CPE Bach’s cello concertos have become increasingly popular among period players in the last 10 years, but, as Raphael Wallfisch shows here, they still provide effective repertoire for “modern” players as well (Rostropovich and Tortelier are among those to have visited them in the past). All three concertos are from the 1750s – though two were later revised – and all also exist in versions for flute and harpsichord. The revised ones are the B flat, genteel with a poised, aria-like Adagio, and the A major, currently the most popular on disc, no doubt for its richly elegiac Largo separating joyful outer movements. The unrevised A minor is nervy and brilliant in its outer movements, polite and gallant in its central Andante.

Wallfisch seems a touch over-steady in this last, while of the A minor’s fast movements it is surely the finale which should teeter on the edge of control rather than the first movement. Overall, however, these performances are clean-lined and stylish. The orchestral sound is clear, if not always fully blended, and despite some mildly scruffy moments the ensemble-playing is mainly precise. Wallfisch’s cello, furthermore, has a pleasingly light and singing tone, to which is added a depth and a dynamic range that may well be beyond most period instruments, and which is used to good expressive effect in those slow movements or when gutsily punching out the curious passage in the B flat’s first movement in which a rustic gloss is laid over the music’s courtly progress. There is a fine and lively recording of these concertos by Hidemi Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan if you want period instruments (BIS, 2/98); if you want modern, or simply do not care either way, these are just fine.