This exquisite release aims to provide a snapshot of intimate courtly music in Paris during the first half of the 17th century, with the airs de cour of De Vincent, Pierre Guédron, Michel Lambert and Etienne Moulinié rubbing shoulders with instrumental works by foreigners either known to have been active in France at the time or whose works were published in Paris – Giovanni Paolo Fascarini, Francesco Corbetta, Luis de Briceno and Angelo Michele Bartolotti.

The mood of the vocal works is as varied as the selection, ranging from the sweetly gentle (Guédron’s Quoy, faut il donc), the mournful (Cavalli’s Lamento di Apollo, which features some particularly beautiful instrumental solos) to the imploring (Lambert’s Silvie) and the exasperated (Moulinie’s O stelle homicide). Instrumental highlights include Robert Ballard’s Angelique for lute, Corbetta’s Passacaglia for five-course guitar, Louis Couperin’s darkly evocative Symphonie for three gambas and Briceno’s wild Caravanda Ciacona, here played with delicious abandon on guitars and colascione (a long-necked lute, the metal strings of which are plucked or strummed with a plectrum).

Stephan van Dyck’s is a light, pleasing tenor, perfectly suited to the air de cour; throughout every syllable is cleanly articulated and the ornamentation is sparse and stylish. As you might have guessed by now, Private Musicke’s five members here play exclusively on plucked and bowed strings – four-and five-course baroque guitars, lutes and viols da gamba. Thus the instrumental texture is also light, delicately hued and full of variety, adding yet another source of pleasure for the listener. WILLIAM YEOMAN