… the recording is vivid and, as expected, the faultlessly executed and inspired playing of Raphael Wallfisch is totally engrossing. Has anyone recorded as much and always with such acumen and communicative success.

The disc is a hands-down winner in the Naxos catalogue.

Rob Barnett – MusicWeb International

These performances are clean-lined and stylish … Wallfisch’s cello, furthermore, has a pleasingly light and singing tone, to which is added a depth and dynamic range that may well be beyond most period instruments, and which is used to good expressive effect in those slow movements or when gutsily punching out the curious passage in the B flat’s first movement in which a rustic gloss is laid over the music’s courtly progress.

Gramophone December 2009

This delightful disc vividly reveals the mercurial character of CPE Bach … The demands on the cello are often highly virtuosic, with rapid-fire figuration in the last movement of Wq170, a rollicking finale to Wq172, all pulled off with disarming ease. Raphael Wallfisch is particularly alluring in the opening movement of Wq171, characterised by calm persuasive rhetoric rather than forceful passion though, as in all three works, there are constant surprises…. The Scottish Ensemble contributes just 12 strings and harpsichord, creating clear, transparent textures matching the refined, focused tone of the cello, even in its lowest register. The intimacy of this chamber scale is enhanced by the recording, the cello audibly forward of the light orchestral forces. Highly recommended.

George Pratt, BBC Music Magazine April 2010

There are emendations to the violin part, but much remains intact, which means that the cellist has to be pretty formidable to cope with the writing. Raphael Wallfisch is certainly qualified for such a task and proves that the ‘Kreutzer’ is an exhilarating and rewarding work to explore in this guise. The first movement is particularly bold and dramatic, aspects fully explored by this duo in a largely well-balanced recording … on this evidence it should grace the concert platform as a cello sonata in its own right.

Joanne Talbot – The Strad, September 2005

These recordings are based on the new Bärenreiter Urtext Edition, published in 2004. This edition is the first to utilise a number of authentic manuscripts which have only surfaced in the last twenty years, allowing us to approach Beethoven’s intentions more closely in some crucial aspects.

© 2005 Jonathan del Mar, Bärenreiter Urtext Edition