This is very fine string-playing. The double bass can produce a peculiarly intense legato, which Sundquist exploits with great artistry. The instrument’s long string length may deny the wide, intense vibrato beloved of many players of the smaller string instruments but Sundquist uses his narrow vibrato selectively to impart extra sweetness or intensity to particular notes and passages, combining this with sensitive phrasing, excellent intonation and a dexterity that, almost all the time, makes one forget that he’s playing an unwieldy instrument. Bass and piano are closely miked, with a background ambience that allows the passages in harmonics to ring out. This suits the double bass well but Nils Anders Mortensen’s spirited accompaniments sometimes appear rather hard in quality and occasionally slightly overbearing.

As to the music: Bottesini is an accomplished composer – all the pieces are well crafted, and the cantabile items – Melodia, Elegia, Reverie – show an elegant, decorative style that’s quite individual. The Allegro di concerto alla Mendelssohn is a real oddity – a recomposition of the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, following the form and many harmonic progressions of the original but with different (and certainly inferior) tunes. However, if this item is a disappointment, the same cannot be said of the recital as a whole.