Product Review
This is a wonderfully unhackneyed collection from the Baroque era, mostly instrumental but with some vocal music tossed in for good measure, which contains many rarities you won't find anywhere else. The seven, well-packed CDs offer four Bach violin concerti; trumpet and orchestra works by Fantini, Alberti, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Caldara and Torelli, Albinoni, Stradella, Corelli, Francheschini, Purcell, Monteverdi, Bononcini, Telemann, and Bendinelli; two settings of the Gloria by Vivaldi; some Handel arias; Bach's high-flying Cantata No. 51; odd, fascinating works by Predieri and von Reutter excitingly sung by soprano Helen Field; and various other concerti by Vivaldi, Marcello, and others. The richness of the Baroque era is here in all its glory. --Robert Levine