Composer overruled; in the cantata, a recorder has been substituted for his prescribed obbligato instrument, the oboe. Reasons are not given, and the result isn’t convincing because the recorder’s bright tone is at odds with the text, a lament on ‘the heaviness of sin’ (as Geneviève Soly puts it in the booklet note). It was a mistake to have rejected a reedy plangent timbre that Graupner deemed right.

Otherwise, these consummate musicians are remarkably aware of their responsibilities. A harpsichord continuo for sacred music may be questionable but Soly’s restraint disarms reservations. No reservations at all about the soprano, Ingrid Schmithüsen. She rivets attention by her grasp of characterisation; an example of her use of tone colour to project meaning occurs during the transitions, D minor-F major-A minor, in the aria ‘Seufzt und weint’ (track 3, 3'01"-3'24"). Schmithüsen is evocative, as she is in the excerpts from Dido, three of which are in German and one, inexplicably, in Italian.

Ensemble balances are realistic, notwithstanding intrusive key and breathing noises in the Bassoon Concerto. Nevertheless, Mathieu Lussier’s artistry is not compromised. Nor is the sound. It is always credible, enabling the listener to appreciate, for instance, Hélène Plouffe’s sensitive inflections of the repeated quavers in the second Largo of the Violin Sonata and the gracious performance of the Sonata a Quattro. Natalie Michaud’s command of the recorder is heard again in the Concerto, played from a score that unlike a 1939 edition (which has held sway) is complete. A very good disc – despite a misguided decision about the cantata.