In the eighteenth century, in both Italy and France, instrumental music was regarded as devoid of all signification and unable to affect the intellect unless it was accompanied by a literary argument (like The Four Seasons) or a choreographic action (like Les Éléments).

Long before Franz Liszt’s symphonic poems, Vivaldi and Rebel - both of whom owe their claim on posterity to the works recorded here - showed they could create lively and descriptive instrumental music, admirably meeting the ontological, aesthetic and moral requirements of Enlightenment philosophy.

Subtitled ‘Camerata Obscura’, this is harmonia mundi’s first collection aimed at exploring the connection between photography and music. In collaboration with the National School of Photography in Arles, a foursome of young artists was invited to take a fresh look at several key works of the Baroque repertoire which are being reissued for this occasion.