‘Bertouch’s distinction did not lie in producing music of intrinsic value or interest.’ It takes chutzpah to dismiss the composer central to your project so thoroughly in your own booklet-notes but that’s what the Norwegian ensemble Trondheim Barokk have done, with disarming Baltic frankness. And though the music of Georg von Bertouch (1668-1743) is easily outclassed by his military career and his role as a man of letters, to damn it so vehemently is to do it a disservice.

Recorded here for the first time, Bertouch’s Sonatas No 13 in C minor and No 10 in A minor, each scored for two violins and continuo, are graceful affairs in a style that owes a debt to Corelli. Solo lines echo and imitate in ever-intensifying patterns, occasionally releasing into brief bursts of dance, glancing coyly towards tavern as well as court.

Bertouch is paired here with music by Johann Theile (1646-1724) and Johann Vierdanck (1605 46) – all composers from Saxony who spent time working and living in the Baltic Sea area. If it’s hard to hear the shared musical identity that Trondheim Barokk claim for them, it’s certainly not difficult to appreciate the gentle charms of their repertoire. Church cantatas bustle with melody and colour, enriched by chamber organ continuo and a superb trio of soloists, enlivening Lutheran restraint with cheeky gestures: a sly chromatic intrusion, a sudden battle of supremacy between singer and violin.

This disc has a quiet appeal that only grows with better acquaintance, a follow-up that reinforces both the skill and the quirkiness of the group’s 2012 debut ‘Le roman des lumières’ (K617).