BOTTESINI, Giovanni

Tarantella for double bass and piano

Duncan McTier, professor

Ignacio Fernández-Rial, student

Jesús Gómez Madrigal, accompanying pianist

In the first part of the masterclass, which happens without the piano accompaniment, the Professor focuses on aspects of the bow that affects the character of the piece: bowings, shifting, contact point and so on. The student has to really move with the bow. In order to have more sound and a remarkable crescendo, the speed of the bow has to grow. McTier insists very often in the amount of bow to be used in every passage in order to accomplish all the expressive elements of the score. They also work on dynamics, expresiveness, tempo, rhythm, fingerings and tuning.
In the second part, with accompanying piano, the dynamics and the tempo are two of the main aspects they work on. They study the dynamics of several passages to give more shape to the phrase. In certain moments, the student can take more freedom with the tempo in order to be more expressive and create different colors. In fast passages in which tempo does not change, there is a need for more weight to have more contact point with the bow and avoid losing the quality of sound. McTier also makes corrections on bowings, harmonics, shifting, coordination with the piano, fingerings, tuning and vibrato.

Language: English