[SACD-R][OF] Rick Stotijn - Giovanni Bottesini - Capriccio di Bravura - 2014 (Classical)

The music of Giovanni Bottesini is a must for double bass players. It was a dream-cometrue for me to have the opportunity to record my favourite Bottesini pieces with my favourite ensemble Amsterdam Sinfonietta, who I have so enjoyed working with for the past ten years. And it is an unforgettable experience to make a recording with friends including the top soloists Liza Ferschtman, Monika Leskovar, Candida Thompson and Hans Eijsackers, not to forget my own sister Christianne.
Press reviews:
Classics Today
The best Bottessini disc ever … (…) Rick Stotijn is a first-rate virtuoso, a real master of his instrument. Many of the works here are arrangements, granted, but they are invariably well made, respectful of the originals, superbly played by world class artists, and chosen so as to demonstrate that Bottesini was not an empty-headed noodler on his unwieldy instrument, but a musician of wide-ranging taste and genuine culture. (…) as a splendid recital and a revelatory portrait of a much-maligned composer, this disc stands in a class all its own.
Hi-fi
Great compositions by extremely gifted composers given exceptional playing by superlative soloists all wonderfully recorded make this another must own SACD. (…)
Classical Music Sentinel
It’s difficult to imagine that a musical instrument as heavy and unwieldy as a double bass could sound so light and malleable as it does in this wonderful recording by double bassist Rick Stotijn. (…) There is something for everyone on this CD (…) He plays the double bass with an ease that belies its size and technical demands, so much so that the instrument itself ceases to be the medium and becomes the music.
American Record Guide
the music of Bottesini is played with flair by a bunch of musicians who work well together. Bottesini can take all this arranging since the music is not built for depth but for enjoyment. So enjoy!

String
It never ceases to amaze me how unabashedly delirious and insane Bottesini’s music is, and why it is not performed more regularly… It’s even more impossible how brilliantly Rick Stotijn carries out Bottesini’s delightful intentions, how effortlessly Stotijn soars with his partners in each of these concoctions to places and at speeds where no double bass has any right to go, and how carelessly he is apt to adorn even the simplest lines with subtly colored, poetically inflected nuance. (…) The sound is the usual Channel Classics demontration quality: razor sharp, warm. Full range, and, in surround mode, quietly spectacular.
Audiophile Audition 4 out of 5
Rick Stotijn plays with beauty of tone and alacrity (…) The Amsterdam strings provide a lush, cushiony backdrop to the proceedings, all captured in richly atmospheric surround sound (…) a must for doublebassists.
4 STARS

Klassik.com 5 out of 5
Rick Stotijn performs all sorts of incredible tricks on the double bass and is supported by first-class musical partners. (...) The Dutch double bass player Rick Stotijn operates his instrument with such technical perfection and such sensitivity that you can hardly believe your ears. Is that really a double bass? (...) Virtuoso fireworks really become music here. His instrumental colleagues prove to be just as inspired and committed.
5/5