If your mind wanders from this performance, no blame should attach to Standage and his ensemble, whose treatment does full justice to music that was brand new more than three hundred years ago. The Marquis would have had reason to feel his money well spent in giving Albinoni the means to be heard so far in the future. Disappointed, perhaps, had he known that the Opus 10 he was paying for would remain effectively undiscovered for most of that time, but finding it intact means we can hear the real Albinoni, rather than the reconstruction from fragments that he has occasionally had to put up with in the past.

Very agreeable his music sounds, too, though with so much already available from the period, it claims its place as a welcome addition, rather than giving us a reason to change anything we already know about this particular artform. On a minor note, praise is due to Chandos for their creative artwork on the cover, based on an 18th-century painting of King Charles III. Most attractive, and the booklet notes are both learned and informative.

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