Prepare to be completely hooked by these superb Handel performances

Handel’s six Op. 3 Concerti Grossi were stitched together from existing works for publication as a money-spinner in 1734, probably without his knowledge. Accademia Bizantina, directed from the keyboard by Ottavio Dantone, highlight the outstanding quality of their melodic invention and musical diversity, the strikingly consistent characteristics of pieces written between c. 1712 and 1724. They bring out the music’s Italianate passion and joie de vivre, revel in the surging rhythmic elan of Handel’s fleet-footed “Allegros” and allow his lyrical slow movements to unfurl with grace and charm. The performances in general and of the Concerti Grossi Nos 4 and 5 in particular deliver a masterclass in how to shape compelling rhetorical gestures in Baroque music. There’s an addictive energy and flair to this recording that Handel would surely have loved.