Hi everyone!! Has this been discussed on here at all? Didn't find much in the search. Basically, I'm wondering where I can hear classical music played on gut strings, solo, chamber or orchestral. I know the old Koussevitzky recordings are on gut, and I'm sure some early orchestral recordings are as well. But I'm wondering about modern players/records! I'm interested in hearing what guts sound like when bowed at the highest level with a clear recording. Many of us usually associate classical gut string performance with baroque, but of course this was the string of choice through the classical, romantic and early modern periods as well, which encapsulates most of our standard rep. Thank you!!
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Double Bass Classical players/recordings on GUT
- Thread starter jpfbass
- Start date
Good question. Under my amateur hand the arco sound on guts is way different than modern strings. But like the op says, a huge chunk of the rep would have been written and performed using only gut strings. I want to know as well - How did that sound?
Look for Viennese and Baroque music ensembles and festivals. There is a thriving gut strung bass sub genre playing period music... gut frets too!
As an example-
Viennese Bass Days | 7, 8 & 9 September | International festival
As an example-
Viennese Bass Days | 7, 8 & 9 September | International festival
Mozart Symphony 41 on guts in performance:
Recommendation via the Paul Ellison ISB masterclass that can be found on YT (he mentions how as double bassists, the two main things we have going for us are resonance and articulation, then referenced “Mozart 39/40”).
As far as other ensembles, I’ve been wanting to catch the American Classical Orchestra for some time now. I’ve heard from friends that that seen them perform Beethoven symphonies that there’s a world of other tone colors present seeing a period orchestra play standard rep compared to a modem orchestra set up.
As far as other ensembles, I’ve been wanting to catch the American Classical Orchestra for some time now. I’ve heard from friends that that seen them perform Beethoven symphonies that there’s a world of other tone colors present seeing a period orchestra play standard rep compared to a modem orchestra set up.
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Here's another great video that I've been trying to find for awhile!!
Check out the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Here's a little Beethoven 9 from ORR:
I’m surprised Rodion Azarkhin hasn’t come up yet. A badass Russian bassist who I believe strictly played on guts.
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Chi-chi Nwanoku plays gut, her Vanhal recording is wonderful. I had the privilege of taking a few lessons from her some years ago, hearing her sound from a couple of feet in front of the bass was quite something
Last I knew, Martin Heinze in the Berlin Phil plays on gut strings. None of the others do, from what I've seen, but he makes it work in the section.
There's lots of great baroque orchestra players! Apollo's Fire has Sue Yelanjian (I need to fangirl, she's my old teacher), the Netherlands Bach Society has Robert Franenberg. Tafelmusik recently hired Pippa Macmillan, who is killer. Richard Meyer, Cecelia Bruggermeyer, the list goes on. Fantastic orchestral musicians.
You won't hear a whole ton of solo music, however, and what you do hear will be Classical era, not baroque.
Because, well, there's no solo bass music before that point (with the potential exception of Viola da Bastarda music, which may have been for the G violone, which is A bass, but not our bass), and most early bassists don't play the cello suites for a variety of reasons (my reason is that I think that they sound like garbage on our instrument even when done by our best modern players).
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Here's an interesting question - Does anyone know what Gary Karr was playing on on his first record? Would it have been Dr. Thomastiks (meaning, spirocores)? Or would he have been playing on gut?
You won't hear a whole ton of solo music, however, and what you do hear will be Classical era, not baroque.
Because, well, there's no solo bass music before that point (with the potential exception of Viola da Bastarda music, which may have been for the G violone, which is A bass, but not our bass), and most early bassists don't play the cello suites for a variety of reasons (my reason is that I think that they sound like garbage on our instrument even when done by our best modern players).
***
Here's an interesting question - Does anyone know what Gary Karr was playing on on his first record? Would it have been Dr. Thomastiks (meaning, spirocores)? Or would he have been playing on gut?
Metal strings. Gary switched to metal at Stuart Sankey's urging while a student at the Aspen Music festival, in summer 1961, "and he would never return to gut strings," according to his book, Life On the G String. The first record was made in June 1962. However, he also says it was good that he played the first 10 years on gut, so I wouldn't let that dissuade anyone from playing classical on gut.
Thanks for the info! very cool.
I absolutely agree that classical musicians shouldn't be dissuaded from playing on gut. I love my gut strings, and have played many a modern concert on what is essentially a "Historical" set up. It has way more to do with sound concept and bow concept than it does the equipment itself.
