CPO are certainly doing the cause of Ernst Toch proud. Having already recorded several symphonies (12/97) and string quartets (1/02, 10/02), they have now issued two thoroughly typical works of his from 1923-24. The Dance Suite came first, four of its six numbers originating in a short ballet, Der Wald, to which Toch added two Intermezzi (Nos 3 and 5) to make a substantial concert suite. The titles of the four dance movements give sufficient clues to their musical – and, presumably, choreographic – character: ‘The Red Whirl Dance’ (with its premonitions of Shostakovich) and succeeding Dances of ‘Horror’, ‘Silence’ and ‘Awakening’. The musical style is satirical, very much up-to-the-mark for its time with Hindemith’s racy, raucous pieces, though a sensibility quite different to that of Toch’s younger, but more famous contemporary is always audible, particularly in the slower movements.

The four movements of the Cello Concerto Toch wrote in late 1924 – for a competition of chamber concertos to be judged by Hindemith – broadly follow the conventions of symphonic or sonata design. The cellist is, as many critics noted at the time, primus inter pares rather than a traditional spotlit soloist, yet the part calls for considerable virtuosity, not least in the fleet scherzo, placed second. The Adagio is powerful and meditative by turns, the whole concluded by a breezy final Rondo. Toch won the first prize, though jointly with Dessau, Merikanto, Alexander Tcherepnin and Hermann Wunsch.The performances are technically excellent, though a touch clinical, the players sounding as if they did not smile overmuch whilst playing. This is a minor quibble, though, and the sound is good and full. Recommended.