The ninth son of a modest family from Arezzo, Antonio Cesti (1623–1669) is a multifaceted figure of Italian Baroque music. He was cantor in various churches in his home town before leaving to take up organist posts first at Santa Croce, Florence, and then at the Duomo of Volterra.

Decisive in Cesti’s career was the protection of the Medici family, and Cesti’s first assignment outside Italy came at the Innsbruck court of Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Tyrol, who was Anna de’ Medici’s husband. He was held in high esteem at the Tyrolean court, but in 1659 he left for Rome, entering the pontifical chapel in service of the nephew of Pope Alexander VII, Cardinal Flavio Chigi. The ensuing year in Rome saw his greatest production of cantatas. He would divide his time thereafter between Vienna and his home base in Florence near his Medici patrons.

This recording opens and closes with three-voice serenades for two sopranos and a bass.

Between them come solo arias, including “Intorno all’idol mio”, perhaps Cesti’s most famous work because of its inclusion in Parisotti’s collection of Arie antiche, used as a method by many an aspiring singer.

The version presented here is the rare reduction for soprano and continuo without the two violins (from a source housed in the Sala del Dottorato library of the University of Perugia). The cantata for two voices (soprano and bass) Per voler quel ch’io non voglio is attributed to Cesti in a source housed in Venice’s Marcello Conservatory, but a source at the Naples Conservatory attributes it, perhaps more credibly, to Stradella.

Instrumental works by contemporary composers complete the CD: an instrumental aria by Giuseppe Colombi and a pleasant sonata attributed to Giovanni Lorenzo Lulier. Colombi’s ironic La Tromba a basso solo parodies the extreme duet of a low stringed instrument (bass) and a high wind instrument (trumpet). Lulier, nicknamed Giovannino del Violone, is generally considered the author of the charming Violone Sonata in F presented here.