This is a maddening disc, because it is so good and yet could have been so much better. It’s heartening to hear a German ensemble perform Purcell – once, like Elgar, ignored on the Continent – with such conviction. Dorothee Mields is a fine soprano who is as confident in the melismas of “Sweeter than roses” as she is heartfelt in the broken phrases of “O let me weep”; and, on the whole, her English is excellent. The single strings of the Lautten Compagney produce tone that is both rich and astringent in the “Butterfly Dance” from Dioclesian. The woodwind and trumpet solos are exemplary and there’s a lively continuo group.

The drawbacks are twofold. Wolfgang Katschner has spiced up some numbers with various effects, including the addition of percussion. I don’t want to be too po-faced about this. There’s no great harm in introducing the “Curtain Tune on a Ground” from Timon of Athens with a jew’s harp, nor in turning the theorbos into melody instruments. But adding birdsong to “Hark! how the songsters” is hardly necessary when Purcell has provided his own on the recorders; while castanets in “Ye gentle spirits”, and clapping in “Hark! the echoing air” are just irritating.

Secondly, there’s a lot of tinkering. Why perform the duet from the Passacaglia in King Arthur as a solo, with the baritone part played on the cello? Why add strings to “Sweeter than roses?” Why sing “Hush, no more” at all, when it was written for a bass? Maddening, as I said; but enjoyable, all the same.