Maestro di cappella in two conservatories in Naples, Francesco Durante was one of the prominent representatives of the eighteenth-century Neapolitan school. A unique case in the history of Neapolitan music, Durante did not write any opera and devoted himself exclusively to pedagogical works and to the composition of sacred and instrumental music. His Concerti per archi are among the most significant contributions to the genre of the orchestral concerto. They represent a summa of the early eighteenth-century Neapolitan style. Durante blends the main aesthetic approaches of the time, from the stricter contrapuntal style – illustrated by fugue, canon, and Recercare movements – to the new galant style – transpiring from the slow cantabile or in movements marked Affettuoso or Amoroso.

Besides the eight better-known Concerti included in all manuscript sources, this recording contains also a ninth concerto found in a single, but authoritative source. The Accademia dell’Annunciata has risen to prominence with three successful albums alongside Giuliano Carmignola and Mario Brunello. Now, more than thirty years after the pioneering recording by Concerto Köln, the Milanese ensemble wholly fulfils its promise with a refreshing reading of these orchestral masterpieces from the late Baroque, to be paired with the famous Concerti per archi by Vivaldi.