“Naples is the capital of the musical world”, wrote Charles de Brosses in one of his letters from Italy from 1739/1740. He also wrote “Naples is the sole Italian city that seems truly a capital…” and this was not an exaggeration: it was the largest city in 17th-century Europe and possessed four conservatories. Musicians trained there spent most of their lives in the service of sovereigns and aristocrats in other major European courts, such as Paris and Vienna. During their lifetime, they were internationally regarded among the finest exponents of their art and their music adds an entirely new dimension to the history of Italian instrumental music.

That variety of tastes and colours is the hallmark of this recording from Maurice Steger, devoted to the staggeringly virtuosic music for recorder brought back from Italy by Count Harrach (the Austrian diplomat Aloys Thomas Raimund), who served as Hapsburg viceroy in Naples from 1728 to 1733. Hasse, Vinci, Sammartini, and the less familiar names of Montanari, Fiorenza, Leo and Sarro represent these souvenirs of a six-year gilded exile, which is preserved in his collection of precious manuscripts.