At the Viennese royal court Antonio Caldara had access not only to the greatest virtuoso singers but also virtuoso instrumentalist, and one of the characteristics of his music it appears is his writing for these virtuoso instrumentalists. This disc presents ten arias, six of them world premieres, from Caldaras oratorios and operas, nine of which feature solo instruments. There is one with violin, one with cello, one with viola da gamba, two with lutes plus one with lutes and cello, and, most curiously of all three, from the oratorios "Sedecia", "Le Profezie Evangeliche di Isaia" and "David Umiliato", with salterio, also known at the time as the 'pantaleon' after the creator and virtuoso performer Pantaleon Hebenstreit. This instrument, enjoying a brief vogue during Caldara's tenure, played by Hebenstreit and his two students, was a kind of dulcimer - here on this disc looking at the photo of performers in the recording studio it looks like a standard modern hammered dulcimer is being employed, whereas reconstructions of the original pantaleon look rather more like a piano, namely the hammers operated by keys in much the same way as a piano rather than the hand held hammers utilised by the modern dulcimer player, but having the unique resonant sound from sympathetic strings. How authentic the sound of the contemporary instrument may be compared to the original I am not qualified to say, but these are quite beautiful and fascinating pieces. Singing the works, Valer Sabadus (the artist formerly known as Valer Barda-Sabadus but who is now known as just Valer Sabadus) is equally at home in the pieces for soprano - and perhaps could be classified as a true sopranist - and for alto, though perhaps in the very lowest notes of this range required here he is maybe not quite so solid though it's not really enough to get picky about. These are excellent, sensitive performances by both Sabadus and the instrumentalists of the ensemble Nuovo Aspetto in very good recorded sound.