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557042 bk Bottesini US 1/15/08 12:03 PM Page 5 Harold Hall Robinson 9 Une bouche aimée Beloved lips An internationally acclaimed artist, Harold Hall Robinson is currently the principal Une bouche aimée a dit à mon coeur: Beloved lips said to my heart: contrabassist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Prior to this he spent ten seasons as principal “Viens, ô mon amour, ô toi, mon seul bonheur. “Come, O my love, O thou, my only joy. BOTTESINI bassist of the National Symphony Orchestra, eight seasons as associate principal of the Viens, ah! viens mon coeur, Come, ah, come, my heart, Houston Symphony Orchestra and three seasons as principal of the New Mexico Symphony ô toi, mon seul bonheur. O thou, my only joy. Orchestra. A prize-winner at the 1982 Isle of Man Solo competition, Harold Hall Robinson has Music for Double Bass and Piano • 2 performed concertos with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony, Houston Adieu les tristes automnes. Farewell sad autumns, Symphony, New York Philharmonic, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, American Chamber Voici venir le printemps. Here comes the spring. Orchestra and the Greenville South Carolina Orchestra. In addition he is known for his La terre se couvre de fleurs, The earth is covered with flowers, Concerto No. 2 • Tutto che il mondo serra outstanding recitals and master classes throughout the United States. He is currently on the les rayons dorés ont tari ses pleurs. the golden rays have dried her tears. faculty of the Curtis Institute. Dans la feuille nouvelle In the new foliage Photo: Chris Lee chante la tourterelle. sings the turtle-dove. La sève des bourgeons entr’ouverts The sap of the half-opened buds Joel Quarrington, Double Bass James Campbell du parfum des bois des prés verts fills the air remplit les airs. with the scent of the woods and of the green meadows. Acclaimed by the Toronto Star as “Canada’s pre-eminent clarinetist and wind soloist”, James Andrew Burashko, Piano Campbell has performed solo and chamber music concerts in 25 countries, has been soloist with Mon cher amour, ma vie, My dear love, my life, over sixty orchestras, including the Boston Pops, the London Symphony, the Russian ah! viens, mon seul bonheur, Ah! Come, my only joy, Philharmonic, and the Montreal Symphony and has performed Copland’s Clarinet Concerto mon amour, mon bonheur.” my love, my joy.” five times with Aaron Copland conducting. He has appeared with over thirty string quartets, including the famous Amadeus Quartet when he replaced an ailing Benny Goodman for a tour Beloved lips said to my heart: of California. He has made over forty recordings, including the Debussy Rhapsody with Glenn Une bouche aimée a dit à mon coeur: “Viens, ô mon amour, ô toi, mon seul bonheur. “Come, O my love, O thou, my only joy. Photo: Bruno Schrecker Gould, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and the première recording of the Berio arrangement of Brahms’s F minor Sonata with the London Symphony. His recording of Viens, ah! viens mon coeur, Come, ah, come, my heart, Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet was chosen by the BBC and The Times in London as the best ô toi, mon seul bonheur, O thou, my only joy, available. He has been awarded a Juno (Canada’s Grammy), Canada’s Artist of the Year, the mon cher amour, ma vie. Viens mon coeur. my dear love, my life. Come my heart. Queen’s Jubilee Medal, and Canada’s highest honour, the Order of Canada. James Campbell has been Professor of Viens, ô mon seul bonheur, Come, O my only joy, Music at Indiana University since 1988 and Artistic Director of the Festival of the Sound since 1985. Viens.” Come.” 0 Tutto che il mondo serra All that the world holds Monica Whicher Tutto che il mondo serra di più caro per me da me All that the world holds that is dearest to me Monica Whicher has been heard with orchestras and opera companies in Germany, Spain, the s’invola, ah! is slipping away from me, ah! United Kingdom, Asia, the United States and Canada. Her concerts and recitals are broadcast Oggi per sempre ed ogni gaudio perdo e ogni speranza, Today I lose for ever all joy and all hope frequently by CBC radio, and her recordings of Bach, Schubert, Hatzis, Somers and Greer can Che l’amara terra dall’esilio feconda For my troubles serve only to feed be found on Marquis and other labels. Recent performances include the rôle of Dido in Esser non puote se non d’affanno. The bitter land of exile. Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, The Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and the Female Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. Her critically acclaimed performance of Mérope in Lully’s Persée can be seen on the EuroArts English translations by Keith Anderson DVD, and she appears as Telaïre on the Naxos recording of Rameau’s Castor et Pollux Photo: Michael de Sadlier (8.660118-19). 8.557042 5 6 8.557042 557042 bk Bottesini US 1/15/08 12:03 PM Page 2 Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889) the string at certain points, rather than pressing it to the The Duetto for two basses is probably the earliest Joel Quarrington Music for Double Bass and Piano • 2 fingerboard). Double stops and busy passagework, and most etude-like work on this disc, from a set of staple “tricks” of Dragonetti’s generation, are the three dedicated to Bottesini’s teacher, Luigi Rossi. The Reviewing Joel Quarrington’s début recital for the International Society of Bassists It was a curious twist of fate that produced the examples. He wrote about a dozen operas, from exception rather than the rule here. Concerto No. 2, sometimes referred to as in A minor, or Oklahoma City convention in June 2007, England’s Double Bassist magazine said, “his nineteenth century’s reigning double bass virtuoso. Cristoforo Colombo while resident in Havana in 1846-7, Not surprisingly, the best source for most of in B minor, for complicated reasons arising from old- performance was mesmerizing - his trademark bel canto playing style brought an When a lad of fourteen, Giovanni Bottesini had already to Vinciguerro il bandito which had a run of forty Bottesini’s works is Parma’s Conservatory library. fashioned tuning conventions, is a fully mature work, otherworldly quality to Bottesini’s Elegy in D…he demonstrated impeccable articulation, a greatly developed his musical talents, as a choirboy, a performances in Paris in 1870, and La regina di Nepal When he examined the holdings there, Joel Quarrington from the well proportioned, somewhat laconic first rich tonal palette, absolute control and crystalline clarity. A memorable night…” Reviews violinist, and a timpani player. His father sought a place for Turin in 1880. He also composed eleven string found fair copies in Bottesini’s hand; that is, not movement, through the simply singing second, to the such as this have confirmed his reputation as one of today’s leading double bassists. Born in for him in the Milan Conservatory, but found only two quartets, a genre scarcely noticed in nineteenth-century sketches or composition drafts, but final product, third, driven by a rhythmic figure typical of the Toronto, Joel Quarrington began playing the bass at the age of eleven and is a winner of the were available: for bassoon and for double bass. Double Italy, songs, some sacred music, and a few orchestral perhaps intended to be an authoritative or archival polonaise (and the Cuban bolero). Geneva International Competition. For over thirty years he has served as the Principal bass it was, then. He prepared a successful audition in a works. It was only his music for double bass, however, version. Of course, multiple authoritative versions often Other selections emphasize the essential vocality of Double Bassist of many ensembles, including the Canadian Opera Company, the Toronto matter of weeks, and only four years later, a surprisingly and only some of that, that outlived him. exist: for example, a solo piece with accompaniment for Bottesini’s inspiration, most explicitly in the Bellini Symphony Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. Joel Quarrington short time by the standards of the day, still a teenager, As a conductor and music director, Bottesini at one piano, or string quartet, or full orchestra. Since Bottesini Fantasia, but stylistically so in the pairings of bass, teaches at Montreal’s McGill University and in the summers, Mt. Orford Quebec, where his he left with a prize of 300 francs for solo playing. This time or another held major posts at theatres in London, spent most of his career as a touring virtuoso, sometimes always singing, now with clarinet, now with soprano. master-classes have attracted players from around the world. He has performed with many Photo: Fred Cattroll money financed the acquisition of an instrument by Paris, Palermo, Madrid, and Barcelona. Music history, travelling with a partner but even then often The anonymous texts are routine bourgeois expressions of the world’s leading string quartets and is a regular performer with the Pinchas Zukerman Carlo Testore, and a globe-trotting career as “the however, notices most that he conducted the première collaborating with local players as arranged by the of popular Romantic sentiment; but in the case of Tutto Chamber Players. In April 2005 he had the honour of playing the world première of John Harbison’s Concerto for Paganini of the Double Bass” was launched. performance of Aida in Cairo, to commemorate the concert promoter, it was important to be able to work che il mondo the music is very well known - Chopin’s Bass Viol with the Toronto Symphony and Hugh Wolf.