This is very much a family affair. The music is written by two Benda brothers of the mid­18th century. It is conducted by a descendant‚ Christian Benda‚ who also has arranged one piece and plays it on the cello. One of the concertos is played by another descendant‚ Ariane Pfister; and the cadenzas played in that concerto are by her mother‚ Lola Benda. The other concerto is played by Josef Suk‚ who also comes from a Bohemian family of some musical repute (his great­grandfather was Dvo·ák). In fact‚ this Viola Concerto‚ played as immaculately and sonorously as it is here‚ is the most interesting item on the CD. There is some doubt as to which Benda actually composed it: out of the 12 family members entered in The New Grove‚ Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich (1745­1814) and Friedrich Ludwig (1752­92) have also been suggested; but to my mind Georg (alias Ji·í Antonín – the initials used on the Naxos documentation – 1722­95) is the likeliest‚ for the style is very much that of the early galant and is decidedly conservative for c1775‚ the date proposed in the notes here. Whoever composed it‚ and whenever they did so‚ it’s an attractive piece which knows where it’s going‚ strikes a warm and grave note in its central‚ minor­key Largo and resolves it happily in the minuet­rondo that serves as finale. The work by his elder brother Franz (or FrantiÅek‚ 1709­86) is thought to be earlier and is still more conservative in manner‚ as well as rather more ordinary in its invention; it draws some graceful and quite eloquent playing from Pfister‚ especially in the central Affettuoso. These are very much modern performances‚ stylish in their way but with no concessions to period techniques. The same goes‚ emphatically‚ for the performance of Benda’s Klagen‚ which was originally a sort of cantata for soprano and orchestra – it sounds well enough on the cello (and is surely and expressively played here)‚ but the music is full of gestures and musical figures that make sense only when associated with a text‚ and regrettably the original one is not printed here. But I suppose that a descendant of the composer may feel he has more right than most to misrepresent the music. So on the whole I have enjoyed this CD‚ which confirms that Georg is the best of the Bendas – and perhaps that he was at his best in his fine melodramas‚ which Naxos have also recorded.