Kingsway Hall in 1971 was the venue for these performances of Handel's most popular pair of works—music which was of course originally intended to be played in the open air. Although there is a wide choice available already on CD—Christopher Hogwood's period-instrument version for L'Oiseau-Lyre (400 059-2OH, 3/83) was early on the scene and is still favoured—this modern-instrument version is quite beautifully done. Certainly it rarely reveals its age, although I doubt if we would now expect quite such 'obvious' stereo, and the flattened dynamics do tend to make the whole disc seem too loud.'