This amazing three movement work has been created using themes from concertos of the Classical age, notably works by Dittersdorf, Vanhal, Hoffmeister, Pichl and Sperger. Each movement is a unique opportunity to perform a wealth of concertos with each theme like a beautiful piece of marble in an ornate mosaic or a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Miloslav Gajdoš has created a new work from older music which is an amazing addition to the quartet repertoire. How good is your knowledge of the Classical concerto repertoire? How many themes can you recognise? Surely this is a work for the musical detectives.

Miloslav Gajdoš writes: "The quartet was written for Klaus Trumpf, to mark his final time as Director of the double bass seminars at Kloster Michaelstein in Germany. My aim was to create a work that linked the music of the past with bassists of the present, and to celebrate the amazing work by Klaus to promote and publish many forgotten and unknown works from the Classical age. The themes have been put together in the form of a puzzle and there are opportunities for each bassist to play the melodic material. The quartet was first performed at Kloster Michaelstein in 1998 by Miloslav Gajdoš, Radoslav Šašina, Miloslav Jelínek and Klaus Trumpf."

Miloslav Gajdoš has composed a wealth of music for double bass over the past fifty years and writes in a traditional and tonal style which offers music which is popular with players and audiences alike.

Miloslav Gajdoš is one of Europe's most active and inventive bassist-composers. He was born in northern Moravia in 1948 and initially learned violin before transferring to the double bass, studying with Alois Kříž, Jirí Bortlícek and Ludwig Streicher. He has been Professor of Double Bass at the Vejvanovský Conservatoire in Kroměříž (Czech Republic) since 1971, and was a member of the Olomouc Symphony Orchestra for a number of years. He is Director of the Gregora International Double Bass Competition, founded in 1979 and held every two years in Kroměříž, and has been a juror at many competitions in Hungary, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Miloslav Gajdoš is a prolific composer and arranger and, for almost 40 years, has produced a vast body of original works and transcriptions for double bass which are performed worldwide. His original works combine Czech lyricism and melody with brilliant technical demands, and music from one to sixteen double basses. He writes in a traditional and accessible style, producing music for every level of performer, particularly for the advanced bassist, and his many works for unaccompanied double bass are frequently chosen as international competition repertoire.

Miloslav Gajdoš was Recital Music's Featured Composer in 2007 and has recently revised a number of earlier works for the intermediate bassist which will be published by Recital Music.
[Gajdoš is pronounced GUY-DOSH]