With the flood of new recordings of The Four Seasons showing no sign of abating, these three reissued period-instrument performances offer an interesting glimpse of how interpretations have changed in the past 20 years or so.

Simon Standage and The English Concert were among the first ensembles to record the Seasons on period instruments, for CRD back in 1976, and when they came to make their Archiv recording in 1981 they still had few rivals. This was the time when they were Archiv’s flagship Baroque orchestra, and these perform- ances demonstrate what made them so: precise ensemble and a clean texture warmed by just the right amount of gently nourished tone, all captured in a pleasing, natural recording. Standage’s violin-playing is a model of elegance and good taste, and he finds the perfect partner in Pinnock. The performances take only a passing interest in the pictorial elements of the music, however, and may strike some listeners today as too relaxed, too politely ‘English’ even. But if a straightforwardly presented, expertly performed Seasons is what you want, then it is still hard to beat. The coupling – two similarly polished Vivaldi concertos recorded in 1985 – does not seem very generous.

Monica Huggett’s recording of the 12 Vivaldi Op 8 concertos (fom which The Four Seasons come) did not attract a huge amount of attention when it came out in 1990, and it is fair to say that the Raglan Baroque Players can seem a little ragged in places beside the neatness of The English Concert. The silky ease and strength of Huggett’s playing is always a pleasure, however, and it is good to get her Seasons plus four other Op 8 concertos on a mid-price re-release.

It comes with a quirky second-disc coupling in the form of The Monthes, Christopher Simpson’s cycle of 12 fantasias for violin, two violas da gamba and continuo (not two violins and one gamba, as the booklet information would have us believe). It is hard to imagine that too many potential buyers are out to gather Vivaldi and Simpson in one hit, but Simpson’s pieces – dating from the 1660s and occupying a stylistic slot somewhere between the viol consort and the trio sonata – are full of muscular English melancholy, and are beautifully played by Huggett’s chamber group Sonnerie.

The years since Huggett’s Seasons have, of course, seen the arrival of the Italians on the Baroque scene. Fabio Biondi’s complete Op 8 recording with Europa Galante, made in 2000, included his second Seasons, which Virgin has reissued here alongside three concertos from his slightly earlier recording of Op 3. The difference between his later account and the rather strait-laced first (for Opus 111 in 1991) is dramatic. Indeed, Biondi has become one of the work’s most radical interpreters, happy to indulge in all sorts of violinistic tricks and to go all out for pictorial impact – his storms really make the pulse race. The results are thrilling, surprising and uplifting, and, while perhaps not to everyone’s taste, make an exciting contribution to their field.