Any Handelian who missed the Alceste music first time round should take advantage of this reissue. The pieces were written late in Handel's life, designed for a production of Tobias Smollett's play in 1750 in some kind of 'semi-opera' form, with masque-like sections independent from the main action. It never happened, and Handel later recycled the music, in The Choice of Hercules.
Christopher Hogwood directs impeccably stylish performances, with plenty of rhythmic life and neat orchestral playing. There is an excellent solo team: I specially enjoyed Paul Elliott's immaculate and unpretentious athleticism in the two tenor arias, in particular ''Ye swift minutes as ye fly'', and above all Emma Kirkby's still-centred, hauntingly lovely singing of ''Gentle Morpheus, son of Night''. Definitely not to be missed.
And now there is a bonus: the music Handel wrote in 1745 as an epilogue to Arne's version of Milton's Comus, presumed lost but rediscovered by Anthony Hicks 20 years ago. The three songs are sung here with much charm by Patrizia Kwella, Margaret Cable and David Thomas, with what is in effect a 'chorus' refrain—all done on a modest, chamber-music scale appropriate to the music and its original purpose. A very pleasing disc, beautifully recorded.'