Someone give a banana to the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra for not giving us a two-disc set of Locatelli’s complete Op 1. Not that there is anything wrong with Locatelli: but by offering us a single CD of just six of these Concerti grossi, published in 1721 when he was in his mid-twenties, they allow us to imagine that they have selected the ones they really believe in. It also enables them to start the disc with its most enchanting music, the first movement of Concerto No 11, in which a glorious solo violin cantilena soars soulfully and searchingly over a gently chugging orchestral accompaniment. It is a gripping, haunting opening and the promise it offers is duly realised in the superb music-making that follows. Such quality is only what we have come to expect from the Freiburgers, of course. Here they present us with a hearteningly full, satisfyingly fibrous string sound, together with all their usual hallmarks of fine ensemble and naturally lively and intelligent musicianship.

`Their wondrous playing should be enough to put this disc above the worthily complete Op 1s from the Raglan Baroque Players and Capella Istropolitana (Naxos) for anyone wishing to investigate these concertos, the first by a composer known best for the dazzling technical feats of his violin concertos but who here shows that his first inspiration lies with Corelli’s Op 6 Concerti grossi. But Locatelli shows his own personality too, by enriching the textures, by cranking up the harmonic tension where Corelli might perhaps have relieved it, and by occasionally letting loose with fiery Vivaldian virtuosity, as in Concertos Nos 4 and 7. First-rate Baroque concertos in first-class performances – a true pleasure!