I have several problems with this Gaudeamus release. Firstly, I selected this recording for review on the basis that it was a disc of Domenico Scarlatti’s Sinfonie and concerti and the front cover of the booklet bears that out. This release in fact has three short Domenico Scarlatti scores with two Francesco Durante compositions and a work each from Pergolesi, Barbella and Leo. The music of both Durante and Pergolesi total more than that of Scarlatti’s, so how can the disc be marketed as a Scarlatti release?

When reviewing music by a composer that is new to me I make it a policy not to read the inlay notes of the disc so as not to come to any preconceived attitudes regarding the music. So my first impressions of these "Twelve Divertimentis" by James Oswald played by Rob Mackillop on a 18th century wire-strung guitar was that of the composer not having a formal musical education but of a simple but talented minstrel perhaps from Scotland or Ireland who, given the rustic feel of his music, with its dance like movements, was employed to provide the music for local village dances.

Jacques Duphly is best known to harpsichordists for the four collections of harpsichord pieces he published in Paris between 1744 and 1768. These are spirited and pungent works, finely crafted in the tradition of Francois Couperin (in the Rondeau in D minor Duphly pays homage to Les Barricades mysterieuses) and emboldened by the manner of the Forquerays (in La Felix as well as La Forqueray). Mitzi Meyerson understands and relishes this music, with its beguiling sequences: her performances are arresting and delightfully unpredictable.

This is a generous selection of music from the chambers of the French mid Baroque‚ with pieces by two of its greatest masters – Marais and Sainte Colombe – alongside others by the lesser but still worthy Hotteterre and Montéclair‚ plus practically the only piece by Jacques Morel that ever gets played. The starting¬point seems to be the particular line up of Tientos‚ a Vienna based group distinguished by the fact that one of its number can double on recorder and viola da gamba.

Sarah Cunningham is probably the finest viol player in Britain today, though it Is as a chamber-music player rather than as a soloist that she is best known here and abroad. Her technical command of the seven-string bass viol is never in doubt on this CD; nor, for that matter, is her control of tone. She has chosen some of Marais' most familiar and demanding works on which to make her solo recording debut, thereby inviting comparisons with the previous generation of players, Wieland Kuijken and Jordi Savall.