Apollo's Singers,Apollo's Fire/Jeannette SorrellAvieAV 2270 ****

This disc focuses on Handel as pragmatist and masterly musical chameleon: a young German Protestant setting a psalm in Latin in the style of Catholic Italy; a recent arrival in England adopting English musical manners in a birthday ode for an anti-German queen; and, later, a pillar of the musical establishment, writing a coronation ode for one of her successors. The Cleveland-based baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire frame their live recordings with an introductory timpani solo by Philidor and the chorus The Lord Shall Reign from Handel's Israel in Egypt. With unfussy musical direction by Jeannette Sorrell, it really has the feel of a concert experience. url.ie/e8oo