The joint-top billing for countertenor Andreas Scholl and virtuoso recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger is the first hint that Small Gifts isn’t just another countertenor cantatas disc. This is much more varied, with a superb ground of instrumentalists allowed plenty of time in the spotlight.

A program of Bach’s best bits is inevitably a little fragmented, but with two complete Brandenburg Concertos (Nos 2 and 4), the Harpsichord Concerto in F Minor (in a reworking for soprano recorder) and complete cantata Vergnügte ruh, beliebte seelenlust to anchor things, it feels plausible as a program, and certainly more varied in textures than a more conventional line-up.

Scholl brings his trademark sweetness and mossy softness of middle-register to the slow movements,...