An anthology such as this—and there are many of them, a potpourri of 'The Baroque's Greatest Hits'—patently addresses its sermon to the convertible, rather than to the converted. Annotation is in English, French, Italian and German, but only in the last does the heading announce the music as ''European baroque'' (my italics), admitting England to Europe two and a half centuries in advance. A photograph of the orchestra shows wind players, but they appear only briefly, celebrating the arrival of the Queen of Sheba, and the 'vocal' items are rearranged for strings.
Though the Orpheus CO neither specialize in baroque repertory nor use period instruments, there is nothing in these performances which seriously misrepresents baroque music as it is 'properly spoken'. ''Ombra mai fu'' and the Albinoni Adagio are invested with a little of the religiosity that has become their lot, and the Vivaldi is a trifle on the beefy side, but this is consistent with the object of the whole exercise. Better, perhaps, first to persuade the unconverted with performances that are neither so uncompromising as 'authentic' ones, nor as misleading as inflated and stylistically distorted ones.
The recording is clear, with the harpsichord well in evidence, and the disc as a whole will appeal to many—though it offers nothing that dyed-in-the-wool baroque-lovers will be looking for. Surely, though, with a relatively short playing time, room might have been found for a few more 'hits'.'