Ralph Kirkpatrick regarded Charles Avison as ‘an excellent composer who is unjustly forgotten’. To the gramophile it certainly seems that he has been overlooked, with only the present work and a solitary Violin Sonata listed in the RED Classical catalogue, but it is enough to suggest his excellence. He was an admirer of Scarlatti’s sonatas and in order to make their music available to others (not least amateurs) who were not virtuoso harpsichordists he arranged 29 of them as movements in his 12 concerti grossi Twelve Concertos in Seven Parts (1744). The other movements appear to have been his own work.

The annotation includes a table, giving the K numbers of the sonatas on which individual movements are based but it does not always correspond to what is heard. ‘Concerto IX/1=K81b’ – it doesn’t. Six movements of Concerto XII are played but only four are identified: the second as K23 – but in fact the third of those recorded; and the fourth as K33 – but played sixth – and, a word of caution, Avison begins with bar 11 of the original. There are also a number of differences (some radical) between the tempi marked by Scarlatti and those of Avison, but the latter work well enough and for most listeners the changes will be apparent only to those with the scores in front of them.

I have nothing but praise for the spirited performances and the high-quality recordings in this disc, but possessors of the recording of all 12 Concertos by the Brandenburg Consort may rest content with what they have. For those who are unfamiliar with this repertory – and unfazed by the inconsistencies – this is an attractive and informatively annotated introduction.