A Vital Force

'... robust, spring-heeled performances ...'

In the immediate wake of their debut recording ('Alexander's Feast', Delphian: DCD 34094), the Scottish period ensemble Ludus Baroque present a second Handel release.

The group's instrumentalists are hand-picked from across the UK -- similarly the chorus of nineteen is winnowed from Britain's top early music consorts. With soprano Mary Bevan and tenor Ed Lyon in the mix, Canongate's MD, Neville-Towle, can hardly go wrong.

Mary Bevan (born Hertford, 1985) attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where she studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic and sang with Alison Wells...