The double bass, with its beautiful deep timbre, is seldom recorded. This CD features Daniel Marillier, an outstanding musician with a brilliant mastery of technique, who is able to use his strong musical instincts to re-interpret works by Chopin, Schubert, Schumann and others - even though these composers wrote nothing specifically for the double bass.

It is important to remember that there is a cruelly limited repertoire for the double bass. Cellists may regret that their eighteenth and ninteenth century predecessors did not succeed in motivating Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms or Mendelssohn to compose concertos for their instrument. But the situation is much worst for the double bass? Neither Haydn, nor Bach, nor Schumann ever wrote for it! Transcription seems to be the best way to expand this rather thin repertoire. The artistic and technical sophistication of modern double bass players is poorly served by the limited number of pieces composed by Bottesini and others.

There are historical precedents for this. Bach transcribed Vivaldi, Mozart adapted Bach, Schubert used his own Lieder for his quartet Death and the Maiden and The Trout, Liszt transcribed songs by Schubert for piano solo and even David Oistrakh, with the composer’s blessing, re-arranged Prokoviev’s Sonata for Flute for his own instrument. A transcription gives a composition a new colour. It can enrich it through the specific timbre of a different instrument and can reveal new qualities in a well known composition. The pieces on this CD are enriched by the special beauty of the double bass - its assurance, majesty and melancholy.

The Allegro Appassionato op.43 by Saint-Saëns, was played for the first time in 1874 at the Société Nationale de Musique. The pure beauty of this virtuoso, nostalgic piece adapts well to the double bass.

The three Lieder by Schubert and the two by Brahms, arranged by Daniel Marillier himself, are amongst the best known and most representative examples of vocal compositions by these two geniuses - characterised by Schubert’s intimate mood and oscillation between major and minor keys and by Brahms’s lyrical phrasing.

The Three Fantasiestücke op.73 by Schumann were written in 1849 for clarinet and piano, but, as for may other solo pieces (for oboe, alto, cello, horn...), they were transcribed several times for strings.

Stravinski's Russian Song comes from a scene from the opera "Macra" (1922), in which the maid Parasha is longing for her beloved hussar. This Song has been arranged by the composer and the violinist Samuel Duskin for violin and piano.

The sonata for cello and piano op. 19 de Rachmaninov was composed in 1901. Its slow movement is often performed alone, it is like a meditative breath, a moment of unspoiled quiet time.

Kreisler's Syncopationreminds us how the great violinist took his inspiration from different kinds of folk music. This piece is a ragtime similar to those composed by Scott Joplin in the USA , but here mixed with Vienna’s elegance and "Gemütlichkeit".

Gabriel Fauré's Après un Rêve was a melody for voice and piano before Pablo Casals used it for his encore, famous today among string instrument transcriptions.

Bloch's Nigun (improvisation in Hebrew) is the central piece of a triptych for violin and piano entitled "Baal Shem". Dating from 1923, it was inspired by Jewish spiritual life and celebrated the Hassidim sect who wanted to reach god through the joy of singing and dancing.

The Nocturne in C sharp minor op. postum (1830) is the second composed by Frédéric Chopin. He never decided to give it a definite form and it was only published in 1875. The long cantilena nevertheless shows how that composer perceived the lyrical and dramatic strength of this musical genre.

The Les chemins de l’amour by Francis Poulenc was originally a simple song included in Anouilh’s "Léocadia". As a popular tune it was sung by musical stars such as Yvonne Printemps or Danielle Darrieux. It was subsequently performed by some divas in classical concerts, as a refreshing reminder of the Viennese melodic tradition.

Translated by Tanya Harrod