The first volume of Bach violin sonatas from Jacqueline Ross and David Ponsford (5/02) offered a refreshing change to the problem of what to couple these wonderful pieces with (if anything) by including an anonymous sonata based on a Bach bass-line and another sometimes attributed to his son Carl Philipp Emanuel.

Volume 2 continues in similar vein, but this time couples its JS with two definite CPE works: a modishly galant but robust number from his early days in Berlin; and a more Baroque-tinged teenage work, composed before he had even left the Bach family’s crowded Leipzig house, which fails to sustain the promise suggested by its rather mournful first movement. CPE was known to have admired his father’s violin sonatas, and both these works follow the earlier examples in achieving an essential trio texture by having a written-out harpsichord part rather than just a figured bass.

Like those of Volume 1, these are pleasant accounts of this music, neatly played and sympathetically recorded. Maybe they are not performances to set the world on fire – I would have enjoyed a more cultured tread through the first movement of Sonata No 5, for instance – but while others have taken a more vigorous and eventful approach, Ross and Ponsford show the music respect and affection, and in places mine its beauties with notable success. Their thoughtful course through the unusual third movement of Sonata No 5 – two accompaniments in search of a tune, it seems – gave me particular pleasure.

For tip-top performances of the six JS Bach sonatas, one need hardly look further than those of Rachel Podger and Trevor Pinnock or Giuliano Carmignola and Andrea Marcon, but with their imaginative couplings the ASV team offer a respectable alternative.