Your reviewer first discovered the undemanding delights of Bottesini on an early-ish CD (1986) originally on ASV with the young Andrew Litton and the ECO accompanying Emma Johnson and Thomas Martin in the Duetto for clarinet and double bass. This newcomer doesn’t compare. What is too obviously a piano reduction of the orchestral score is no substitute for the ECO, and the two Italians are leaden-footed compared with the airy playfulness of Martin and Johnson (the ASV performance is timed at 8'15", the Chandos at 9'55").

This is followed by the premiere recording of Bottesini’s Capriccio for two double basses and piano, composed sometime between 1835 and 1839, the period when all his other works for two double basses were written. Curiously it shares the same coda as the Duetto (above). The technical demands on the players are considerable; the musical rewards for the listener less so.

The Gran Quintetto in C minor is another matter. Written in 1858, it is dedicated to Saverio Mercadante, with whose works it shares the same strong melodic appeal. The string-writing demonstrates what a richly gifted craftsman was Bottesini, who gives a prominent role to the violin and relegates the double bass to its customary role of providing harmonic and rhythmic support. Recorded at a session two months later than the other works here, it is not only better recorded but better performed. We should hear the Quintetto more often.

The booklet essay, despite its stiffly rendered English translation, is informative; six writers and translators are credited. Its other unusual features include ‘a note from Thomas Martin’ (to what end I’m unsure), ‘a note from the Mayor of the City of Crema’ (who sponsored the recording), and remarkably fulsome encomiums from Alessandro Dorella and Davide Botto in praise of the makers of the instruments they use on the recording. I don’t think Chandos had very much to do with the gestation of this disc.