Beschrijving
0:01 - "Etuda", No. 29
1:32 - "Melodie", No. 30
World's premiere recording of the entire "30 Miniatures for double bass and piano" by František Hertl (1906-1973). Performed by Božo Paradžik (double bass) and Annalisa Orlando (piano)
Today on April 18th, on the day when the composer was born in 1906, the release of final three videos of 30 miniatures took place. It is a very emotional moment, as a big music project that has begun 10 years ago has been completed.
We begin today countdown to the Hertl anniversary year: in 2026 will be 120 years since František Hertl was born and I am preparing something spectacular for 2026, but it is another subject.
This cyclus of 30 short gems (in total more than 90 minutes of music) remained for almost 50 years hidden in the basement of the house where Hertl lived in a cardboard box, which was full of manuscripts. Composer's daughter informed my dear professor Jiří Hudec about the existence of the handwritten music. So we saved this beautiful work from being lost and made it available for our generation and future generations of musicians.
Out of all 30 miniatures, Etuda is an unique one and makes perfect contrast. Its immense technical difficulty requires technique level of a virtuoso. Besides that, it is physically harder than most of other fast works from the solo literature for double bass, because it is written in unusually low register for a solo piece, just like other 29 miniatures. This pair of miniatures is in an usual order: fast/slow. Hertl has chosen a quiet, beautiful elegy to finish in a modest and unspectacular way the biggest cyclus ever composed for double bass and piano (more than 88 minutes total time in our interpretation), typical for a composer who cared more for true music than for superficial effects.
With a purchase of the PDF music, you will automatically support our charity project. Until the beginning of 2022, whole turnover was 100% forwarded to composer's daughter, who lives on a very tight budget in Prague. Since beginning of 2022, a minor part of the turnover has been used to partially cover the costs of this video production. The miniatures can be purchased either as "six-packs" (for example No 1-6, 7-12 etc) or full edition, all 30 miniatures as a set.