Venetian tenor Cristoforo Caresana (c1640-1709) performed in several operas by Cavalli but in 1658 he moved to Naples to become a singer, organist and composer at the vice-regal chapel and the local Oratorio dei Girolamini (to whom he bequeathed his music library). Dinko Fabris’s essay asserts that Caresana was one of the finest and most important composers of sacred music in late-17th-century Naples in the years before the Sicilian maestro Alessandro Scarlatti arrived in 1683: he was a close colleague of Provenzale, frequent provider of music to the Tesoro di San Gennaro (a prestigious chapel in the city’s cathedral), and a respected teacher at the Conservatorio di Sant’Onofri.

Neapolitan specialists I Turchini and Antonio Florio have contributed substantially to reviving Caresana’s reputation. On this occasion they present four of the composer’s sacred works interleaved by melancholic sonatas by his teacher Ziani. Sembri stella felice, Partenope leggiadra (written for one of the several feast-days of San Gennaro in 1703) is sung with impressive brilliance and feeling by Maria Grazia Schiavo. La Veglia (1674) features robust accompaniments from a percussionist; perhaps Florio wished to reinforce Caresana’s use of dance-forms and lend it a Florentine festive atmosphere, but the most vigorous clattering does not serve the music ideally. However, the musicianship of I Turchini’s string players and singers is beguiling; a beautiful sleep aria (“Dormi o ninno”) is sung eloquently by Giuseppe Naviglio. The short oratorio Demonio, Angelo e tre pastori (1676) is a dramatically engaging argument between five shepherds outside Bethlehem, two of whom happen to be the resentful Lucifer and a serene Angel in disguise. L’Adoratione de’ Maggi (also 1676) colourfully depicts a similar dramatic scene between two happy soprano angels, a complaining bass Devil and three middle-voiced Magi worshipping the infant Christ. This is another fascinating contribution to Florio and I Turchini’s admirable discography of obscure Neapolitan gems.