K4 Paganini. Bottesini

The double bass... Most people can't imagine it as a solo instrument at all. That's why we will play in the PKF Chamber Series together with one of my most talented graduates, Adam Honzírko, the most virtuosic, most difficult solo pieces ever written for it.

Bottesini was nicknamed the "Paganini of the double bass". He was a conductor (he conducted, for example, Verdi's Aida at the opening of the Suez Canal), composer and an accomplished double bassist who, during the intervals of the operas he conducted, introduced his own virtuoso compositions for three-string double bass to the amazement of the entire audience. His works, inspired by 19th-century Italian opera, are still among the most difficult ever written for us double bassists.

One of the highlights of the program is Paganini's Capriccio No. 24, which I personally would liken to a kind of double bass decathlon. One variation, one discipline. If you master this piece, you can play everything on the double bass!

Pavel Klečka