Following our collection of German baroque virtuosic recorder concertos two years ago, Michael Schneider now turns to baroque Italy. Schneider shows just what wonderful recorder discoveries can be made in Italy in addition to Vivaldi's works, which he has also presented on cpo.

Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert take a refined look at Christmas Concertos from the baroque masters. So that's Vivaldi, Handel, Corelli and plenty more.

This set of trio sonatas dates from 1727, the year before Sammartini moved to London where he became one of the leading composers in England until his death. Rooted in the late Baroque, these works show the composer's skilled contrapuntism and gift for lyricism and melody.

London Baroque offers another installment in its ongoing European Trio Sonata series, this time devoted to 18th-century Italy; as with the ensemble’s previous efforts the program features generally excellent performances of lesser-known repertoire. Ten years ago I reviewed a similar 18th-century Italian program by this same group titled “Stravaganze Napoletane”, also on BIS, and was generally impressed with the performances–except for one piece: Domenico Gallo’s Sonata No. 1 in G major.