This enjoyable recording, the first of an intended series on music in Baltic countries, presents a series of Lutheran cantatas written in late 17th-century and 18th-century Danzig (the German name for Gdańsk) by some of its leading church composers, all of whose names are new to me: the oldest, JV Meder, died in 1719, and the youngest, JBC Freislich and JD Pucklitz, died in 1774. In between comes JJ du Grain (d1756), represented by a single cantata, Hertzlich lieb hab ich dich. This is perhaps the thinnest offering here (its more pathetic accents seem pasted on); the others are more accomplished and offer more scope for choir, soloists and ensemble. Meder’s Singet, lobsinget evokes a festive atmosphere most economically, and the more extensive selections from Freislich and Pucklitz show a decent stylistic range and agreeable invention (Freislich’s short Das ist meine Freude has an effective obligato trumpet part and Pucklitz’s Ich will in allen Sachen a graceful one for bassoon).

The performances emphasise these qualities; ‘workmanlike’ may sound like damning with faint praise but I mean it here entirely positively. Perhaps more might have been made of the menacing opening section of Pucklitz’s Kehre wieder, which presages (however briefly) a more troubling atmosphere. The choir is stretched a bit further in his Ich will in allen Sachen, though this is not unduly troubling. Each of the soloists, finally, makes at least one telling contribution.

The sound recording is worthy of Dabringhaus und Grimm’s usual standard, though the absence of an English translation of the texts is regrettable.