Christiane Karg is a young soprano from Bavaria with an impressively varied list of opera performances behind her: Poppea for Glyndebourne Touring, Norina and Musetta in Berlin, Anne Truelove in Lille, Zerlina in Salzburg and Zdenka in Frankfurt where, this autumn, she is tackling Mélisande. For her second recital disc – after ‘Verwandlung’, a Lieder recital – she has devised a programme of mostly little-known arias from operas composed between 1765 (Il Parnaso confuso and Telemaco) and 1775 (La fausse magie). The title ‘Amoretti’ – ‘Little Cupids’ – comes from Rosina’s first aria in Act 2 of La finta semplice.

Mozart accounts for five of the 12 numbers. The aria from Ascanio in Alba is preceded by a long accompanied recitative where the intensification of string tone at 0'57" is but one example of the sensitivity shown by Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo. In ‘Lungi da te’ from Mitridate, Cohen is more leisurely than Christophe Rousset for Cecilia Bartoli on the complete recording (Decca, 5/99); a pity that the fine horn obbligato player isn’t named. The sparks really fly in the excerpt from Il sogno di Scipione, a metaphor aria where Karg lets rip with some dazzling coloratura. ‘Fra i pensier’ (Lucio Silla) isn’t quite as successful and only a fragment of the preceding recitative is included.

The Gluck items are all done with style but it’s the airs by Grétry that make the disc so desirable. Listen to the excerpt from Silvain, a complete scena only five minutes long, and you will be hooked.