Search - Erwin Schulhoff, Burrill Phillips, Gunther Schuller :: The Bass Nightingale

Welcome to the Wonderful World of the Contrabassoon

bckm | Los Angeles, CA | 05/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The contrabassoon has been wrongly neglected. Nearly as agile as it's more famous little brother/sister, the bassoon, and a little more difficult to hear because it isn't shrill (as, say, a violin), Susan Nigro brings the contrabassoon's smoothness out beautifully. It's refreshing to hear music that doesn't attempt to "hit the high C", and although there are plenty of notes in what I would call the "bass-baritone" range (the upper range of the contrabassoon), the music Ms. Nigro placed on this CD is more true to the nature of the contrabassoon-a low bass instrument that was not designed to be the lyric (or screeching, depending on your opinion) soprano of the orchestra. The title track is amazing; Ms. Nigro goes for what seems like five minutes playing stacatto lines and doesn't seem to take a breath. She also demonstrates incredible dexterity in the Contrabassoon Concerto, jumping around like she was barefoot on a hot beach in the middle of summer -- WITH her contrabassoon!



An excellent album, highly recommended for lovers of the bassoon, contrabassoon, and all the more neglected instruments. Go ahead -- be a musical socialist... :)"