Double Bass Quartet
SKU: BT.YE0036
Composed by Joseph
Lauber. Classical. Set
(Score and Parts). Yorke
Edition #YE0036.
Published by Yorke
Edition (BT.YE0036).
Four movements,
top part advanced.
Several recordings and
many broadcasts. Duration
c.13'.
Programme
Notes:
The Swiss
composer Joseph Lauber
was born at Ruswil near
Lucerne in 1864. After
studying with Heger in
Zürich and Rheinberger
in Munich, Lauber worked
with Diémer and
Massenet in Paris. With
Massenet he learnt a
great deal about
orchestration, a subject
that he subsequently
taught until the end of
his life at the Geneva
conservatoire as well as
piano and composition. He
died in
1952.
Lauber's
193 catalogued works are
many and varied. He wrote
for all instruments and
in every genre except
oratorio and opera. Among
his output areseveral
works for double bass,
most written for Prof.
Hans Fryba, a personal
friend with whom he
worked as a double bass
and piano recital duo.
Fryba was one of the
leading players in Europe
in his day and was
principal of the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra.
First was Theme and
Variations (1936-7) and a
Rhapsodie with orchestra
(1937). Three Walzes
followed in 1939, a
Gavotte and Gigue, a
Sonata and then in 1943
Fantasie de Concert,
written for the Geneva
Competition. Four
Caprices appeared in
1942, the same date as
the Quartet for double
basses which was
dedicated to Fryba and
written for the Berlin
Philharmonic Double Bass
Quartet, one of the first
ever such ensembles to
exist.
The
Quartet for double basses
was revived by Klaus
Stoll in the 1970s for
the Philharmonic Double
Bass Quartet at that time
to play. It was
subsequently published in
1975 by Yorke Edition by
kind permission of the
composer's son Edmund
Lauber.
Rodney
Slatford 2004
Basse
