Double Bass Rhapsody Dominik Wagner

• Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (1839 - 1901): Abendlied:
• 1Rheinberger: Abendlied02:30
• Anton Bruckner (1824 - 1896): Locus Iste (Arr. by Dominik Wagner):
• 2Bruckner: Locus Iste (Arr. by Dominik Wagner)02:51
• Christus Factus Est (Arr. by Dominik Wagner):
• 3Bruckner: Christus Factus Est (Arr. by Dominik Wagner)04:20
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004:
• 4Bach: Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004: Chaconne, Pt. 1 (Arr. By Dominik Wagner)07:58
• 5Bach: Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004: Chaconne, Pt. 2 (Arr. By Dominik Wagner)04:48
• 6Bach: Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004: Chaconne, Pt. 3 (Arr. By Dominik Wagner)03:29
• Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904): Symphony No. 9, Op. 95, 2nd movement:
• 7Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, Op. 95, 2nd movement: Largo (Arr. by Dominik Wagner)03:43
• 8Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, Op. 95, 2nd movement: Un Poco Piu Mosso (Arr. by Dominik Wagner)02:30
• 9Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, Op. 95, 2nd movement: Meno (Arr. by Dominik Wagner)03:44
• Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981): Adagio for Strings (Arr. By Dominik Wagner):
• 10Barber: Adagio for Strings (Arr. By Dominik Wagner)06:03
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007:
• 11Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: Prelude02:44
• 12Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: Allemande04:52
• 13Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: Courante02:45
• 14Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: Sarabande02:46
• 15Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: Menuett 1 & 203:27
• 16Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: Gigue01:45
• Freddie Mercury (1946 - 1991): Bohemian Rhapsody (Arr. By Dominik Wagner):
• 17Mercury: Bohemian Rhapsody (Arr. By Dominik Wagner)06:11
• Joey Tempest (b. 1963): The Final Countdown (Arr. By Johan Strindberg):
• 18Tempest: The Final Countdown (Arr. By Johan Strindberg)05:07
• Total Runtime01:11:33

Info for Double Bass Rhapsody

This album hums and growls, it whispers very delicately and causes a pleasant feeling again and again. It is the warm, deep and full tone of the double bass that has taken hold of the young Viennese soloist Dominik Wagner. This is already the fourth album he is releasing on the label Berlin Classics. As on the three previous albums, he has placed the double bass at the center, and yet everything is different on the new album "Double Bass Rhapsody". Here, the double bass is heard exclusively as a solo instrument, in a quartet and even in a sextet. For this, Dominik Wagner has enlisted the best colleagues he can imagine: Christoph Wimmer and Herbert Mayr, both principal double bassists of the Vienna Philharmonic, who share with him an authentic connection to the Viennese style. And José Trigo, deputy principal double bass of the BR Symphony Orchestra, who, like Dominik Wagner, also studied with Professor Dorin Marc. "In order to bring out the special features of the double bass, there is no need for any other instrument" explains Dominik Wagner.

Of course, in order to realize this vision, a special repertoire is needed, since there is no significant number of works exclusively written for the double bass. Dominik Wagner knew that he would have to invest a lot of time and care in selecting and arranging the works in order to bring out the fascinating sound world of the double bass on his new album.

The album begins with an original choral work to which Dominik Wagner feels a close affinity due to his time with the Vienna Boys' Choir: the touching "Abendlied", No. 3 from the Three Spiritual Songs by Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, arranged for double bass sextet, is heard. Two works by Anton Bruckner follow, "Locus iste" and "Christus factus est", both cleverly arranged for double bass quartet by Dominik Wagner. In his arrangements he masterfully understands how to show the lyrical strength of the double bass, which one would not expect at first from such a large instrument.

Dominik Wagner describes the work on the arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Chaconne" from the Partita for Violin Solo No. 2, for double bass solo as the most challenging project of his musical career to date. A full six years before the recordings for this album, he began the first attempts to transcribe this important work for violin to double bass. Several revisions were necessary to finally find the version that could match his ambitions.

"Symphony No. 9" and Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings", originally from the String Quartet in B minor Op.11. Here, too, Dominik Wagner produces successful arrangements for double bass quartet and provides us with a new way of hearing these works.

Another well-known work is the "Cello Suite No.1" by Johann Sebastian Bach, whose spell Dominik Wagner could not escape any more than the appeal of the soft double bass sound. As a child he learned to play the cello, but at the age of 10 he changed his instrument. In the booklet Dominik Wagner explains: "Even though you might be able to play a little more virtuously and brilliantly on the cello, there is one thing that makes the bass unique: the density and depth of the sound that envelops you like a cloud and whose warmth and sonorous richness you can't easily escape."

With Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in an arrangement by Dominik Wagner and Europe's "The Final Countdown" in a creative arrangement by Johan Strindberg, with interjections from Koussevitzky's Double Bass Concerto and quotes from Bach's Toccata, this versatile album ends. For Dominik Wagner, these highlights of pop music have as much musical relevance as the preceding masterpieces of classical music. For him, the core of music is that it reaches and moves people emotionally.

With "Double Bass Rhapsody" Dominik Wagner gives us a wide variety of perspectives on his instrument and its surprising sonorous richness.

Dominik Wagner, double bass
Christoph Wimmer, double bass
Herbert Mayr, double bass
José Trigo, double bass

Dominik Wagner
"Born in 1997 in Vienna, Dominik Wagner takes Bottesini's tonal beauty, vocal and melodic attractiveness so passionately seriously, and masters the required artistry with such breathy lightness that one would think the double bass is the softest-sounding and most virtuosic string instrument."

Dominik Wagner aims to liberate his instrument from its existence in the shadow of the cello and present new facets of the double bass. He succeeds not only with an engaging stage presence, impressive virtuosity, and vocal melodic delivery but also through his tireless efforts to expand the repertoire, whether through commissions or the search for rarities, he makes the double bass sound in a new variety. For example, together with his father, the composer Wolfram Wagner, he arranged Dvořák's fragments of the Cello Concerto in A major into the Double Bass Concerto in D major, which he premiered at the KKL Lucerne in the summer of 2023.

In just his mid-20s, Wagner is a scholarship recipient of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation and an ECHO Klassik winner. In 2022, he was awarded the Opus Klassik as Young Talent of the Year. He has also won prizes in almost all double bass competitions, including the Bradetich Foundation International Double Bass Solo Competition, the ARD International Music Competition, and the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition.

Dominik Wagner has already performed with renowned orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Camarata Salzburg in concert halls in Berlin (Konzerthaus and Philharmonie), Vienna (Musikverein and Konzerthaus), Munich (Herkulessaal and Gasteig), Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie), and New York (Carnegie Hall), among others. He is associated with the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra as a WKO Young Artist.

In 2021 Wagner's first solo CD Giovanni Bottesini - Revolution of Bass was released by Berlin Classics. Chapters - A Double Bass Story, a recital recording together with Lauma Skride, was also released by Berlin Classics in 2023. Both the album and the concert programs feature works ranging from Bach and Schubert to Piazzolla and Mancini, showcasing Wagner's entire musical range.

In addition to his solo activities, Dominik is a passionate chamber musician. He has played with musicians like the Emerson String Quartet, the Danish String Quartet, Isabel Faust, Tabea Zimmermann, Gerhard Schulz, and Elisabeth Leonskaja. He is also constantly searching for new timbres through new constellations. This has resulted in a duo with jazz double bassist Georg Breinschmid, as well as a clarinet trio with Vera Karner and Aurelia Visovan. With the latter, he won, among others, the Fanny Mendelssohn Förderpreis.

Wagner is also a sought-after pedagogue. Since 2023, he has held a professorship for double bass at the University of Music Würzburg. Also, he regularly gives masterclasses in Europe and the US, which have led him to institutions like the Juilliard School New York, the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and the UNT Texas.

Dominik Wagner first learned the cello before switching to the double bass in 2007. His four years in the concert choir of the Vienna Boys Choir were a formative musical influence. From 2009 to 2015, he studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and from 2015 to 2022, he studied with Prof. Dorin Marc at the University of Music Nürnberg. Since 2023, he has been part of the Professional Studies program of the Kronberg Academy. Season 2023/2024, Quote: Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 6th 2021

This album contains no booklet.