It seems like this is a new era in which every singer of repute must do a Handel album. Few of the products, however pleasant they might be, tell us anything interesting about why Handel matters. Ian Bostridge’s voice does not sound at home in Handel: his lower notes and last syllables are often swollen, as are cautiously placed excursions to the top of his voice; vowels are frequently squeezed out in a strange manner (“Total eclipse” has some extraordinary sounds) and coloratura passages are heavily aspirated. There is scant dramatic conviction in the communication of text. The nicest moments here are the gentle pastoral airs from Semele and Acis and Galatea, but the inclusion of “Ombra mai fù” (the so-called “Largo”) is commercialism of the lamest and most clichéd kind.

In his booklet essay Bostridge overstates the significance and merit of Handel’s infrequent transposition of soprano vocal parts down an octave, but no one should dispute that Bostridge can sing whatever he likes – he makes a decent fist of “Scherza infida”, although I am less convinced by a laboured tenor timbre in “Dopo notte”. With so much fine repertoire for the tenor voice easy to discover in Handel’s lesser-known operas, Bostridge could have shown more sense of adventure (not least the arias Handel composed for a tenor Sesto in the 1725 revival of Giulio Cesare, which have never been recorded). It is startling that anyone thought the duet “Happy we” would work on a recital disc, and the inclusion of an unremarkable “Comfort ye…Ev’ry valley” suggests a lack of better ideas. The OAE plays attractively, and Harry Bicket moves things along nicely. One imagines that this will sell like hot cakes, but it is a wasted opportunity.