Legacy of Double Bass

Giovanni Bottesini and Pedro Valls inspired Curtis’s first double bass teacher, the Catalàn virtuoso Anton Torello, who brought to Philadelphia original manuscripts of their compositions when he became principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Often referred to as the Paganini of the double bass, Bottesini had an international career as a solo performer, opera conductor, and composer in the 19th century. His extraordinary technique and artistry on the instrument brought him acclaim wherever he performed. The lack of music written to showcase the double bass inspired Bottesini to compose a large body of works, many published after his death, that remain standard repertoire for modern bassists.

Recent musicological research has suggested that Pedro Valls, Anton Torello’s teacher in their native Catalonia, adopted the performance techniques of Bottesini. The Italian master spent a considerable amount of time in Barcelona from 1863 to 1866 as the music director of the Teatre Liceu during the formative period of Valls’s development. While no existing documents show that the two worked together, Valls clearly admired Bottesini and passed along the French-style overhand bowing method of Bottesini to his students. In 1909, Valls wrote Homenaje à Bottesini, a work for double bass and piano modeled on one of Bottesini’s most virtuosic works, Fantasia sur La Sonnambula. Along with a number of manuscripts by Bottesini, the manuscript of Homenaje à Bottesini was part of a large bequest made by Anton Torello to the Curtis Institute of Music after his death.

In 1909, at age 25, Torello immigrated to the United States bringing with him twelve years of experience as a professional bassist, several years teaching as a professor at the Conservatori Superior de Musica del Liceu, and an array of important materials pertinent to the craft of double bass, including numerous editions of other works by Valls. Torello became principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1914 and joined the Curtis faculty in 1925. In 2016, Emilio Gravagno (’58) donated to Curtis a 19th-century Italian double bass once owned by Torello.

Torello created nothing short of a double bass educational dynasty while at Curtis. His students included his son Carl Torello (’35), who taught at Curtis from 1943 to 1948 during his father’s absence from the faculty; Roger Scott (’41), Torello’s successor as principal bass in the Philadelphia Orchestra; and Warren Benfield (’34), former principal bass of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Harold Hall Robinson, currently double bass faculty at Curtis and principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra, studied with Benfield at Northwestern University.

Since 2003, when Edgar Meyer joined Robinson on the faculty, every double bass student at Curtis has benefited from lessons from two teachers. Like the virtuoso Bottesini, Meyer has forged a multi-layered career as a soloist, composer, and collaborator, leveraging the inherent versatility of his instrument to work across genres and collaborate with a wide variety of artists. Recognized in 2002 with a MacArthur Award, he has composed and premiered three double bass concertos and a triple concerto for double bass, banjo, and tabla. He has also written pieces for pre-eminent violinists, including a violin concerto for Hilary Hahn (’99) and an overture for violin and orchestra premiered by Joshua Bell.

Curtis enrolls seven double bassists each year who grow as musicians under the faculty’s unflagging artistry and dedicated pedagogy. Since its founding, Curtis has graduated 142 bassists who have represented these ideals, holding principal and section positions in leading orchestras and continuing to promote Curtis pedagogical traditions in their work as teachers.