Francesco Scarlatti worked as a violinist in his older brother Alessandro’s orchestra at the viceroyal court of Naples for seven years (1684 91) before he moved back to the family’s native Palermo for about 20 years. He emigrated to London in 1719 and by 1733 relocated permanently to Dublin. A manuscript score of Il Daniele nel lago de’ leoni is preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum; editor Geoffrey Webber speculates that the oratorio might have been written between 1699 and 1710 for Palermo or Naples. In addition to the familiar tale of Daniel’s refusal to worship Baal causing him to be thrown reluctantly by Persian king Darius into the lions’ den, the anonymous libretto depicts apocryphal incidents excised from Protestant bibles such as Daniel’s contest with a smoke-breathing dragon.

The Armonico Consort’s eight string players, solo trumpeter and continuo organist play the introductory Sinfonia’s quick and slow sections with engaging buoyancy. William Towers mingles imperiousness and imploring to deliver the misguided Darius’s futile command for Daniel to worship Baal (‘Di Belo, del Cielo, se miri i portenti’). Hannah Fraser-Mackenzie responds with dignified patience in Daniel’s prayer that God will open the king’s eyes to the light (the quasi-lament ‘D’Israele il Dio sovrano’, featuring two contrapuntal violins). Graham Neal sings the Judean prophet Habbakuk’s valorous ‘Correre per soccorrere’ with brightness and muscular heft (the excellent solo trumpeter is uncredited). The dragon Demone encourages hypocritical Baalite priests to snack on delicious sacrificial offerings so that the public thinks they have been eaten by Baal; the villain’s peculiarly solemn minor-key aria is sung smoothly by Alex Jones. An angel also adopts the idiom of minor-key lament featuring polyphonic strings in ‘Tutto governa, tutto prevede’ (Billie Robson’s voice has a touch of brittle fragility). Daniel’s meek refusal to worship the dragon is a sincere statement reinforced by pathetic concertante strings whereas the brief meeting between Daniel and the dragon is fleeting battle music featuring trumpet. However, the evocation of courageous fighting is depicted in the angel’s observation that the prayer of a righteous soul strikes down the powers of hell (‘Combattere per vincere’). Daniel’s faithful willingness to be martyred in the lion’s den is depicted in ‘Poco è la morte’, the oratorio’s sublimest and longest aria, which has immaculate echo effects played by audibly distanced violin and viola.

Patchy moments of infelicitous tuning from upper strings and uneven singing from time to time do not negate that Christopher Monks’s well-paced and attentive performance reveals the compositional qualities of the intriguing lesser-spotted Scarlatti.