Leon Bosch is curating a nice line in bass recordings for Meridian.
He’s previously released the British Double Bass (see
review) and the Virtuoso Double-Bass and now reappears
with a similar album devoted to Russian repertoire. As one might
anticipate
it’s full of the soulful and dolorous pleasures of romantic
plenitude.
Popper’s familiar arrangement for cello of Anton Rubinstein’s Melodie has
been edited by Bosch for the bass. Bosch tells us in the notes
that he saw a YouTube video of Piatigorsky playing the same composer’s Romance and
he was smitten enough to adapt it for the bass; the results are
warmly textured and full of uncloying sentiment in his splendid
performance. Allan Stephenson, English-born but long South African
resident, is well known as a composer - you may have come across
his concertos for instance - but here turns his hand to an arrangement
of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude Op.23 No.10 in which the piano
writing in the treble is especially striking. Bosch himself has
arranged the Op.6 Romance, composed in 1893 and tinged
with characteristic melancholy. The poignancy of the Op.3 Elegy,
courtesy here of Roumen Dimitrov, is enhanced by Bosch’s
expressive dynamics. It’s also believed that Vocalise was
written originally for the double-bass which makes its inclusion
here all the more valuable and pertinent.
That master bassist Koussevitzky, who left behind enough recorded
examples of his work to warrant the description, is represented
by four charming pieces. The Op.1 Andante is a salon effusion
of persuasive warmth, but its opus stable mate, the Valse
Miniature, is a decidedly testing work for both left and
right hands, and is a real insider executant’s piece. The Chanson
Triste re-establishes lyric virtues whilst taking the bass
resonantly low into the cavernous depths of the instrument.
The four Glière pieces are dated to the first decade of
the twentieth century. They form a pleasing, lively, melodic
quartet, contrasting well in performance, and working perhaps
unexpectedly well. The recital ends with a much later work, Bosch’s
highly persuasive arrangement of Shostakovich’s Romance from The
Gadfly.
This source invariably produces attractive booklets and provides
good, not too over-resonant recorded sound. Mission accomplished
on both counts here. Sung-Suk Kang is a most adept partner and
Bosch himself proves once again to be in the grand line of Bass
virtuosi.
Jonathan Woolf
Leon Bosch (double-bass) 
