Wiener Stimmung: Works for the Viennese Bass from the Late 18th Century

Featuring

David Sinclair
Alexandre Zanetta
Hsiang-Chi Lee
Leila Schayegh
Soko Yoshida
Lukas Hamberger

Christophe Coin
Giorgio Paronuzzi
Jonathan Pešek
Mariana Doughty
Anton Zimmermann
Johannes Matthias Sperger
Franz Xaver Hammer
Karl Kohaut
Joseph Haydn

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Instruments

The 'Viennese double bass' is a special variant of the instrument with a five-string configuration and third-fourth tuning (F,-A,-D-F-sharp-A), documented since the late 17th century.

Composition History

Anton Zimmermann's double bass concerto, recorded for the first time on this album, was discovered in the Benedictine monastery in Kremsmünster and was likely written for the virtuoso Joseph Kämpfer.

Composer Biography

Anton Zimmermann, a highly esteemed composer, was the central figure of the Pressburg orchestra and his works were sometimes mistaken for those of Joseph Haydn.

Compositional Technique

The Zimmermann concerto includes modifications by Joseph Kämpfer, the double bass virtuoso, who experimented with playing passages in the upper octave, though he sometimes crossed out these adventurous transpositions.

Interpretation

For this recording, the baryton part in Joseph Haydn's Trio in F major was replaced by a double bass, reflecting the 18th-century practice of playing baryton trios with other instrumentations.

Historical Context

Pressburg (today Bratislava, Slovakia) was an important musical center in the late 18th century, where composers and performers significant to the double bass's development met and inspired each other.

Composer Biography

Johannes Sperger, a renowned double bassist and composer, wrote 18 double bass concertos and 44 symphonies during his career, including his time at the court of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.