Handel: Song for St Cecilia's Day – review

The autumn of 1739 was a fruitful one for Handel; he produced his Song for St Cecilia's Day in a mere 10 days before embarking on 12 "Grand Concertos" which he completed before the end of October. Ludus Baroque couple one of these with St Cecilia in this beguiling new disc, which follows their success last year with Alexander's Feast . Radiant soprano Mary Bevan is in glorious form in "What passion cannot music raise and quell?", while the chorus is outstanding throughout, singing with beautiful diction and a light, springy edge. And exciting Ed Lyon confirms his place as one of Britain's top baroque tenors in the 1736 miniature cantata "Look down, harmonious saint", another hymn of praise to music, "that all-persuading art".