Nicola Rossi Double Bass

This beautiful instrument is kindly on loan to me from Ken Poggioli, one of my former teachers. I used this bass very recently for my new recording of Henry Eccles’ Sonata in G minor on Luminate Records.

It responds so differently to my other instruments, with a sound that feels like you’re sitting on a big velvet cushion. I’ve never had an Italian instrument in my possession for any length of time before now, so perhaps what I’m about to write is typical, but I find I need to draw the sound out, or even lift the sound up out of the instrument more that with any other bass I’ve known. I’m finding that in fast passages the “lighter” I play the clearer it becomes without any loss of volume.

The varnish has a slight crackle over parts of the belly, which while not as pronounced as on the darker vanished basses of Thomas Kennedy, is still very visible at close range, and I find really quite beautiful. The slab cut front also attracts a lot of attention from my orchestral colleagues at the CBSO, and not just the double bassists.

As far as attribution is concerned, the general consensus is that it is very like by Nicola Rossi, though there has been some conjecture as to whether it might be the work of his son, Gaetano Rossi. In any case, it’s a beautiful example of a Milanese double bass from the 1800s. Professional photos and a write up of this bass will possibly appear in the forthcoming book of Italian Double Basses by Thomas & George Martin and Martin Lawrence.