If you thought Hendrix on string quartet was a neat idea, you owe it to yourself to hear Scodanibbio's breathtakingly psychedelic, ferociously driven & Roll. Eight minutes of untrammeled Woodstock mayhem.

Since the 1970s, the instrumental repertoire for double bass has been enriched with a considerable amount of new literature. We are facing what can be defined as the “renaissance” of the double bass, which revolves around key players such as Fernando Grillo, Franco Petracchi, Joëlle Léandre, and Stefano Scodanibbio. The disruption with the virtuosity of previous solo literature is radical: the emulation of the expressiveness of the other string instruments (which increased a quasi-complex of inferiority towards violinists and cellists) definitively gives way to the specificities of the double bass, so that the new literature becomes idiomatic. This collection of pieces therefore aims to be an update to the traditional double bass repertoire. In fact, it brings together works composed starting from the 1970s by some of the most representative Italian composers of the second half of the 1900s. The pieces in question have had, for various reasons, a large consensus among double bass players, and continue to have more and more, surviving the oblivion of the first performance, and fully entering the corpus of “standard” literature for solo double bass.

REVIEW:

This disc showcases contemporary additions to the double bass repertoire since 1970 which have conclusively entered the repertory of players specializing in modern music. Berio extensively revised Sequenza XIV for cello into XIVb for double bass in collaboration with the late, much-lamented Stefano Scodanibbio. From its transcription of the Gàta Béra drum in its arrestingly rhythmic opening, and again later on, using finger taps on strings and the body of the instrument, to its extensive use of natural harmonics and endless variety of sonorous timbres, at times suggesting registration on an organ, the work is an absolute tour de force, immensely exciting to listen to, and incredibly difficult to play. The Scelsi is composed of deeply resonant closely adjacent tones, on an instrument tuned in extreme scordatura, interacting to produce overtones and beats which sound like electronic effects. Donatoni's Lem is a cascading tumult of short, irascible fragments, varying wildly in register, dynamic, and timbre over short timespans; with its compendium of extended techniques, it has been used extensively as a compulsory competition piece. Sciarrino's piece is shocking. Declared unplayable - even by the composer - when it first appeared, the work turns the instrument into an ensemble of brass, percussion, and strange, primitive signals, exploring an extraordinary range of polyphonic timbres in a previously unimagined soundworld. If you thought Hendrix on string quartet was a neat idea, you owe it to yourself to hear Scodanibbio's breathtakingly psychedelic, ferociously driven & Roll. Eight minutes of untrammeled Woodstock mayhem.

-- Records International