Alessandro Scarlatti's Il trionfo dell'onore (The Triumph of Honour) - his only comic opera - was first performed in Naples in 1718. With it's distinctive recitatives and expressive arias, and a cast including four pairs of lovers, it can be considered one of the forerunners of opera buffa. The central character is the unrepentant seducer Riccardo Albenori, a Don Giovanni-like figure though without the villainous aura. In this opera, Scarlatti ensures not only perceptive psychology but a rich variety of arias, duets and quartets that generate the work's pathos as well as it's humour and eroticism.

Alessandro Scarlatti's Il trionfo dell'onore (The Triumph of Honour) - his only comic opera - was first performed in Naples in 1718. With it's distinctive recitatives and expressive arias, and a cast including four pairs of lovers, it can be considered one of the forerunners of opera buffa. The central character is the unrepentant seducer Riccardo Albenori, a Don Giovanni-like figure though without the villainous aura. In this opera, Scarlatti ensures not only perceptive psychology but a rich variety of arias, duets and quartets that generate the work's pathos as well as it's humour and eroticism.

Luigi Gordigiani was a prominent figure in 19th-century Florence who became known as the "Italian Schubert." Like his Viennese counterpart, Gordigiani's creativity found it's best expression in songs for voice and piano that earned him international renown in a period when opera reigned supreme in Italy. Gordigiani's style found a balance between brilliant, almost operatic drawing-room writing, and a deliberately regional vernacular language that gave his songs an honest and innocent character. All of his songs are graceful and delightful, and at the heart of his output are the Popular Tuscan Songs, which captivated the likes of Rossini, Meyerbeer, and Chopin.

Giovanni Battista Riccio lived in Venice when the city's music was dominated by illustrious figures such as Monteverdi and Gabrieli. Riccio won aristocratic patrons and his surviving three collections of sacred music, which also contain instrumental compositions, attest to his standing in the city and beyond. His music is flowing and full of variety, not least in the liveliness of motifs, use of binary and triple time, sound painting and employment of echo effects. His Motets setting passages from the Song of Songs, offer unusually expressive and refined depth.

Performer and scholar Vania Dal Maso has constructed an innovative programme exploring music for stringed keyboard instruments from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Based on the study and interpretation of sources, both on the instruments' construction and musical interpretation, she explores the profoundly different sounds and tone-colours of the clavichord, hammered clavicymbalum and clavicytherium. The music ranges widely in forms and genres from across Europe, including music sourced from the oldest-known manuscript for keyboard instruments - the Robertsbridge Codex (c. 1320) - to create the widest possible stylistic panorama of keyboard music of the time.

Bach's Cello Suites are his only works for solo cello but are central to the repertoire and remain unequalled in their expressive musical depth. Dor Gidon Amran, the virtuoso mandolinist who has recorded his own unique arrangement of Paganini's 24 Caprices on Dynamic (CDS8038), has now arranged Cello Suites Nos. 1-3 for the mandocello. This is a baritone instrument of the mandolin family, but much larger than a mandolin, whose strings are tuned exactly like those of the cello. Being played with a plectrum, the mandocello belongs to a very different sound world to the cello, offering a unique perspective on these great works.

This programme presents a fascinating excursion through the flute literature from 1893 to 1957, providing a glimpse into the evolution of the sonatina - a title suggesting music of greater brevity and stylistic freedom than that of a sonata. Qualities of a delightful sense of fun and simple effectiveness are shared in Petr Eben and Pal Jardanyi's pieces, while the Fox Trot in Alexandre Tansman's Sonatine reminds us of the popularity of jazz in 1920s Paris. Composed during his time in America, Dvorak's renowned Sonatina for violin and piano is heard here in an adaptation by Luisa Sello and Bruno Canino.

Of Paganini's fifteen quartets with guitar only six were published during his lifetime. They represent his finest body of chamber compositions as can be heard in the three quartets for violin, viola, guitar and cello, Op. 4. Of them, No. 3 in A major is a masterpiece, with French-styled inspiration, rich lyricism and piquant invention, while the virtuosic, almost concerto-like No. 8 in A major embodies his quatuor brillant writing, with it's Rossinian resonances. No. 12 in A minor is the most 'symphonic' of the three, containing formal originality, one of the most moving of Paganini's slow movements, and his most serious-minded finale.

Il martirio di Santa Caterina by castrato singer, composer and writer Pier Francesco Tosi is a fine example of the rich tradition of late-Baroque oratorio. It is the embodiment of Tosi's famous treatise on a vocal style that emphasised expressive authenticity over virtuoso display. This story of the martyrdom of Catherine of Alexandria for refusing to convert to paganism is filled with deeply poignant music that depicts her prodigious inner strength, representing the power of faith through grief, courage, compassion, and admiration for the fortitude of others

The popularity of Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik is a testament to the work's unique elegance and refinement, maintaining it's status as one of the most popular pieces in the classical canon. The transformational skills that resulted in this masterpiece have their roots in Mozart's adolescent travels where he assimilated various musical traditions. Also featured are the three delightfully original Divertimenti, K. 136-38, which are a celebration of Mozart's experiences in Italy and a prelude to the musical treasures to follow.