Instructive and entertaining
Easily comprehensible, but not to be underestimated pieces for two young bassoon players - and an encore with double bass.
The bassoon still plays a somewhat subordinate role in modern music compared to the clarinet, flute or oboe. To remedy this, young people should come into contact with contemporary techniques, and this is precisely the aim of this collection of bassoon duos for teaching.
Contemporary techniques covered include multiphonics, quarter tones, slap tones, glissandi, key noises, flutter tonguing and the inclusion of the voice. Where altered fingerings are necessary, these are always found directly in the musical text, making fingering charts or explanations of symbols superfluous. Stylistically, the pieces are within a comprehensible and uncomplicated framework; they are often tonal, but also dance-like or song-like. The difficulty of most of the pieces should not be underestimated, although it is not necessarily the contemporary techniques, but rather the basic playing and fitness requirements that speak against confronting too young children with the pieces, although some of the work titles such as Big snake in a tree and its supposed prey point to young players.
No fewer than 23 pieces by eight composers are included in the collection, and some of them are undoubtedly interesting up to university level. Musically impressive are in particular the Five allegories by Friedrich Schenker and A touch of blues by Hermann Keller.
Contemporary music for two bassoons (pieces by Bernd Casper, Georg Katzer, Hermann Keller, Friedrich Schenker, Mia Schmidt, Takehito Shimazu, H. Johannes Wallmann, Helga Warner-Buhlmann), edited by Dieter Hähnchen, FH 3423, € 24.80, Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig 2012
A charming encore for bassoon and double bass is Low Agenda by Gernot Wolfgang. Connected to the jazz and rock idiom, both instruments show themselves in a varied and colorful light. Imaginative interpreters will want to enrich the solos even more and know how to create free spaces for themselves, but even a note-for-note rendition will have a great effect!
Gernot Wolfgang, Low Agenda, for bassoon and double bass, score and parts, D 06714, € 16.95, Doblinger, Vienna 2011
