Niccolo Paganini’s Violin Caprice No. 24, one of the best known of all solo violin works, has fired the imagination of performers and audiences for 200 years. The theme’s beguiling simplicity has seen its adoption by many great composers, notably Brahms and Rachmaninov, and following in this tradition Frank Proto explores and develops those famous 16 bars in a major new work for double bass and piano.

Proto sticks with the original’s theme and variation form, allowing him to deploy a sparkling array of compositional devices. Stylish variations explore rhythmic and harmonic possibilities, while showcasing the possibilities of advanced bass technique, Virtuosic-sounding double-stops, helpfully employing an open string or harmonic, contrast with flowing passagework, always with a syncopated flavour. False-harmonic melodies, unison notes on two strings, thumb-position double-stopped octave scales, communicate the passion and theatricality of Paganini’s music-making.

While even the most intimidating-looking material turns out to be eminently playable, Proto includes easier alternatives for the most demanding sections. This puts Nine Variants within reach for less-advanced players without compromising the overall effect.

Clever use of complex rhythms and rubato creates the illusion of improvisation, particularly in the third variation, but Proto makes a strong case for a truly improvised cadenza after the ninth variation. Reminding us that this was once a required skill in classical performance, and aware of most musicians’ aversion to playing anything not written down, Proto includes a page highlighting the theme and beginning of each variation with clear instructions on construction and execution.

Nine Varients is Proto’s invitation to enter the world of the archetypal virtuoso, in modern style. He dedicates the piece to François Rabbath, a player with his own Paganini-like technique, but in his expert and multi-facetted writing, Proto also gives lesser mortals the opportunity to sound like masters.

The twenty-five year partnership between François Rabbath and Frank Proto has once again resulted in the publication of an intriguing and challenging piece. François Rabbath premiered Proto’s Nine Variants on Paganini with the Honolulu Symphony to critical raves and a standing ovation last March. This performance will be broadcast on the National Public Radio show "Performance Today" sometime in the fall. While I was unable to attend the work’s premier, I heard Rabbath perform the work with piano only a few days later at a performance in Ball State University’s Pruis Hall. Here, too, Rabbath’s performance of the work made a tremendous impact that resulted in a standing ovation.

Written as a set of variations on Paganini’s 24th Caprice, Proto’s Nine Variants on Paganini is as virtuosic as one would expect of a composition inspired by Paganini and written for Rabbath. Proto has published the work with accompaniments for both solo and orchestral tunings and given several optional phrases throughout the work, i.e. 8^vb, simplified rhythms, etc. While the piece presents extraordinary technical challenges, it is not merely a showcase for scalar feats. Proto makes it clear in his performance notes that he is aware of the range of composers such as Brahms, Berlioz, Liszt and Lutoslawski, who were also inspired by Paganini. And so, as with his Carmen Fantasy, Proto treats another famous nineteenth century theme to modern dissonance, jazz and salsa rhythms, and improvisation. 

The opening moments of the work are wildly dramatic and set the stage for what is to come. The piano begins with a brilliant chromatic line that leads into syncopated block quartal chords, followed by a fast accented and repeated high A, and then into quarter note triplets phrased in groups of two across the bar. The bass echoes this material in its first entrance and then presents the famous theme in a leggerio fashion, lightly accompanied. The first variation, in duple meter, has the bass moving in a continuous sixteenth note double stop pattern in an accented 3-3-2 grouping over a sparse accompaniment. 

The second variation is also fast moving, with chromatic runs and arpeggios, much of it in the highest registers of the instrument. The third variation begins with an andante piano introduction in triple meter. As the bass enters, the variation shifts into a rubato adagio section in duple meter again. The bass part is again filled with fast rhythms, but much lighter in character. Broken chords are paired with staccato runs in a single bow. This variation comes to the first big dynamic climax of the piece through a string crossing gesture made up of repeated thirty-second notes in which the same pitch is played on alternate strings. A short transition section takes the audience on a four octave ride from a very high C down to the lowest C# and then up to a very high D false harmonic. 

A brief pause is interrupted by the fastest variation of the piece, variation four marked vivace.  This variation is comprised almost completely of a triplet figure reminiscent of the last section of Paganini’s Moses Variations, two slurred notes followed by a single staccato. The fifth variation is a beautiful contrasting lyric melody marked molto rubato e espressivo and ends with long phrase in false harmonics. Variation six begins feroce with accented octave runs (introduced first in the piano) that alternate with passages of largo double dotted figures. This is suddenly interrupted by an allegro return of the earlier repeated string-crossing figure in the lower register and the variation becomes more aggressive and rhythmic. 

Variation seven is a rhythmic tour de force. Marked pesante, the variation begins with a deliberate, syncopated flourish in the piano and the bass enters with a pizzicato gesture that settles into a Latin bass line. The piano picks up the dotted Latin groove and the bass plays a molto rubato line over the piano’s slow steady groove. This is a very effective device, for as the piano continues to repeat the twelve bar figure, the bass part evolves from being notated into an improvisation above repeated ground. The bass part continues into moving sixteenth note double-stop figures, thirty-second note broken octaves, and sextuplet runs, finally accelerating into variation eight. This variation brings back much of the material from the opening of the piece; both the piano introduction and initial bass material are derived from earlier chromatic runs and syncopated chords. A simple one bar rhythmic treatment is given to the melody, one syncopated eighth followed by three descending sixteenths and a leap to a fourth sixteenth. An intricate unison passage concludes the movement and is followed by variation nine, an improvised cadenza. Proto provides the performer with a variation-by-variation thematic catalog and a recipe (not unlike David Walter’s Koussevitzky cadenza recipe) at the back of the score to help in constructing a cadenza. The piece ends with a brief coda consisting of a final statement of the theme and one last sixteenth note flourish.

Words can only go so far in describing a live musical experience, and even less far when describing the potential of a musical score. Nonetheless, it is clear from both witnessing the live musical experience and working with the score that Nine Variants is a major work that will serve as a technical and musical challenge to bassists for many years to come. Just as Paganini influenced the composers of his day, Proto cites Rabbath as a performer whose influence has been just as profound on the bass world, if not the musical world at large. Given the audience and critical response to Rabbath’s recent performances of the work, this may soon change.

Hans Sturm
Bass World

Click to view or download a PDF sample of the Music

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