the advanced bassist, and his many works for unaccompanied double bass are frequently chosen as international competition repertoire. Miloslav Gajdos was Recital Music's Featured Composer in 2007 and has recently revised a number of earlier works for the intermediate bassist which will be published by Recital Music.
Ideal for a popular school or informal concert. Programme note by Rodney Slatfor...(+)
Ideal for a popular school or informal concert. Programme note by Rodney Slatford 2008:Jack Snow Hester was born on 2 March 1907 in Chorlton Lancashire and joined the music profession as a double bass player when he was seventeen. His father Arthur Darrell Hester appears on his birth certificate as 'Manufacturer (chemicals)'; his mother was Minnie Frances Hester formerly Stamp and the family lived in South Manchester. During the 1930s as Norman Hester he worked at Daly's Theatre the Piccadilly Theatre the Palace Theatre and other London variety houses in West End productions. He married Isabella Dawson Davidson on 1 July 1940 in Worcester and shedied in 1973. He died in 2001 after a long period of ill health.During the 1960s Norman was an active freelance player working as an extra bass player with the London symphony orchestras including the BBC. Quite when The Bull Steps Out was written isn't certain but Norman sent me a copy to consider for republishing – it is assumed that the original publication appeared sometime during or just after the war. It was a 'one off' that he probably played for light music evenings in the theatres.The piece has been very popular and has been used for examinations on various syllabuses around Grade 7 level.An unpublished manuscript copy of a double bass 'method' is on file that Norman Hester wrote when he retired but it is mainly a compilation of various scales and exercises similar to many that were published in the early 20th century. A photograph of him as a young man is held at the Royal Society of Musicians in London which he joined in 1930 and of which he was a loyal supporter until he died.
An easy virtuoso work published here for the first time and now much performed. ...(+)
An easy virtuoso work published here for the first time and now much performed. Recorded Slatford/Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields (EMI). AMEB (Australian Syllabus) 2004. Orchestral material on hire from Yorke Edition (not Spartan).Programme Note:As a young professional player in the 1960s my work as a double bassist with chamber ensembles and small orchestras took me all over the world. This presented an unparalleled opportunity to scour libraries and archives wherever I went. Long before the advent of the photocopier and e-mail research was far more challenging than it is today. Eastern Europe was particularly difficult to access with manycollections kept under lock and key for all but a few hours a week. One quickly found colleagues who were keen to share information gleaned in passing even though they had no specific interest in one's own particular specialism (it is so often the peripheral topics that fascinate as much as the main subject under investigation and one can quickly be side-tracked into political and social issues that have only slender bearing on the job in hand!).In the early 1970s James Brown the then sub-principal oboist of the English Chamber Orchestra with whom I was working at the time stumbled across a small collection of double bass manuscripts at the Royal Danish State Library in Copenhagen. They were by Franz Anton Leopold Keÿper (b. c.1756 d. Copenhagen 7 June 1815) a double bassist of Dutch origin who worked as principal of the Royal Chapel Orchestra in Copenhagen. Keÿper's son was the bassoonist Franz Jacob August Keÿper (1792-1859). The collection included a number of concertos some chamber music and various naïve fragments. Although hardly the work of a Mozart or Haydn the style is characteristic of the period. For an instrument such as the double bass whose 18th century solo repertoire is largely written for tunings that are no longer in everyday use Keÿper's music is easily approachable in its
