A panorama of expressions
In his "Four Pieces" for double bass and piano, written in 1968, František Hertl explores the sound palette of his instrument to its extremes.
The composer, who was born in 1906 in West Bohemia and died in Prague in 1973 after a musically varied life, is best known as the author of the Sonata for double bass and piano, written in 1946. He also made a name for himself as a formative double bass teacher of the Prague School, as a composer for various chamber music ensembles and orchestral works and as a conductor.
While the Sonata for Double Bass and the rarely performed Double Bass Concerto mostly move in chromatically extended tonality, the Four pieces more in the direction of a modality based on fourths and fifths. With its concise rhythms, the refreshingly rapid succession of contrasting dynamics, the contrasting tempi and the tonal shifts between light and dark, expressive and impressionistic, her tonal language can be seen as connected to tradition, yet individual and at home in the 20th century.
The Prelude (Moderato to Allegro) explores the extremes of dynamics and articulation. The Burlesque in ABA form begins with playful, Scherzo-like staccatos in the piano and ends in an exaggerated stretto in fortissimo. The fine, cantabile Nocturne follows a Tarantella. František Hertl skillfully plays with its idiom and uses dissonances to lend it an expressiveness that goes far beyond the entertaining.
Editorial errors are to be regretted. Presumably the original printing plates were copied without proofreading, resulting in accidental errors as well as incorrect notes and slurs and the corresponding need for detective work. In view of the technology available today, it is incomprehensible that the piano score in the Prelude the double bass part is notated in the octave, but in the other three pieces it is notated a major second lower or a minor seventh higher than the actual sound, i.e. the notation required for the solo double bass in D is adopted. In his arrangement, Stefan Schäfer has limited himself to a few technical bowing recommendations in favor of interpretative freedom.
The new edition enriches the otherwise not too abundant chamber music repertoire for double bass players.
František Hertl: Four pieces for double bass and piano, double bass part arranged by Stefan Schäfer, BA 11556, € 18.95, Bärenreiter Prague
