Bottesini: Virtuoso Double Bass Vol. 3 Leon Bosch & Rebeca Omordia

• Giovanni Bottesini (1821 - 1889):
• 1 Bottesini: Fantasia: I Puritani 11:06
• 2 Bottesini: Allegro di Concerto alla Mendelssohn 13:29
• 3 Bottesini: Capriccio 04:07
• 4 Bottesini: Introduction and Variations on The Carnival of Venice 10:13
• 5 Bottesini: Bolero 09:57
• Total Runtime 48:52

Info for Bottesini: Virtuoso Double Bass Vol. 3

This recording with Rebeca Omordia, on the Meridian Records label, completes Leon Bosch’s exploration of Giovanni Bottesini’s complete works for double bass and piano.

This third album, presented by Leon Bosch and Rebeca Omordia, of music for double bass and piano by Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1829), includes his popular Allegro di Concerto ‘alla Mendelssohn’: Bottesini, as well as being arguably the most significant figure in the history of the double bass, was also an opera conductor and the composer of over a dozen operas.

Leon Bosch, double bass
Rebeca Omordia, piano

Leon Bosch
has an honoured place among the select group of virtuoso double bass players worldwide. Concerto engagements in many parts of the world with the likes of conductors Pinchas Zukerman, Nicolas Kraemer, Nicolae Moldoveanu and Guido Johannes Rumstadt have been matched by collaborations with a long line of leading chamber music groups - among them the Lindsay, Belcea and Brodsky string quartets, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, the Moscow Virtuosi and the Zukerman Chamber Players. Partnerships with solo performers have embraced such pianists as Peter Donohoe, Vladimir Ovchinikov, Mikhail Rudy and Maria João Pires.

Leon Bosch has a growing discography of concerto and recital recordings. This will shortly include two albums devoted to the music of the great Giovanni Bottesini and two featuring music by British composers. Then will follow everything from a disc of Russian music and another of compositions by Domenico Dragonetti, to the complete works for solo double bass by Dittersdorf, Menotti's concerto and recordings of a string of neglected concertos for the instrument.

Rebeca Omordia
London based award-winning pianist Rebeca Omordia was born in Romania to a Romanian mother and a Nigerian father. Having begun to establish a profile in her native country, she moved to the UK to study at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and later at Trinity College of Music in London.

Recently featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, and as Artist of the Month in the Classical Music Magazine, May 2019, Nigerian-Romanian pianist Rebeca Omordia is known as a vibrant, exciting virtuoso throughout the UK and overseas. She has toured widely as a soloist and chamber musician. Most recently she has performed as a soloist with MUSON Symphony Orchestra in Lagos, Nigeria, with Romanian National Radio Orchestra and with Chineke! Orchestra at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

She has worked with an array of international musicians, including a three year- partnership with British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber; they performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall and Kings Place in London, at Highgrove, the residence of Prince of Wales and they made several live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. Further musical partners have included cellist Raphael Wallfisch, double bass virtuoso Leon Bosch, and the Chineke! Chamber Ensemble; her CD with piano duo - partner Mark Bebbington, “The Piano Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams” reached no. 3 in the UK’s Specialist Classical Music Chart.

A proud ambassador of Nigerian classical music, Rebeca’s CD Ekele released in 2018, was described as a "fascinating programme " by the Gramophone Magazine, "appealing album" by the BBC Music Magazine, and “beautifully delivered recital" by The Sunday Times.

In 2019 she launched in partnership with the Institute of Art and Music the world's first ever African Concert Series, at the October Gallery in London, described by the BBC World Service as "the African Art Music makes a comeback".

In 2018 Rebeca was a jury member in the 13th HRH Princess Lalla Meryem International Piano Competition in Rabat, Morocco.

In 2016 she was awarded the Honorary Membership Award from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She is currently writing her PhD thesis.

This album contains no booklet.