Alessandro Scarlatti is reputed to have written about 70 operas, so five sinfonias from works written for Naples between 1689 and 1714 are a drop in the ocean – but the music is consistently inventive and played by Concerto de’ Cavalieri with brio. The Sinfonia from Il prigioniero fortunato (1698) features ripe trumpets in outer movements that flank a little Adagio constructed upon a lyrical obbligato cello, and oboes and trumpets cut a fine figure in the bold opening to Scipione nelle Spagne (1714). The strings’ echo effects in the finale of the Sinfonia from La caduta de’ Decemviri (1697) are dispatched with swashbuckling swagger, although the outstanding feature is a gorgeous Corellian Largo.

Interspersed among the sinfonias are six concerti grossi first published posthumously in London (1740). Their authenticity is debatable; if they were not written by Scarlatti (who had died in 1725), another plausible candidate for at least some of the music is his younger brother Francesco (a violinist who worked at various times in London and Dublin). On the other hand, their style is hardly poles apart from the contrapuntal Sinfonia from La donna è ancora fedele (1698). Irrespective of authorship, these seven-part concertos are full of fine things. Concerto de’ Cavalieri and harpsichordist Marcello Di Lisa produce grave solemnity (the F minor opening of No 1), sparkling zest (the quick movements in No 3), fugal severity (the Allegro ma non troppo that begins No 4) and an almost ferocious energy (the triple-time dance-like Allegro at the heart of No 5), even if courtlier movements (the Affetuoso in No 6 and the Minuet in No 2) might have lilted more elegantly.