Album: Apollo's Fire, Handel (Avie)

The Cleveland-based early-music ensemble Apollo's Fire are responsible for some of the most enjoyable Vivaldi interpretations I've heard, so I was intrigued to hear how they treat the more mannered territory traversed by Handel here. The ensemble's leaner forces make for a more flexible "Zadok The Priest" (originally written for more than 150 instruments), the Apollo's singers by no means understating the piece's majesty, before tackling the complexity of the "Dixit Dominus" with aplomb. There's a rich, malty flavour to the ensemble's strings throughout, while trumpeter Barry Bauguess provides a showstopping moment with his trumpet work on the opening arioso of "Eternal Source Of Light Divine".

Download: Eternal Source Of Light Divine; Dixit Dominus; Zadok The Priest