Preface

My Thesis bases on the History, Analysis, and the interpretation of Bottesini’s Concerto in f# minor. It also includes a survey of the relationship between Bottesini’s works and the bel canto style. Basically, I emphasize on two subjects, the life of Bottesini and the main debate of the order of Bottesini’s f# Concerto. To be precise, there is no bass history in Chinese, not to mention Bottesini’s biography. Therefore, it is reasonable to approach a thesis that has a wide application.

Part I

Outline of the Thesis

Following is the Outline of my thesis:

Introduction

Chapter One: The Life of Giovanni Bottesini

A) Youth, School Time, Debut Concert

B) Orchestral Bassist and Itinerant Musician’s Life

C) First Journey to American Continent (1846-1849)

D) London Debut

E) Conductor and Opera Composing (1853-1856)

F) More Operas, Conducting Works and Touring as Bassist (1856-1870)

G) Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)

H) Taking Refuge in England

I) In Egypt, Aida

J) Composer in Italy

K) Director of Royal Conservatory in Parma and his Last Years

Chapter Two: The Connection between Bottesini’s Work and “Bel Canto Style”

A) Bel Canto and the Relation between String Instruments

a) Breathing

b) Resonance

c) Vowel- Formation and “Attack”

d) Sostennuto- Sustanied tone

e) Legato- Slow Scale, registers

f) Portamento

g) The “Messa di Voce”

h) Coloratura, ornaments

The Bottesini’s Connection to Bel Canto

Chapter Three: The Analysis of Concerto in #f minor

A) The main debate: Is it No.1?

B) Analysis

First Movement

Second Movement

Third Movement

C) The differences among Editions

D) From the Orchestral point of view

Chapter Four Performing interpretation

A) Several Editions in Sound Recordings

B) Interpretation from author

Part II

The Part of Main Debate in Chap. 3

Publications consider the Bottesini’s #f minor Concerto as Concerto No.1. Let us look at the subject from a different angle, is it No.1? Three of Bottesini’s concertos were published. Let us look at all these concerto as a whole. For example, if we follow the instruction of Grove Music Dictionary, we will get Botteini’s concertos in this order:

“ Concerto in f# minor, (London 1892)

- Concerto no.2 in b minor, (Vienna, 1950) "also as Concerto in c minor

- Concerto in bravura (Vienna 1950)"-- Passione Amorosa is from concerto di bravura "

If we regard this evidence as correct, it would be untrue to verify a hypothesis from this point of view.

Regards the evidence from my reasearch:the figure extracts from the programme book for the Philharmonic Society, London, Monday, May 8, 1871, We can safely say that, Bottesini’s #f minor Concerto was written in 1867 in St. Petersburg .

Figure 1: One possibility is to assume that at least 2 more concertinos had been performed before #f. (One in 1851 and the other in 1853, both in London). In fact, according to 1853’s review: “the new concerto is well orchestrated and pleasant to listen ”. It seems quite probable that these two performances, 1851 and 1853, were different repertoire. Now, one possibility is to assume that Concerto in Bravura is the first one, and concerto in b minor came after that. Or another possibility is that b minor is earlier than Concerto di Bravura. Indeed, we encounter difficulties when we try to explain some of the conclusion. But there is one thing for sure, in short, the Concerto in #f is the last concerto, not the earliest.