‘De Bach à Mozart’ this disc calls itself – ‘following the path of the trio sonata’. It would be hard to pretend that, qualitatively speaking, the route from Bach’smagnificent B minor Sonata for flute and harpsichord to one of the eight-year-old Mozart’s earliest ensemble sonatas encourages deep thoughts of progress, but it certainly has some pleasant and interesting music along the way, which in the end is all that matters. If there is a musicological journey here, it concerns the mid-18th-century transition from the trio sonata – represented by Bach’s piece with its equally important lines for the flute and the harpsichordist’s right hand – to the accompanied keyboard sonata, as in the Mozart, in which the harpsichord has the lion’s share of the musical interest while the other instrument (originally a violin but here a flute) toys with a largely non-essential part. In between, we drop in on one of Bach’s organ trios (rearranged for flute, cello and harpsichord continuo) and wander through some of the stylistic tangles thrown up by three of his sons, in ascending order of bubbly galant bonhomie, CPE, JCF and JC.

The performances here do this mostly unfamiliar music fine service. Claire Guimond’s flute is clear-toned but with a nutty quality that always keeps it interesting. As interpretations go these are fairly straightforward – meticulously phrased and articulated, and with no shocks or surprises – yet they derive much extra character from the contribution of Gary Cooper, a harpsichordist who succeeds in finding enormous variety of sound (especially warmth and depth) in his instrument; when coupled with the cello, it turns the JC Bach and Mozart sonatas into considerably meatier-sounding works than one is used to thinking them.

Only the organ trio seems pallid, a consequence, one suspects, of its unusual scoring as much as anything else: would a viola da gamba have been a happier choice than a cello? Never mind, this is a gently enjoyable disc all the same.