Élégie

The 19th concept of ‘elegy’ in music, much like ‘romance’, ‘poem’ or ‘prelude’, is much more than simply an introduction to a short piece without fixed form. Such entitling is in itself a statement that our feelings are soon to be deeply affected by a music which does not require the rigorous counterpoint of Bach, the classically eloquent sonata forms of Haydn and Mozart, or the vast and timeless impressions left by Wagner’s operas. The romantic period did not supply large amounts of repertoire to the double bass and piano chamber combination, though the ‘Romance’ by Oswald Schwabe, a teacher at the Royal Academy in Leipzig during the second half of the 18th Century, demonstrates a classically constructed design and a most natural and austere German spirit. All other pieces here are beautiful transcriptions played by the immensely talented Stefano Sciascia on double-bass and accompanied by David Giovanni Leonardi on piano.