Johann Matthias Sperger, the standout double bassist among the leading forces of the Viennese School in Germany, honored his instrument with greater virtuosity and more compositional versatility than any other composer. This fact is documented by his eighteen double bass concertos, all of which have come down to us in the autographic scores and in some cases in the parts and are available for consultation in the Schwerin Library. On Vol. 2, which features Concertos Nos. 1 and 8, Sperger once again gives the double bass the solo space it needs to display its song qualities, often with extremely striking and exceptional themes. And as already on Vol. 1, our soloist Roman Patkoló “does complete justice to what are sometimes the breakneck demands of the concertos” (klassik-heute. com of Vol. 1). The album also includes Sperger’s Symphony No. 15, a work that has a tonal language very close to that of Haydn – and that here is being performed and recorded on album for the first time, 239 years after its composition.
