Giovanni Bottesini The greatest, most versatile and unsurpassable musician of the history of the double bass up till now. his father was a clarinet player, but among his relation there were strings players. He started to learn the violin at the age of 7, but in 1835 due to the lack of scholarships he was not accepted at the violin faculty of the Milan Conservatory. However, there were some places at the basoon and double bass faculty. Bottesini chose the latter. He completed the six-year course in four years with distinction in 1839. As a performing soloist he was in most major towns in Italy, but he also performed in Austria, the USA, Mexico, England, Spain, Germany and Monaco. he had a great success everywhere. In 1866 he played in Budapest. His contemporaries called him the Paganini of the double bass. In 1846 he started to work in Cuba as a conductor and then from 1871 on for seven years he conducted in Cairo. In 1888 he finished touring and inspired by his best friend, Verdi, he retired to Parma, where he worked as the director of the conservatory until his death. besides his remarkable career as a conductor and composer he will mainly remain the artist of the double bass in the first place. His critics only used superlatives to describe his music. The main characteristics of his style were easiness, the great, colorful and nice sound, soaring techniques, perfect musical taste, notes perfectly in tune, the remarkable flageolet tone and more that can ever be said about a good musician. He composed several operas (e. g. Christoforo Colombo), a requiem and he presented his successors of his instrument with many concert pieces which are still often heard today. These pieces still require the highest standards of technical skills of the performers (e. g. Concert in B minor, Introduzione e gavotte, Capriccio di bravura, Grand Duo, etc.). 
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