‘Characters’ is the title of this collection of mostly concertos, implying that there is no clever musicological thread here; each piece is of itself, and speaks of the personality of its creator. The brief, slightly quirky booklet-notes emphasise the point by tending to focus more on the man than the music.

So who are the characters here, or rather who are they as portrayed by harpsichordist Göran Karlsson and his Swedish band of string players? Well, there’s Corelli, bright, vivid, even fiery at times; Vivaldi, fulsome, expressive and larger-than-life in two violin concertos, one solo and one double; Charles Avison, briskly and bluffly turning Scarlatti sonatas to good orchestral account; Telemann, eloquent and self-confident; and there’s Jean-Féry Rebel, whose short ballet collage Les caractères de la danse has maybe never sounded more enthusiastically choreographic, more readily evocative of one of Louis XV Paris’s virtuoso danseuses executing a speed-tour of differing styles, than here.

Karlsson Barock are a vigorous-spirited outfit who sound happy at their work. Though at times they can lack the sweet tone or ensemble precision of some period orchestras, they also stop short of the aggressive, even percussive style of some others. Not that they don’t have their moments in both directions (mostly towards the latter), but what comes over most strongly here is their open-hearted and infectious brightness. Karlsson has some ear-catching ideas of his own too: an unusually placed accent here or a skilfully handled transition there (such as the bold opening of Corelli’s ‘Christmas’ Concerto or the simple but satisfying solution to the often jarring chord progression at the end of the fugue in Vivaldi’s RV565 – tr 32, 2'34") ensure that his own character has a place alongside those of the composers in the overall success of this disc. Nice to meet you sir!