Samson is unquestionably Handel’s most ambitious English dramatic oratorio, and at its first appearance in 1743 eclipsed the first London performances of Messiah. Skilfully adapted from verses by Milton, it is one of the composer’s most challenging and problematic epics for performers. The most common pitfall is adopting a ponderous pace for the long first part in which the blinded captive title-hero bitterly bewails his fate. As in all previous recordings, this performance drags its heels too much in contemplative recitatives. Also, the copious use of organ continuo is soporific. This is a pity because Nicholas McGegan’s pacing and conducting of the arias and choruses in all other respects is exemplary. The Göttingen Handel Festival Orchestra play with plenty of expertise and personality: the trumpet parts in “Awake the trumpet’s lofty sound” have seldom sounded so splendid, the flutes and horns in the Dead March achieve ideal sonorities, and the string ritornello in Dalila’s “To fleeting pleasures” is imaginatively shaped. The scene in which the Philistines are heard dying in the distance is brilliantly executed by the orchestra, and trumpeter David Staff does an admirably bold yet unfussy job of “Let the bright seraphim”. The North German Radio Chorus is heavy-handed and a bit too full-blooded at times. Apart from the sensitively balanced choral elegy “Glorious hero”, the more sublime choruses (eg “Hear Jacob’s God”) do not match the streamlined blend from The Sixteen on Harry Christophers’s recording, although McGegan finds a greater amount of dramatic details and expressive nuances in Handel’s instrumental writing.

Thomas Cooley is the finest Samson on disc since Anthony Rolfe Johnson (on Harnoncourt’s otherwise dodgy version), sensitively singing his farewell aria “Thus when the sun”, but also bringing plenty of colour and animation to athletic music. William Berger sings Manoa’s “How willing my paternal love” with tenderness, and Sophie Daneman is on sparkling form as Dalila (she is less enlivened as an Israelite). The only weak link is Franziska Gottwald’s bland Micah (“Return O God of hosts” is underwhelming, and her Teutonic delivery of recitatives is cumbersome). This live recording made at Dresden’s Frauenkirche offers plenty of exciting and near-ideal interpretations of many individual moments, and so it is now the best interpretation of some aspects of Samson on disc, although its few drawbacks prevent it from knocking The Sixteen’s version off its perch.