In the era of Spotify playlists and three-minute YouTube videos, we might expect to be living in a golden age of the “sample album”. And yet, with a few fascinating exceptions (I’m looking at you, Mahan Esfahani and Daniel Hope), the classical music establishment still mostly dishes us jumbled, forgettable pot-pourris.

So why should we care about Alban Gerhardt’s new collection of encores? Well, for one, it’s immaculately played by Gerhardt and pianist Markus Becker. But, more importantly, the programming comes straight from the cellist’s beating heart. Gerhardt grew up with a Rostropovich obsession (even waking each day to the strains of the Russian’s recording of Popper’s Elfentanz), and this homage to Rostropovich’s passionate, wide-ranging musicianship is lovingly shaped throughout.

The selection of repertoire is testament to Rostropovich’s genuine commitment to the many varieties of short-form concert work, from test pieces to education works, from emulations of the human voice to applause-getting fripperies. Some of these works (most in arrangements by the Russian cellist himself) cover trodden ground, but curios like the Chopin and Scriabin Etudes and Stravinsky’s Mavra give welcome variety.

There are relatively few jaw-dropping virtuoso pieces, the exceptions including Rostropovich’s Humoresque, which gets the album off to a memorably...