When one spoke of the "great Bach" during the second half of the 18th century, it was not Johann Sebastian Bach being referred to but his second oldest son, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788). During his time as harpsichordist at the Prussian court of Friedrich II, this Bach wrote fifty concertos for keyboard instruments, and three of these works also exist as cello concertos. However, they have also been handed down in a version with solo flute. The question as to their original scoring cannot be answered with any degree of certainty, and the dates of their composition are also uncertain – the years 1750, 1751 and 1753 are assumed to be correct.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's three cello concertos are typical representatives of pre-classical music: on the one hand, they conserve audible traits of the baroque music which preceded them, but they also put forward a new, passionately excited musical rhetoric.

Moments of surprise dominate the musical field over long stretches: unexpected tutti rests, gruff dynamic contrasts, abrupt changes in tone as well as an expressively intensive, often sombre chromaticism – the primary aim of this music is to move the listener.

The outstanding soloist on this recording made in 1998, unavailable for a long time, is Antonio Meneses, winner of the legendary Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Alongside his numerous concerts, Meneses has been a professor at the Academy of the Arts in Berne since 2008. He was the cellist of the world-famous Beaux Arts Trio from 1998 until 2008.