Don’t be fooled by the packaging, a piece of cardboard folded over to make two loose pockets containing the booklet and plastic-wrapped disc, with an ugly cover illustration straight from a 1960s budget LP. Both the music and performances are excellent.

The Brescian violin virtuoso Giovanni Battista Fontana’s 18 extant sonatas were published in Venice in 1641, eleven years after his death in Padua, probably from the plague. When he wrote these works for one, two and three violins and bassoon is unknown. Firmly within the rambling, improvisatory early 17th-century Italian sonata style, they are nevertheless startlingly original with some quite forward-looking features. The collection’s title page specifies the cornett as an alternative to the violin. Gruppo Seicento’s ensemble of Italian, Spanish and Chilean graduates from the International Musical Academy of Milan has no cornett, but a recorder appears in two of the nine sonatas here. Besides this are two violins (surprisingly, late 19th-century ones), a bassoon (for which Fontana wrote very demanding music) occasionally replaced by a viola da gamba, a baroque guitar or chitarrone, and an organ. As these works were for church use, there is no harpsichord and the organ is a full-sized church instrument.

The group’s approach is gentle and reflective, avoiding explosive pyrotechnics while still displaying plenty of delightful virtuosity. Careful attention has been given to the instrumentation of each piece. No self-respecting aficionado of music of the early baroque could overlook performances of such intelligence and musicality. CHRISTOPHER PRICE