Arcana was founded in 1992 by the French music producer Michel Bernstein, who had previously founded the labels Vendôme, Valois and, most importantly, Astrée. Taking its name from the Latin for ‘secret’ or ‘hidden’ (‘arcanus’, plural ‘arcana’), the label made its name in exploring little-known areas of Italian musical culture, despite being based in Nantes in the south of France. The front covers of Arcana recordings were emblazoned with ‘Michel Bernstein Éditeur’ as a recognised badge of quality.

The conductor and keyboard player Rinaldo Alessandrini and violinist Fabio Biondi recorded for Arcana from the outset, helping Bernstein to launch the label that played a key role in establishing their own international careers. Among the label’s early releases were Schubert piano sonatas performed on historic instruments by Paul Badura-Skoda, and Mozart and Haydn also played on period instruments by the Hungarian Festetics Quartet, as Arcana reflected the changing landscape of the historical performance practice movement.

Michel Bernstein died in 2006, and Arcana was sold to the Italian company 551 Media, based in northern Italy. Recordings started up again in 2009 with an album from La Reverdie, ‘Sacri Sarcasmi’. Arcana’s ties to leading Italian musicians continued, whether specialising in the Medieval period (La Reverdie have recorded for the label throughout), in Renaissance polyphony (notably the male-voice ensemble Odhecaton and their director Paolo Da Col – their 2010 debut album of Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli was an immediate success, while an Alessandro Scarlatti album, 1/17, was an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone), orchestral music (Zefiro, directed by oboist Alfredo Bernardini, have won several Editor’s Choice accolades) or sacred music of the 18th century (Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri and Giulio Prandi have recorded several well-received albums, including, as David Vickers put it, a ‘revelatory new perspective’ on Pergolesi, 8/18). The focus on historical performance practice remained.

In recent years, Arcana has collaborated with internationally renowned soloists, including the violinist Giuliano Carmignola, cellist Mario Brunello, harpsichordist and conductor Francesco Corti and lutenist and guitarist Evangelina Mascardi, associations that have – alongside its championing of younger talent – consolidated the label’s stature. Other notable projects over the last few years have included a series dedicated to the oratorios of Alessandro Stradella, with the Ensemble Mare Nostrum and Andrea De Carlo (eight volumes have been recorded so far); collaborations with the Styriarte Festival, devoted to reassessing the works of Styrian composer Johann Joseph Fux, with Zefiro and Alfredo Bernardini; and, in a very different genre, the first recording of the Cinema Suites by Ennio Morricone curated by the violinist Marco Serino in collaboration with the composer’s family.

As with the best independent record labels, Arcana is proud of its artistic collaborations and its advocacy of interesting byways of the repertoire, as well as the editorial quality of its booklets, enhanced by contributions from leading Italian scholars and striking imagery.