A concert dedicated to Hungarian chamber music, and among the featured pieces a quartet by Joseph Haydn extended this time with a Viennese bass played by Benedict Ziervogel. The period practice demonstrates that some Haydn quartets indeed were performed in this extended practice with added double bass (see Haydn's "Quintets" under "Compositions - Chamber Music - Quintets"). Congratulations to Benedict for continuing the venerable Viennese tradition this time in the actual Castle estate where the period classical music was performed during the 18th century.

Combattimento Consort Amsterdam is presenting Fransceso Savignano as a soloist with the famous Hoffmeister quartets within their 3 concert tour in Netherlands. Although the Hoffmeister Solo Quartet no. 2 is relatively known piece in the arrangements for modern bass, these performances will present it now in the original tuning. Furthermore the concerts will also feature the Solo Quartet no. 4 which is not widely known or performed within the bass community. Congratulations to Franceso and best wishes in his voyages!

By a chance the notes cited in the programs inform us of the 6 quartets for bass by Hoffmeister - yet it was a typing mistake along with the fact that the no.1 and 2 quartets were announces, and yet no. 2 and no. 4  were performed! For the complete listing of Hoffmeister's quartets please visit Compositions Catalog - Solo Chamber Music listing. Likewise, for any news of the additional quartets beyond those cited in the catalog, the author of this site will be sincerely grateful .

A delightful concert featuring several divertimento compositions from the classical period, some of which originally conceived for the Viennese violone too. It was a pleasure to witness here the basso part performed as intended by Benedict Ziervogel, who is using the Viennese violone now on almost every concert where the period music requires it. Bravo indeed!

This concert has presented a wonderful arrangement of Sperger's Sonata for Viennese bass and viola, with the addition of a guitar which improvised "prima vista" continuo accompaniment. Grigory has indeed presented very fine musicianship in this setting where all parts were performed from the manuscript copies. A curiosity of this concert was the use of conservatory's Maggini bass that apparently has been left by Koussevitzky himself to the conservatory - which would make this concert of triple historic significance as we witness here a 17th century Italian instrument that uses the Viennese tuning and that has been left by famous Koussevitzky. Congratulations to Grigory on this fine event and wishes for many more to come. Kudos also to professor Evgeny Kolosov of the Moscow Conservatory to whom Grigory owes much for his bass upbringing.

The ensemble name "Violone Obligato" was a perfect fit for the type of compositions Franceso has presented in this concert. Not only could one hear a good amount of bass playing in a very interesting arrangement of Mozart's famous symphony 38, but also witness a relatively known Vanhal's divertimento which offers some significant solo parts as well. The Sperger quartet presents a true "obligato" piece in the classical terms, since there the bass plays solo almost all the time, and actually alternates with the flute in that role, while the other two instruments play in the role of the tutti accompaniment. This was altogether a very fine concert that presented Violone at its best.

from the ISB site: Farley Pearce presents a concert featuring the Viennese bass at 2 PM on June 9, 2010. He'll perform sonatas by Sperger for both bass and cello and bass and viola on historically set-up instruments during the Berkeley Early Music Festival at the Berkeley City Club in Berkeley CA. Also on the program is the Rossini Duetto, also featuring Viennese tuning for bass, Suite in E Minor for viols by Marais, a Handel sonata for violin and the Biber Passagalia for violin. The musicians are Farley Pearce, double bass, Amy Brodo, cello, Heidi Wilcox, violin, and Jonathan Salzedo, harpsichord.

This was a fine concert featuring R. Nairn on both the regular and the VIennese bass

This is quite likely the first modern perfmance of the famous Schubert's quintet that features a string bass in the original Viennese tuning. More on the history of this piece in realtion to the Viennese bass tradition you can find in Josef Focht's "Der Wiener Kontrabass" p. 130-133.

This was one of the rare events where a typical divertimento literature featuring the Viennese violone could be heard. Almost all of these pieces consist of a core string trio with addition of two horns. Sometime these horns could be omitted (as in case of Vanhal III : G7) yet in the other pieces they are well integrated. The other interesting feature of this event is the fact that all off the featured composers have known well each other, so in that respect one could have really witnessed a true sound sample of a typical central European chamber style that pervaded the mid 18th century.

Also, unless proven otherwise, this concert has presented a modern day authentic premieres of all these works with the Viennese violone and thus Francesco and his Duisburger colleagues should be offered every praise for their effort!

For this event John Feeney has offered a fine selection of period and contemporary repertoire in the beautiful forest setting of Frederick Franck estate. His ability to perform modern chamber music arrangements on period tuning should be complimented as indeed our period instrument is bound to find its place in the new repertoire too. Congratulations to John!

Dittersdorf duet is performed in the original E flat tonality!

This perofmrance has occured in conjunction with Clif Eisen's lecture "Mozart and creative process"

This performrance has occured in conjunction with Josef Focht's lecture "Wiener Serenaden für Flöte, Bratsche und Kontrabass "