Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach was the second-eldest surviving son of Johann Sebastian, and a highly individual composer for his time. The abrupt contrasts in his music, and the emotional intensity of his slow movements in particular, point the way ahead to Beethoven. From 1738 to 1767 Bach was employed in the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia. The king was musically conservative, preferring the music of Quantz. Perhaps this is why the works Bach wrote outside of his royal duties turned out so adventurous. The three cello concertos were composed in quick succession, between 1750 and 1753.

As Simon Heighes’s informative note explains, musicologists long thought these concertos were arrangements of other works, as they also exist in versions for flute and keyboard. Only recently has critical consensus changed – there is now evidence to suggest the cello concertos were the original versions. They certainly sound it here, played by the brilliant Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk.

The solo parts are showy and difficult but undeniably idiomatic. Mørk is accompanied by Les Violons du Roy, a small string orchestra based...