If one can talk of Leonardo Leo’s ‘most famous’ work, it has to be his double-choir Miserere of 1739, a work which later excited the admiration of both Wagner (‘like a mighty cathedral’, ‘sublime and significant’) and Verdi. It is rather naughty of Decca, then, to print ‘Miserere’ so prominently on the cover and spine of this release when the piece is not actually on it. For that you will have to go an attractive recording by the Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, on ASV (10/01); what you get here is a selection of Leo’s smaller sacred works for Lent and a Salve Regina.

The good news for duped Miserere-hunters (well, there might be some!) is that there is still plenty to interest them. Neapolitan music of the 18th century, so important in the formation of the musical lingua franca of the Classical period, is a massively neglected area wherein lie many riches. Despite his greater interest in opera, Leo was maestro di cappella at the Naples royal chapel and composed a good deal of church music, especially towards the end of his life (he died in 1744), in which sound counterpoint and the clarity of modern melodic developments are successfully combined. These are not sterile exercises in ‘old-style’ polyphony, but works of honest, thoroughly Italianate expression.

Christophe Rousset and his ensemble get the balance between solemnity and passion just right. Misereris omnium, Domine, Reminiscere miserationum and Judica me Deus are performed by solo voices and continuo, and display surprising drama for what are basically liturgical bits and pieces. The singing here may not appeal to lovers of well-modulated choral sound, but it is expressive and suits the music. The three Good Friday Lamentations, for solo voice and continuo, are even more theatrical, switching from mournful lyricism to urgent declamation with assured ease (two of them end in angry bursts of recitative). Anne-Lise Sollied, Hilary Summers and Sandrine Piau each sings her allotted ‘Lesson’ with skill and conviction.

Finally, the radiant Salve Regina for soprano and strings simply reeks of the opera house; the violins are disappointingly weedy here, but Piau, soaring over all, is magnificent.