Double bass excerpt - W.A. Mozart, Symphony nr. 40, 1st movement

➤ Subscribe to my newsletter and practice DOUBLE BASS 👉 http://madbass.net/ 👈 Try to choose a rather fast tempo for this piece — not a lazy tempo di contrabbasso. Neither allegro triste nor allegro di carrozza. This is one of those bass parts where I often notice the biggest discrepancy between the bass tempo and the actual speed of a real orchestra, whether live or in recordings. Bassists often play at about half the speed of real-life performances. Playing the bass doesn’t give us a free pass to take slower tempi, as if playing the bass was some kind of disability. Take a listen to recordings by the Karajan Academy, Heras-Casado; the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, or the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. They play much faster than those late-Romantic interpretations in the middle of the 20th century — miles faster than us lazy bassists. Try to play as if you’ve just had an espresso doppio — and have fun.