Serge Alexandrovich Koussevitzky (Russian: Серге́й Алекса́ндрович Кусеви́цкий; Sergey Aleksandrovich Kusevitsky; July 26 [O.S. July 14] 1874 – June 4, 1951) was a Russian-born conductor, composer and double-bassist, known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949.

Double Bass Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 3 (1902)

1. Allegro (0:00)
2. Andante (5:59)
3. Allegro (12:00)

Gary Karr, double bass and Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Uros Lajovic.

Unfortunately I couldn't find the score used in this recording and used the original score.

Description by James Reel [-]
Sergey Koussevitzky is remembered as a significant conductor with a vital interest in the music of his time, but he started out as a touring double-bass virtuoso. Sometime between 1902 and 1905 (sources vary), just before he turned his attention to conducting, he composed a concerto for his instrument -- possibly with the help of Reyngol'd Glière, although this is disputed. And the work, instead of following the most progressive tendencies of its time (as one might expect, judging from Koussevitzky's later tastes in composers), is a ripe example of Russian Romanticism.

Koussevitzky dedicated the concerto to his fiancée and gave its premiere in Moscow; he played it subsequently in Germany, Paris, and Boston. But the score remained in manuscript even though the composer operated his own publishing company, and it went unplayed once Koussevitzky permanently put aside the bass in 1929, shortly after recording the concerto's Andante movement with the Boston Symphony. Several years after Koussevitzky's death, conductor Alfredo Antonini brought the work to light, and it has since become a staple of the limited double-bass concerto repertory.

The concerto falls into the conventional three movements, beginning with an Allegro that opens with a declamatory, Tchaikovsky-like theme succinctly stated by the orchestra, and answered by a short bass recitative. The soloist takes up the opening motto, presenting it lyrically yet passionately. The solo line seamlessly threads its way into related material sounding very much like passages of the Dvorák Cello Concerto, and eventually offers a songful second subject. Koussevitzky dwells on this Dvorákian material without providing a full development, then fashions a modest bridge to the Andante, which sounds much like an aria from a Tchaikovsky opera. Here, for the first time, the composer periodically takes the instrument into its lower range, but only briefly, usually in the course of weaving the melody up and down the staff. For the most part, Koussevitzky exploits the instrument's middle and upper ranges, where it projects better, and is careful not to let the woodwind-tinged orchestration overpower the bass (which is not a loud instrument, despite its size). A full pause precedes the third movement, another Allegro, which begins with the same declamatory theme as the first movement. The bass picks up this melody more ardently than before, and adheres to its contours more closely than before as it proceeds through a loose, rhapsodic restatement of the opening movement.

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