Bortnyansky has been mostly ignored in the West until quite recently. Tchaikovsky's disparaging comments on editing his sacred concertos also show he was not universally appreciated in his native Russia, but he has never lost his place in the repertoire of the Russian Orthodox Church and, as this series shows, these works are finely crafted pieces with an endless variety of invention.
This is Volume 3, and it contains some real gems. Concerto No 19 is a locus classicus of Bortnyansky's considerable lyrical power, though he also employs his neo-Baroque fugal writing to impressive effect, but No 20 is even more convincing, each movement containing a substructure characterised by different musical moods. Tchaikovsky complained that the concertos used 'stagey or even operatic' techniques, and that's quite true, but it's done with consummate elegance, as you may hear in No 22. The Russian State Symphonic Cappella understand this music, in all its manifestations, completely, responding to its subtlest nuances.