久々に人前でコントラバスでソロを弾きました！しかもウィーン調弦です。感謝！
W.A. モーツァルト『Per questa bella mano』 KV612
といえば。
バスのためのコンサートアリアで、モーツァルトがソロコントラバスのために唯一遺した作品（最後の年に！）、ウィーン調弦のマスターピース。
そして、私をこっちの世界に引き込んだ音楽の中のひとつ。
歌のバスは音域がかなり広く挑戦的。コントラバスは、通常の調弦では超超超超超絶技巧。
歌のバスもコントラバスも、いつもの機能から離れてカンタービレな世界と快速な世界を行ったり来たりの倒錯した美しい世界。
ぎりぎりに決まった本番でドキドキしながら準備したけれど、結果的にかなりの自信につながりました。
今回の彼は普通のバス弾きにことごとく断られたそうで。私はかつて（かれこれ６年前！）歌手の人にことごとく断られて大変でしたが、今回運よく人々の縁により出会えてお互いにとってとても幸運でした！
さてさて、今回どういう演奏会だったのかというと、メキシコの地震のためのチャリティでした。
メキシコの地震のためのチャリティコンサートながら、メキシコ人不在ｗ
フライヤーには私の名前もない。直前だったから無理もない。。
ヘンデル『アリオダンテ』『ユリウス・シーザー』『アルチーナ』、プッチーニ『ラ・ボエーム』、ヴェルディ『椿姫』、ロッシーニ『チェネレントラ』、タンゴ、サンサーンス『El desdichado』、グノー『ロミオとジュリエット』、ドリーブ『ラクメ』、モーツァルト『フィガロの結婚』『ドン・ジョヴァンニ』、それぞれから抜粋でアリアなり場面なり、と、このコンサートアリア。（順不同）
やっぱりオペラ方面なので、知らない曲もあったりなかったり。しかし、なんだか優秀な歌手ばかりで、聴衆としてもかなり楽しみました。立ち見が出るほどの満場のお客様に感謝！！
歌手のガラコンサートのようで、趣旨は趣旨ながら辛気臭いところのない明るい会。歌手だらけのところにたったひとり乗り込んだ器楽がコントラバス！ｗまるっと2時間半、終演後パーティ付き！みんな気前よく募金してくれたみたいです。よかったよかった。
共演したバス歌手は、この企画の立案者でもありよく働いておりました。歌手としても、バーゼル歌劇場のアカデミー契約を更新して二年目。大手のスイスの奨学金も獲得、ほうぼうのコンクールもバンバン勝っていて、ただいまバーゼル歌劇場のアルチーナにも出演中。コントロールのきいた低音と紳士な音色が素敵な歌手でした。きっとどんどん大成していくんだろうな。
そして、バーゼル歌劇場18年勤務！という百戦錬磨のコレペティピアニストの、オーケストラの音がするピアノにも感激。歌手慣れもすごい・・匠の技でした。
本当に今回の共演に感謝！！
準備に際して、亜種に見えるウィーン調弦が実は一般的五弦ベースをちょっといじるだけで無理なくこのシステムにできることを発見したり（ただし3度下になってしまうけど）、定期的なバリトントリオの上演によって何の違和感もなくこの調弦を弾きこなせるようになっている（指が自然と動く）自分を発見したり、聴衆の前だとむしろ楽しく弾けるようになっていたりｗ、6年前は遥か昔と思えたことが新鮮でした。まだまだ成長は止まりませんね。うれしい！
ウィーンベース使いが少ないために、この曲の上演をあきらめている歌手も多いと思いますが、どんどんやりましょう！
ご依頼お待ちしています！ｗ
最後のおまけ。
このコントラバス的にはマイルストーンとして燦然と輝く作品について、奏者で研究者のデヴィッド・ヘイズ氏が2014年に書いた解説をどうぞ。
このパートがコントラバスのため、というのが嘘だと信じられていた時代の話やら、曲の成立、初演者についてなど。英語長文。
For many years it was believed that Mozart's Concert Aria 'Per questa bella mano' for bass voice, double bass and orchestra was not written for the double bass ...at all. The solo part was written in treble clef and thought unplayable on the double bass and also that Mozart's other music for double bass was all written in bass clef and completely idiomatic for the instrument. Nowhere else had Mozart written such 'unplayable' music for the double bass...
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For much of the 19th and early 20th-centuries the knowledge about 'Viennese tuning' had been lost. Most of the solo works for double bass, written between the early 1760s and 1812 - the composition of the 'lost' Haydn Double Bass Concerto and the death of J.M. Sperger - had been written for this tuning, including works by Dittersdorf, Kozeluch, Hoffmeister, Pichl, Vanhal, Kohaut and Zimmerman. Usually the solo part had been written in treble clef which was two octaves higher than sounding pitch. This new tuning for a four-stringed 18th-century double bass (violone) comprised of a combination of intervals of thirds and fourths (A-F#-D-A), sometimes with a 5th string tuned to low F natural. This tuning favoured the key of D major, hence the abundance of concertos from this time in this key, and composers would occasionally use a double bass scordatura of a semitone higher which allowed for some variety and the use of E flat major.
John Reynolds in his 'Difficult Passages for the Double Bass - Selected from the Works of the Great Masters' includes a wonderful one-page article which discusses Mozart's 'unplayable' piece for double bass and, when the volume was 'Newly revised and enlarged by H. Samuel Sterling' in 1924, the opinion was still the same. The conclusion being that it was unplayable as it is written and that "...when Bottesini played it at the Philharmonic he played it nearly all, two octaves lower than it is written. Certainly, if he found it unplayable in the original form, there are not many living men likely to dispute his verdict." Bottesini's performance was probably in the 1870s or 80s and in the intervening 30 years his verdict about the piece hadn't changed.
John Reynolds was absolutely correct in the late 19th-century, although he didn't know it at the time, and that the solo double bass part does sound two octaves lower than written, which was the convention for this tuning and time period, and was the intention of Mozart all along. Reynolds thought the work "...was written for a viol da gamba or similar instrument..." and he ends my praising Bottesini's performance, albeit with a back-handed compliment, "...it is hardly necessary to say, there is no intention to criticise Bottesini's mode of playing this work. He, no doubt, saw the absurdity of such passages being written for the double-bass; but the work had to be done, and he made the best of it, and even to do what was no easy matter."
Bottesini had created his own solo part for his performance which was written in C major, using a combination of solo and orchestral tunings we use today - the top two strings were tuned to A and E (solo tuning) and his third string was tuned to A (orchestral tuning). The two tunings allowed him to sound in D major but play the music a tone lower.
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Many of Mozart's Concert Arias as we know them today began life as custom-tailored showpieces specially written for the leading singers to insert into operas at their choosing and usually composed to display greater fireworks and virtuosity than the original aria. Per questa bella mano K.612 (By this beautiful/fair hand) was completed on 8 March 1791, according to Mozart's own catalogue of works, but there is no evidence that this aria was an extra item for an opera, but simply a work to display the talents of two performers who worked closely with the composer towards the end of his life - Franz Gerl and Friedrich Pischelberger.
Franz Xaver Gerl (1764-1827) was an Austrian bass singer and composer who sang the part of Sarastro in the first production of Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, having previously sung in Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and The Abduction from the Seraglio. Apparently he had an impressively low vocal range which Mozart exploited in The Magic Flute, to the despair of many bass singers, and he performed the role until 1792, leaving the company the following year.
Friedrich Pischelberger (1741-1813) was a virtuoso double bassist of the late 18th-century, who probably also played and possibly commissioned the concertos of Dittersdorf, Pichl and Vanhal amongst others, and was a member of the orchestra at the theatre, under the management of Emanuel Schikaneder (1751-1812). Schikaneder was a German impresario, dramatist, actor, singer and composer and was the librettist of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, who also sang the part of Papageno in the production at his own theatre. He was described as "one of the most talented theatre men of his era" and played a significant and important role during Mozart's last year.
Per questa bella mano is set to an anonymous text and is scored for bass voice, solo double bass (violone), flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and strings. Although lasting less than seven minutes and only 136 bars long, it is a 'tour de force' for the double bassist and an opportunity for the singer to revel in beautiful lyrical melodies which exploit the dark timbres of the bass voice. Written for a double bass in Viennese tuning (A-D-F#-A), it exploits the technical prowess of the performer throughout, whether playing double stops or fast semiquaver scale and arpeggio passages, alongside lyrical phrases which echo the melodies of the bass singer. When arranged for the modern double bass, in solo or orchestral tuning, it becomes a work which is far more technically demanding than when played in its original tuning, and for many years was only attempted by the most advanced and enterprising of double bassists. It is likely that it was premiered by the Gerl and Pischelberger in Vienna during 1791, although there seems to be no evidence of this.
Now that Viennese tuning is fully understood, many players are performing this wonderful music with the original tuning, and the beauty of this long-forgotten 18th-century repertoire is gradually being unearthed. Less than a century ago the tuning was unknown and the only way to perform these works was to hack the solo part so that it fitted the standard tunings of the day. Fortunately the urtext movement has discovered this repertoire and new editions offer the 21st-century bassist the opportunity to perform wonderful concertos and chamber works in a range of tunings, but always faithful to the original.
The manuscript of Mozart's Per questa bella mano was held at the Preussische Staatsbibliotek (Berlin) for many years and disappeared in 1945. Fortunately it was discovered a few years ago in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska (Krakow, Poland) and Tobias Glockler was able to use the original manuscript as the basis of his 1995 edition for Hofmeister Musikverlag. This edition includes double bass parts for solo and orchestral tuning and even a tablature-like notation which enables the player to use the original Viennese tuning.
In 1919 Bote & Bock (Berlin) published an edition, in German, for soprano, double bass and piano. Edited by Lebrecht Goedecke (1872-1947), Principal Bass of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and transcribed for the German soprano Claire Dux (1885-1967), it transposes the aria a 5th higher than the original making the double bass part even more challenging! Goedecke performed regularly as a soloist and I am certain this aria was performed by the bassist and soprano on many occasions.
IMC have even created an edition where the solo double bass part is incorporated into the piano accompaniment, excluding the double bassist altogether, although the edition does also include the original instrumentation with the solo bass part edited by Stuart Sankey.
At a time when the standard of double bass playing is arguably the best it has ever been, Mozart's Per questa bella mano is now the preserve of the many and not the few. More bassists are able to tackle the work and triumph in its technical and musical challenges than ever before. Although we don't have a Double Bass Concerto by Mozart - transcriptions of the Bassoon Concerto aside - at least we have one original work from the Austrian master which demonstrates that he understood the exploited the solo possibilities of the double bass over 200 years ago.
David Heyes [23 August 2014]