World premiere recordings of six attractive concertos by a Neapolitan flautist and composer who was celebrated in Dublin and London in the 18th century.

Tommaso Giordani (1730-1806) came to the north coast of the English Channel in 1753 as one of the youngest members of a remarkably talented musical family and found good reason never to return south. In Dublin he gave lessons to the young John Field, who later far surpassed his teacher's fame by creating the genre of the piano nocturne. In the meantime, Giordani had returned to the English capital, where he wrote most of his surviving compositions - such as these flute concertos from 1775-79, which are dedicated to a baronet playing the flute.

Each concerto follows a familiar formal pattern: a first movement in sonata form, an introspective second movement that often reaches a remarkable peak of intensity, and a sparkling rondo finale. Within this pattern, Giordani finds room for continuous variety: the form does not restrict his inventiveness, but rather offers it an elegant vessel (in classical Baroque practice).

Like the good baronet, he clearly wrote for himself as a soloist, and this music was showcased and enjoyed, and is played here in that spirit by a Turin-based period-instrument ensemble under the direction of Italian flautist Giovanni Miszczyszyn. The recording was made in 2024 in the Chiesa della Santa Spirito in Turin, where the musicians give a regular series of concerts. It is imbued not only with the spirit of Giordani's time, but also with a chamber music sense of collaborative creation.