Theorbist Marco Horvat and his Ensemble Faenza turn their collective microscope on the obscure mid-18th-century musician Giovanni Zamboni. Possibly Roman in origin, a virtuoso player of various kinds of lutes and apparently also a jeweller, he was employed as a double bass player at Pisa Cathedral. Two cycles of four-voice madrigals dating from about 1755 survive in manuscripts; one copy now in Copenhagen was dedicated effusively to Cardinal Henry Stuart, the Duke of York and brother of Bonnie Prince Charlie, whereas another manuscript now in Bologna’s Museo della Musica was sent in 1762 to Padre Martini in the hope that it might enlist the renowned contrapuntist’s support for a publication.

Thirteen madrigals are sung ardently by the quartet of Olga Pitarch (soprano), Lucile Richardot (alto), Jeffrey Thompson (tenor) and Emmanuel Vistorky (bass), and another two are performed instrumentally by the harpist Maria-Christina Cleary on a copy of an instrument that was owned by Padre Martini. The programme is fleshed out with several sonatas published in Lucca in 1718 that might or might not have been composed by the same Zamboni for an instrument likely to have been something like an archlute. The prevalent and intricate continuo realisations during the sung madrigals exploit an elaborate group of archlute, theorbo, guitar, bass viol, harpsichord and double harp. Perhaps a more sparing approach might have called less attention to itself, and to be truthful it is unlikely that Zamboni’s neatly constructed setting of Guarini’s poem ‘Ah, dolente partita’ will impress anyone in the ways that Monteverdi’s inspired setting invariably does, but that isn’t the point – these vividly contoured performances offer a fascinating glimpse into a much later generation’s fascination with the long-outdated genre of polyphonic madrigals.