The title-song of this CD, Lost is my quiet, is the gem, though there are quite a lot of other sparklers too. Not the opening one, perhaps, ‘One charming night’ from The Fairy Queen, in which the recorders are over-prominent and the performance doesn’t quite convey, to my mind, the nature of the nocturnal delights that are in Purcell’s mind. But it is nevertheless beautifully sung, by Daniel Taylor, whose fluid, even countertenor, without a hint of hootiness, is a joy here and everywhere else too. ‘Strike the viol’, the phrases delicately caressed, is specially enchanting, and so, too, is ‘Here the deities approve’, with its gently floating line.

Lost is my quiet is in fact a duet, sung as by an abandoned lover, richly elegiac in tone, with Nancy Argenta’s soprano matching Taylor perfectly – his echoes of her are quite haunting. Her voice has acquired a firmer focus than once it had, and once or twice it hardens a little at the top; but her singing is as stylish and clear as always, with a keen awareness of the words and their sense, and she brings to the more dramatic pieces, notably two fine ones by John Eccles, urgency and vitality.

The two instrumental suites make up a little less than half of the CD. Each consists of an overture and seven dances or act tunes. One normally hears these done with a small orchestra rather than, as here, a solo group, but they don’t lose anything by sounding like chamber music, with the detailed interplay of parts so nicely managed under Adrian Butterfield’s leadership. Clearly everyone is listening attentively and responding. Here and there a French accent creeps into the rhythms, which is wholly appropriate. A very enjoyable CD.