Elegy No. 1

Rachmaninov’s Op. 3 Morceaux de fantaisie contains five short pieces for piano, each with a different ‘fantastical’ mood. Of these, the Elegy is the most sombre and meditative, taking the form of a singing melody in the right hand accompanied by arpeggio patterns. This work, then, adapts itself very well to double bass, and this transcription by Alessandro Serra plays to the instrument’s strengths, mostly sitting in the warm middle register.