Trombone, Cello
SKU:
BT.YE0001
Composed by
Gioachino Rossini. Book
Only. Yorke Edition
#YE0001. Published by
Yorke Edition
(BT.YE0001).
It
was a chance visit to a
second hand bookshop in
Nottingham that set me on
the trail of Rossini's
now well-known Duetto for
cello and double bass.
But the story begins
earlier than that. In the
1960s I was studying the
double bass at the Royal
College of Music with
Adrian Beers, who was at
that time principal of
the English Chamber
Orchestra, on the front
desk of the Philharmonia
Orchestra, and a member
of the Melos Ensemble of
London (then one of the
leading ensembles of the
world). I was working on
the 'Dragonetti
Concerto', as most young
players do, and I wanted
to find out a bit about
it. My teacher said he
thought the autograph
manuscript might be in
the British Library,which
was all the encouragement
I needed to secure a pass
to the Reading Room so I
could go and see for
myself.
There,
sure enough, I found a
large collection of
Dragonetti's autograph
manuscripts, together
with other bound volumes
relating to his life. The
papers had been lovingly
collated and annotated by
Vincent Novello, one of
Dragonetti's closest
friends, then deposited
in the library before his
departure to Italy in
1848, two years after
Dragonetti's death. One
of the volumes included a
lot of letters about
various engagements and
music festivals, copies
of orders for strings
Dragonetti wanted from
Italy, details about
paintings he wanted to
buy, and numerous
invitations to private
functions. The manuscript
of the 'Dragonetti
Concerto', of course,
wasn't among the papers
â?? we now know it to
have been written by
Edouard Nanny a century
or so later.
One name that
came up regularly in the
documents was that of Sir
George Smart. Smart had
been a violinist in
Salomon's orchestra and
had played for Haydn at
his London concerts in
the 1790s. As a child he
had learnt much about
music from his father,
who had in turn been
present at many of
Handel's rehearsals when
he was preparing some of
his major works for the
first time. Smart was
also a fine keyboard
player, becoming organist
of the Chapel Royal in
1822. As a conductor.
