Solo practitioners have increased markedly over recent decades but the double bass remains limited as to repertoire. All the more reason, then, for the judicious arrangements Nicholas Schwartz and Anna Fedorova assemble here – opening with an early collection of songs by Ginastera in which this instrument effortlessly replaces the human voice in such as the haunting ‘Triste’ or sultry ‘Arrorró’. The Schumann might have been equally idiomatic but Schwartz has some difficulties of balance against the piano’s rich chordal harmonies, for all Federova renders these with admirable restraint. No such issues affect the Schubert, whose autumnal melodic writing is as eloquently conveyed here as by the more familiar versions for cello or viola – the elegiac Adagio and ruminative finale being especially successful in this respect.

What follows is essentially a sequence of encores – the soulfulness of the Gershwin finding pointed contrast with the stark raptness of the Bloch (and it would be well worth hearing the whole suite in this guise), with the Shostakovich taking on a hitherto unsuspected plangency when compared to its orchestral original, then the Rachmaninov yielding little in emotional acuity next to its vocal incarnation. The programme closes with the only item conceived for the double bass, Bottesini’s showpiece putting the instrument through its paces to diverting effect. Here, as throughout the recital, Schwartz and Fedorova evince tangible feeling for the music in question as also the needs of a duo still not without its element of novelty. Cleanly and clearly recorded, this is a release intent on taking such a partnership into the mainstream.