On this record, featuring Edgar Meyer as both composer and bassist, the playing's the thing, and it is spectacular. His performance of four virtuoso concertos, two by himself and two by Bottesini, eclipses his compositions, though his stylistic versatility is in full evidence in both his works. The Concerto for Bass has elements of jazz and blues, and a good deal of textural contrast and imaginative orchestration, but it is repetitive and a bit dreary.
In the hair-raisingly difficult Bottesini Concerto, Meyer performs every imaginable and many unimaginable technical feats, covering a range of more than six octaves and producing sounds from growls to flutelike harmonics. Apparently craving even more pyrotechnics, he substitutes his own cadenzas for the composer's.Two equally stunning virtuosos join him for the other works. In his Double Concerto for Cello and Bass, he and Yo-Yo Ma chase each other up the fingerboard to the highest register, where, with their lines answering and interweaving, it is sometimes impossible to tell them apart. The piece is tonal and modal and supposedly classical in form, but quite dissonant. The middle movement alternates motoric outbursts with eerie, unvibrated sustained passages; the finale combines folk-fiddling with blues. Joshua Bell and Meyer play Bottesini's Duo Concertante for Violin and Bass with incredible virtuosity and obvious relish. Bell's tone is ravishingly beautiful and his charm, flair, and style are irresistible. Like his older compatriot Paganini, Bottesini was enthralled by Italian opera. The piece is full of dramatic recitatives and meltingly songful cantilenas, with the soloists bursting into arias and love duets and the orchestra setting the stage and providing the atmosphere. --Edith Eisler
