This delightful disc might have been billed as ‘Mendelssohn the Reviver’, since under the influence of Friedrich Zelter, his composition teacher and conductor of the Berlin Singakademie, not only Bach but also Handel gained from Mendelssohn’s ministrations on behalf of neglected Baroque masters in the late 1820s. Once a choral singer’s favourite, Acis and Galatea probably receives fewer performances these days, which is regrettable since it has more than its fair share of sublime Handelian melodic riches. Mendelssohn’s score, rediscovered in 2005 and now in the Bodleian Library, is essentially a filling-out of Handel’s original chamber-sized texture which Mozart had previously reworked in 1788 at van Swieten’s behest. The only previous recording (sung in German and conducted by Nicholas McGegan – Carus, 1/09) dates from 2008. The Oxford singers perform in English.

Mendelssohn’s treatment is sympathetic to the original. He heightens the dramatic thrust by chopping down several da capo arias and omitting the air ‘As when the dove’. High points of his orchestral ‘colouring-in’ include the clarinets in ‘Consider, fond shepherd’ and the energetic punches of Tristan Fry’s timpani. The Oxford Philomusica are on sparkling form. Just five of the work’s 28 movements employ the chorus. Their contribution is solid and secure. The soloists’ contributions are more variable, with a few untidy moments of ensemble between both tenors and orchestra. However, in ‘O ruddier than the cherry’, Brindley Sherratt (Polyphemus) is on stupendous form and Nathan Vale (Damon) covers his running passages with ease, despite a strong vibrato; Benjamin Dale is an agile Acis and Jeni Bern brings a caressingly light touch as the sea-nymph Galatea.