Pietro Antonio Cesti, byname Marc’ Antonio, (1623-1669) composer who, with Francesco Cavalli, was one of the leading Italian composers of the 17th century. Cesti studied in Rome and then moved to Venice, where his first known opera, Orontea, was produced in 1649. In 1652 he became chapelmaster to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria at Innsbruck, a post he combined for a time with membership in the papal choir. From 1666 to 1669 he was vice chapelmaster to the imperial court in Vienna.

Francesco Cavalli was an important musical figure in 17th Century Venice. As a student of, and later, successor to Claudio Monteverdi, he was the leader of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. He also served as head of the Venetian operatic school and was very highly regarded as a composer of religious and operatic music in his day. Unfortunately, he was reluctant to have his compositions published, and therefore, is virtually unknown to modern audiences.

David Fray stands out as one of today’s most distinctive French pianists, widely acclaimed for his profound interpretations of Bach. This new album draws its core from L’Enfant oublié (2023), a theatrical project co-created with actress and director Chiara Muti, premiered at the artist’s own festival L’Offrande musicale, dedicated to disability awareness.

A vocation for experimentation was unquestionably an essential component of Bach’s mindset. It was a desire to surpass, in every possible respect, whatever had been achieved up until then in a given genre or musical form, while extending to the utmost the resources and technical capabilities of individual instruments and the human voice (and thus also of individual performers). All of which was to be accomplished in the search for a perfection that is both aesthetic and spiritual.

Hogwood’s accounts are stylish and well recorded, though not quite so bracing in their effect. Both he and Gardiner have the same soloist in the B minor Suite, Lisa Beznosiuk, today’s leading exponent of the Baroque flute. Hers is an appealingly light and delicate tone, one that gives her an almost ghostlike presence in the tuttis. But she is able to hold her own in the solo passages, despite the difficulty of fingering, and in both accounts her playing is nicely ornamented, not overly affected.

This is a really great five-CD set. You get all of Bach's concertos except the Brandenburgs - which is a shame because Pinnock's Brandenburgs are terrific. Nonetheless, this remains an absolutely cracking collection of some of Bach's most enjoyable music in excellent performances. In the Harpsichord Concertos Pinnock is himself the soloist and shows why he is such a very well-liked and highly regarded musician. The music springs to life under his fingers (and under his direction) and many of these performances set new and enduring standards when first released in the early 1980s. They have informed much subsequent Bach playing and have worn extremely well themselves, sounding as fresh and involving as they did nearly 30 years ago. He is joined by other fine harpsichordists in the concerti for two, three and four harpsichords, (Kenneth Gilbert, Nicholas Kraemer and Lars Ulrich Mortensen) and the Concerto for Four Harpsichords in particular is an absolute joy.

A contemporary of Lully and Lalande, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) was something of an outsider to the French court of Louis XIV, which helps to explain his comparative obscurity. A period of study in Rome doubtless gave Charpentier exposure to the polychoral style long-established from the time of Gabrieli, and this recording presents the triple-choir Salve Regina alongside the opulent Messe à quatre chœurs – written for four separate choirs, with a large continuo team of four organs, four theorbos, bass viol and great bass viol! The possibilities opened up by such a wealth of musicians engender music which seems as close to the proverbial “choir of the angels of heaven” as could be desired.

In this third volume of the series ‘A Life in Music’, Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants take us to Cöthen (1717-1723) – where Bach enjoyed one of the happiest times of his life. With a group of distinguished soloists, they help us rediscover some of the outstanding works of these inspiring years, including the famous Cantata the composer dedicated to his patron and friend, Prince Leopold.

With Plucked Bach III, Alon Sariel deepens his acclaimed Bach cycle, shaping a sound world marked by exceptional refinement and inward focus. This final volume enriches the series with new colours: a further relative of the lute family—the Ottoman bağlama—and a rare Tuscan-type mandola, whose octave-lower tuning lends Bach’s Third Cello Suite a dark, velvety resonance. The archlute, heard at the album’s opening and close, frames the programme with quiet elegance, while Sariel’s touch reveals Bach’s writing to be both architecturally precise and profoundly tactile.

The booklet for this release tells us that it is not only a world premiere recording but that La Rosinda has been revived on only one other occasion since the 17th century. Baroque opera enthusiasts should be circling, then, for this is a work in which Cavalli’s skills as an opera composer who can mix fluidity of text with just enough lyricism to make musical drama that is both compelling and attractive are clearly displayed.

The Marquise de Sévigné (1625 96) was a 17th-century blogger, writing letters to family and friends about life at the court of Louis XIV, and in particular performances of Lully during his lifetime, letters that were copied and widely circulated in manuscript. Our quartet of musicians has gathered together a selection of contemporary music, instrumental trio arrangements of popular songs and Lullian airs as well as duo and solo music such as she might have heard or had performed in her Parisian salon. These works – and many others like them – survive mainly in manuscript, though most are available in facsimile or online.

French Baroque instrumental music (in this case from the last two decades of the seventeenth century) enjoys a somewhat doubtful reputation as being mannered and all cast in the same mould. Well, there is no smoke without fire, and sure enough, the individual movements on this recording do all sound in some wise “typical”, with the usual French dance movements (sarabande, gigue, rondeau, menuet, gavotte) predominating. And yet, there are here some outstanding passages: If you want a sample of what Marin Marais was capable of in an area other than that of his belovèd viola da gamba, then listen in to CD 1, Track 8 (Passacaille) or CD 2, Track 6 (Chaconne), where the instruments intertwine and swirl around each other for well over five minutes at a time.

An important release and valuable discovery from the Spanish Baroque! Joan Baptista Cabanilles (1644-1712) wrote a substantial oeuvre for keyboard (organ and harpsichord), and a fine body of choral works; this new CD presents the first complete recording. Sung by Coro Amystis, who did extensive research into the works of this neglected Spanish composer. Liner notes written by the artists; sung texts available for download online.

The figure of Samuel Capricornus has been unfairly neglected by modern historians of music, editors and performers. Not only was Capricornus admired by his contemporaries even beyond the frontiers; the extraordinary standard of his works and the originality and variety of his output make him quite simply one of the greatest composers of religious music of the seventeenth century. Capricornus's most original compositions are the Lieder von dem Leyden und Tode Jesu (Songs on the sufferings and death of Jesus) and Theatrum musicum. The former are a kind of German equivalent fo the leçons de ténèbres of the French Baroque.

The works of the early Baroque Italian composers featured on this CD all make some kind of use of the new virtuoso violin technique. Thus they enable us to understand how, as a result of untold experiments, a technique that was specifically suited to the violin gradually began to emerge.