‘Far more than a mere bridge between the two artistic peaks of the 18th century’ is how I recently described CPE Bach in a review of a recording of some of his violin sonatas (10/23). His position in musical history, spanning the end of the Baroque and the dawn of the high Classical periods, is made manifest in his D major Magnificat. Its key and text prompt the inevitable comparison with the equivalent work by his father but alongside some obviously Baroque turns of phrase in his melodies and accompaniments, there are passages – the opening chorus, for example – that are powered by the terse, nervous energy that Haydn would absorb into his musical language. Parts of the ‘Et misericordia’ even come close to a Mozartian sound world. It’s a fine work, a procession of choruses, arias and duets, concluding with a grand (and potentially prolix) fugue, coloured by a sequence of obbligato instruments, most ear-catchingly a trio of gleaming high trumpets.

Michael Alexander Willens and his Cologne forces do it proud, more closely recorded than a highly regarded rival (an Editor’s Choice nearly a decade ago) and with a prominent harpsichord continuo that clatters enthusiastically in the livelier music. The soloists acquit themselves admirably, Hanna Herfurtner especially a creamy-sounding soprano in ‘Quia respexit’. Bach amended the work at least once for later performances and Willens presents as a pendant the original (1749) ‘Et misericordia’, showing how the composer’s conception of the text had developed by the time of the more commonly heard revision.

The couplings are both occasional works: a Christmas cantata, Auf, schicke dich (‘Arise, make haste’; 1775), rather in the manner of Bach père’s secular cantatas, Markus Volpert a resonant baritone soloist; and Spiega, Ammonia fortunata (‘Proclaim, fortunate Hamburg’; 1770), composed for a visit to the city by the Swedish crown prince. Like the opening of the Magnificat, it is brass-bedecked and invigorating, even if there’s not much in the way of melody to lodge in the mind. Nevertheless, it’s performed with suitable verve and closes this enticing programme in rousing fashion.