Abandoned at the age of two months and taken in by the Ospedale della Pietà, Chiara (or Chiaretta) rose within that enclosed charitable institution in Venice to become one of the leading European violinists of the middle of the 18th century.

No stranger to such acclaim himself from two and a half centuries later, Fabio Biondi, on his first release for Glossa, has devised a programme drawing on the personal diary of this remarkable musician – taught by Antonio Vivaldi, and later a virtuoso soloist on the violin as well as the viola d’amore – of concertos and sinfonias by composers who, like the prete rosso, taught at the Pietà: Porta, Porpora, Martinelli, Latilla, Perotti and Bernasconi are all musicians whose compositions charm and delight as much today as they would have done in the time of Chiara.