Concertino in A major

Édouard Nanny (1872–1942), principal double bassist of the Paris Opera and Professor of double bass at the Paris Conservatoire for nearly four decades, was the most important figure in French double bass pedagogy of the early twentieth century. His Concertino in A major, composed around 1920, is a technically demanding showpiece in the French conservatoire tradition: built on a single continuous movement with contrasting sections, it requires a warm lyrical tone, clean fast passagework, and confident thumb-position playing in the upper register. The work was composed as an examination piece for the Conservatoire and remains one of the most frequently assigned concertante works in the double bass curriculum in France and internationally. Its melodic charm and idiomatic writing make it an ideal bridge between Classical concerto technique and more demanding twentieth-century repertoire.