With the exception of a few works by Ottorino Respighi, and for reasons which are relatively obscure, the orchestral concert music of the generation of Italian composers to which Ildebrando Pizzetti belongs has—so far as international acceptance is concerned—remained little-known outside Italy.

Although Auber was one of the most popular of 19th-century French composers, his music is seldom revived in the opera house. This series is restoring his overtures and orchestral excerpts from operas, a swathe of refined and elegant music showing his importance in operatic history. Featured in this volume are the overture from La Muette de Portici, his revolutionary masterpiece, as well as premiere recordings of music from La Barcarolle and Les Chaperons blancs, exuding both the drama and the charm that permeate all his mature works.

For his third Erato album of harpsichord music, Jean Rondeau turns to Domenico Scarlatti and some 20 of the often-dazzling sonatas that the Neapolitan composer wrote during his years at the royal court in Madrid. Imbued with the spirit of the dance, they are works that Rondeau uses “to tell a story for the people who will listen to an album from beginning to end …