Bagatelle was composed in 1924 for the Romanian double bass virtuoso, Joseph Prunner (1886-1969). It was published a year later in Vienna, alongside a version for cello, but the composer and the piece have been largely forgotten in the intervening eighty years.

Bagatelle has a strongly percussive and rhythmic accompaniment, mainly chordal, producing a work of great energy and vitality. Two main ideas dominate the piece - a strongly insistent theme using the interval of an octave, contrasting a more lyrical and scalic theme which makes use of the cantabile and expressive qualities of the solo double bass.

The polytonal chordal accompaniment provides a strong and independent backdrop against which the double bass projects a direct and impressive solo line, primarily in the higher registers of the instrument confirming Prunner's abilities and skills as a great virtuoso.

Bagatelle has been long out of print until this edition, which is the first to include accompaniments for both solo and orchestral tunings, and also includes a cello part.

Filip Lazar was born in Craiova (Romania) on 18 May 1894 and died in Paris on 3 November 1936. He studied at the Bucharest Conservatoire from 1907-12 with Dumitru Kiriac-Georgescu (theory), Castaldi (harmony and composition) and Emilia Saegou (piano), and later at the Leipzig Conservatoire (1913-14) with S. Krehl and Teichmuller.

He combined a career as a concert pianist and composer, touring throughout Europe and America, performing a wide range of contemporary music in his recitals. He was a founder member of the Romanian Composers' Society (1920) and of the Triton modern musical society in Paris (1928), and was a significant figure in contemporary music circles at the time. Alongside his performing activities, Lazar worked as piano teacher in France and Switzerland from 1928 until his death from tuberculosis at the age of 42.

Lazar's music shows a great breadth of outlook, and Romanian folk elements were an important influence in many early works (1919-28). Serialism and neo-classicism began to have more impact on later works and his music is noted for its conciseness and vigour of form, alongside free use of dissonance, a polytonal chordal structure and brilliant orchestrations.