Known to his contemporaries as the Paganini of the double bass, Giovanni Bottesini significantly extended the technical possibilities of the instrument both as a composer and virtuoso soloist. After the Prelude to Ero e Leandro, Bottesini's greatest operatic masterpiece, this disc continues with the most popular of his compositions for the instrument among bassists today, the Concertino in C minor. In this work virtuosity is always at the service of musical ends. The rarely performed Duo Concertante for Cello and Double Bass on Themes from Bellini’s I Puritani makes considerable technical demands of the soloists.