Handel wrote his setting of Dryden’s ode Song for St Cecilia’s Day in 1739 to flesh out a revival of Alexander’s Feast (also a Cecilian ode by Dryden). There are a couple of excellent recordings by Trevor Pinnock (Archiv, 1/87R) and Robert King (Hyperion, A/04), but Diego Fasolis directs his Swiss-Italian forces in a neatly characterised and pleasing performance.

Jeremy Ovenden avoids trills in the opening accompanied recitative a bit too often for my taste but sings with directness and ardent clarity. Julia Gooding is a little shrill in “What passion cannot Music raise and quell” (though the solo cellist shows an admirable deftness of touch), although her performance of “But oh! what art can teach” is effective and beautiful. The finest aspects of the ode’s performance are the refined moulding of the choral phrases and the excellent playing from I Barocchisti. Fasolis achieves plenty of sympathetic tastefulness in orchestral textures (eg lightly articulated, almost humming, double-bass notes for accompanying the choral declamation of “the open diapason closing full in man”).

Organ continuo is too prominent throughout; but the performance of the Organ Concerto No 13 is enchanting, with soloist Francesco Cera displaying fluent technique and choosing appealing registrations. Zadok the Priest is taken at quite a brisk pace but the pulsing oboe parts in the introduction are smudged and the choral entry is a bit clumsy.