The omens looked good. An unclichéd selection of arias and duets from Handel’s late oratorios, two fine, distinctive singers well versed in the Baroque, and a conductor and orchestra of proven Handelian savoir faire. There is indeed plenty to enjoy, especially when soprano Karina Gauvin is involved. Balancing dramatic intensity and a pure singing line, she gives as moving a performance as I have heard of the first harlot’s ‘Can I see my infant gor’d?’ from Solomon, infinitely tender at the opening, erupting with mingled heartbreak and outrage as she yields her baby to the false mother.

Gauvin is blithely elegant in the little-known ‘Prophetic raptures’ from Joseph, its tricky leaps effortlessly negotiated, and unfurls limpid, skimming coloratura in Theodora’s cathartic ‘Oh! that I on wings could rise’. Iole’s ‘My father’, from Hercules, one of Handel’s most piercing expressions of grief, is another intensely ‘lived’ performance, though pleasure was mitigated by an over-intrusive harpsichord continuo – a recurrent problem on this disc that may irritate others less than it does me.

Gauvin’s fellow Canadian Marie-Nicole Lemieux, a true contralto rather than a pushed-down mezzo, is a singer with temperament to burn. Her no-holds-barred performances of ‘Destructive war’ (Belshazzar) and ‘Fury with red sparkling eyes’ from Alexander Balus, complete with violent chesty plunges, are thrilling. But in less overwrought music – say, Irene’s exquisite sunrise aria from Theodora, or the two poignant duets from the same oratorio – I wanted less gusty phrasing, more care for true legato. Orchestral accompaniments are trim and lively, though bass-lines could at times be more sensitively shaped – not just a question of excessive harpsichord jangle. If this is not quite the Handel recital I was hoping for, it’s still worth investigating for Lemieux’s viscerally exciting singing and, above all, Gauvin’s ideal Handelian mix of grace and profound emotional truth.