Vivaldi’s secular chamber cantatas have attracted some recordings over the past decade or so, but by and large they are still a relatively little-known part of his output. Few Vivaldian stones are remaining unturned these days, however, and with their small demands on resources – all are for single voice and continuo, with sometimes an obbligato instrument as well – these essays on the trials of Arcadian love are an obvious area for investigation.

It would be nice to say that they turn out to be neglected gems, but in fact they often serve as a reminder of Vivaldi’s reputation for writing vocal music in which jagged melodies and instrumental-style virtuosity can exclude lyrical grace. No doubt he felt that responding to the needs of the text was more important – and in the gales and lightning flashes of Qual per ignoto he does so with true Vivaldian fire – but in the end the general lack of vocal beauty leaves one longing for the more polished approach of a Scarlatti or a Gasparini, as demonstrated by Andreas Scholl’s recent cantata disc (Decca, 3/04).

Not that New Chamber Opera’s young singers do not make a good stab at it. Of the two, Mary Nelson seems the more comfortable technically, though she can sound a touch cool, and in any case her music does not make the same athletic demands on her as do Charles Humphries’ two cantatas, which one can imagine must have left him inwardly cursing their creator. Holding on to that emotion, perhaps, he achieves more drama than Nelson, but in the end it is the instrumental players (oddly favoured in the balance, by the way) who have the happiest time here. Caroline Balding and Christine Garratt play with elegant ease, while the continuo-playing of Gary Cooper and David Watkin is a model of what it should be, which is to say unintrusive but imaginative and responsive; both seem to be feeling the music just as much as the singers.

No marks to ASV, though, for failing to print the cantata texts in the booklet.