This recording is a real tonic. I defy anyone not to smile at Steven Isserlis’s effervescent readings of Haydn’s graceful and urbane cello concertos in C major and in D major. He spins an exquisitely light and agile line, maintaining a delightfully sunny disposition, even in each concerto’s adagio. These works make good-natured partners to CPE Bach’s more earnest but equally tuneful concerto in A major, and we find some discoveries along the way too: the aria Geme la tortorella, from Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, arranged by Isserlis for cello, and Boccherini’s delicately sweet adagio from his rarely heard concerto in G major. The Bremen players add just the right degree of elegance and poise to make this a CD to treasure.
