Sperger: Double Bass Concertos 2 & 15 / Sinfonia No. 30

Twenty years ago nobody even in Ludwigslust, where Johann Matthias Sperger played an outstanding role in Duke Friedrich Franz I’s famous court ensemble for a quarter of a century, had ever heard of this extraordinary historical figure, a man ranking as the most prominent double bassist of the Viennese school. The Sperger Competition in double bass held every two years has drawn attention not only to his person but also and more so to his compositional production. No double bassist treated his instrument with as much virtuosity and compositional versatility as Sperger did. His eighteen double bass concertos attest to this fact, and on this CD the famous Slovak double bassist Roman Patkoló performs Nos. 2 and 15. The Symphony No. 30 rounding off this release stands out for its musical language very close to that of Haydn. The concertos offer spirited, striking, and profoundly stirring melodies and sequences of the greatest virtuosity. Next to Johann Baptist Vanhal’s Double Bass Concerto, the Concerto No. 15, now a much-performed classical double bass concerto, ranks as the most valuable such work for this instrument.