Boston bass retires with nod to Koussevitzky
OrchestrasPrincipal double-bass Edwin Barker will leave the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the end of the season after 48 years in the seat.
His parting Tanglewood performance will be Serge Koussevitzky’s Double Bass Concerto this Friday. Koussevitzky, Boston’s formative conductor, started life in Russia as a double-bass virtuoso who married the daughter of a tea magnate (which must have gone down well in Boston).
A great player and colleague – he’ll be missed!
We graduated the New England Conservatory together. A wonderful career!
A leader, a gentleman and a great musician.
The Utah Symphony performed Koussevitzky’s Double Bass Concerto with long-time principal (since 1988) David Yavornitzky last week, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church just outside downtown Park City, Utah, as part of the orchestra’s annual summer Deer Valley Music Festival.
The piece was performed in a new edition, and the work is a breezily Romantic one. Balances can be a problem, and I suspect that the piece works better in a smaller, more intimate acoustic environment like St. Mary’s Church.
Talk about being way off-topic…
David Yavornitzky was a student in Ed Barker’s class at Tanglewood not completely off-topic
Holy cow. Legends are mortals? So curious as to what he’ll be up to wit the next stage of his life. Thank you for the tremendous private lessons, Mr. Barker.
A really great guy, a true gentleman and a superb musician, Ed has long been a pillar of strength and integrity of this great orchestra.
Ah ‘ you ‘ talk of Voices…the 4 Koussavitski brothers and the better knowledge Moses K…possessed a lyrics tenor’s voice
When listened without Kleenex handy…drenched one’s clothes
Listen to his own composition of
“Hamikdash” … report in to tell me I’m wrong…and not $ in sight…sung basically for bed & Breakfast by today’s standard…then listen to the greatest tenor Kwartin died in
WARSAW 1944.