Album: Charivari Agréable, Concerti Curiosi (Signum Classics)

Concerti Curiosi builds on the popularity of Charivari Agréable's recent recording of "Pachelbel's Vespers", the period ensemble here turning its attention to assembling a range of concerti by lesser-known composers of the Baroque era.

The highlight is Pietro Domenico Paradies' aptly-titled "A Favourite Concerto", a delightful harpsichord piece that affords the ensemble's director Kah-Ming Ng full rein to display his keyboard prowess. Soloist Jamie Savan is similarly dazzling on the two cornett concerti, by Pietro Baldassari and polymath Johan Daniel Berlin, of which the latter's "Sinfonia à 5" offers an intriguing blending of the cornett's neat, upright tone with the droney textures of strings and harpsichord.

DOWNLOAD THIS A Favourite Concerto; Sinfonia à 5; Concerto For Four Violins