Gerhard Poppe’s booklet-notes for this disc paint a picture of Antonio Caldara that is more strictly truthful than enticing – a prolific composer, ‘whose oeuvre does not contain any spectacular or revolutionary works, but includes a respectable volume of excellent compositions’. It’s a perception borne out by the laborious diligence of the 2012 Tactus recording of the composer’s Op 4 motets by the Schola Cantorum S Stefano and Valentino Ermacora, but which comes close to being overthrown by the austere beauty of this new recording by the United Continuo Ensemble.

Backwards-looking, if not actively anachronistic, Op 4 is a delicate collection of motets for two or three voices and continuo accompaniment that would belong more naturally to the 1680s than to the early 18th century. There were tantalising hints of hidden dramatic possibilities from the few included on Fabio Biondi’s 2015 ‘Morte e sepoltura di Christo’ (Glossa, 7/15), but, until now, no recording of the complete collection has made that case.

In the deft hands of the United Continuo Ensemble and six excellent vocal soloists, these motets emerge lighter and more agile than in Biondi’s vision, less overtly operatic, but dynamic miniatures nonetheless. Caro mea vere est cibus is a particularly sensuous duet for two sopranos (Ingeborg Dalheim and Anna Kellnhofer) that throbs with suspension sequences, while Exaudi Domine is a more madrigalian affair that adds baritone Florian Götz to the mix, weaving the three voices together with syncopated verve and sway.

The interpolation of Dutch and north German organ works is an odd choice, and the historic organ of Schloss Gottorf provides a rather strident, reedy commentary on the Caldara, while texts are provided only in Latin and German. But these are small quibbles about what is fundamentally a fine disc.