AGOSTINO STEFFANI (1654-1728): Spezza, Amor, l'arco, ANTONIO LOTTI (1667-1740): Ti sento, o dio bendato, FRANCESCO MANCINI (1672-1737): Quanto dolce è quell' ardore, ANTONIO MARIA BONONCINI (1677-1726): Idol mio, mio bel tesoro, DOMENICO SCARLATTI (1685-1757): Di Fille vendicarmi, ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678-1741): All' ombra di sospetto, RV 678.

Description: "Italian Love Cantatas" says the title of this disc but it's much more special than that: each of these (except the Scarlatti) uses an obbligato wind instrument - flute, oboe or bassoon (and, in the earliest work, the Steffani from the 1680s), both oboe and bassoon - as the program shows the earliest arrival of such instruments in Italian cantata composition (most of the other works date from the 1720s). Italian-English texts. Silvia Vajente (soprano), Epoca Barocca.