Between 1710 and 1726 Clerambault published five anthologies of cantatas amounting to 20 works in all; additionally, there are some half-dozen separate cantatas of which La muse de l'Opera (1716) is one. Orphee comes from Book I (1710), not 1728 as stated on the jewel-case, Pirame et Tisbe from Book II (1713), and La mort d'Hercule from Book III (1716). These cantatas together give us a vivid picture of Clerambault's fertile imagination and his ability to draw on a wide range of affects.

Conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini's historical-instrument recordings of Vivaldi and other Italian Baroque composers, originally recorded around the turn of the millennium for the Opus 111 label, are being reissued on Naïve, complete with the fashion-forward graphics for which that label is known. Any and all remain completely distinctive, but this all-Vivaldi disc makes perhaps the ideal place to start.

Schubert himself was an able violinist, whose idiomatic writing for the instrument is charmingly evident in his violin and piano sonatas. Moreover, enhanced by sympathetic recording, Biondi and Tverskaya here play a modern copy of a 1740 violin, and a c1820 Graf fortepiano that vividly evoke this music’s fragrant atmosphere. Arresting spontaneity invigorated by Biondi’s stylish extempore ornamentation reveals a potent mix of youthful vigour, ardent passion and delicate poignancy. An essential disc for all Schubertians.