Gershwin – Slap That Bass (String Quartet Score) – Score Digital Download

This is a textually dense and contrapuntally elaborate reworking by Carlo Martelli of Gershwin’s evergreen from 1938, first sung by Fred Astaire in the film Monsieur Petroff. The Pavão Quartet recorded this piece on the CD Someone To Watch Over Me, released in 2006 by Landor Records LAN 277. On the same CD are four more of Martelli’s Gershwin arrangements also published by Broadbent & Dunn. **** Not for sale in the USA ****

Review: “I first heard the brilliant arrangements featured on this CD two years ago in one of the many Pavão recitals and since then I have been impatient to see this CD out in the shops. The CD has a collection of very intelligently arranged songs and technically extremely demanding but the Pavão play them with fantastic virtuosity. They bring a beautiful and fresh approach of the Old Hollywood songs we all love so much.  I have never heard them before in a string quartet context and I think that, because of the skill with which they have been arranged and the beautiful playing, their qualities have been enhanced.” – George Bridges on Amazon June 2006.

Review:  “The tunes may be familiar, but these arrangements are fresh, inventive and a joy to listen to.” – Ernie Mann July 2006

Biography

Martelli, Carlo

Carlo Martelli was born on the 12th December 1935 in London to an Italian father and an English mother. By the age of eleven Carlo had developed a passion for the symphony orchestra. Just before his twelfth birthday he started taking regular violin lessons and very soon began writing elaborate orchestral scores achieving a mastery in this field by the age of sixteen, by which time he had obtained a County Scholarship to attend the Royal College of Music in London, studying composition and viola. By the time he was 21 he had written a string quartet and had already had a great deal of success with several large scale serious symphonic compositions, notably his Second Symphony, which had many performances and broadcasts by several major orchestras in the few years after its completion. In the 1960's he turned to film music to make a living, and also worked steadily as a freelance viola player. His arrangements for string quartet, trio and other combinations number well over 250 and are played by hundreds of groups all over the world.