Julia Lezhneva performs nine arias and a Marian hymn all composed during Handel’s extended trip to Italy between late 1706 and early 1710. This conceptual theme has been done several times before, and the clichéd choices of arias are disappointing. The only less predictable choices are ‘Tecum principium’ from Dixit Dominus (which does not work as a concert item out of context) and Esilena’s ‘Per dar pregio all’amor mio’ from Rodrigo (one of several numbers featuring finely shaded violin solos by guest concertmaster Dmitry Sinkovsky).

Reservations about the complacent concept are diminished by Lezhneva’s singing – crystalline in tone and dazzlingly precise in the rapid passagework of the Angel’s ‘Disseratevi, o porte d’Averno’ from La Resurrezione (played by Il Giardino Armonico with their customary snap, crackle and pop). Lezhneva’s wallowingly gorgeous ‘Lascia la spina’ will please plenty of punters but I found it neglectful of the specific nature of the dramatic text; instead of conveying Piacere’s attempt to beguile Bellezza to choose short-term carnality over long-term virtue, this sounds uncannily like a particularly self-indulgent stab at Almirena’s plaint in Rinaldo (Handel’s music is very similar on paper, but the words and dramatic intentions of the characters means that it is not merely the same). The opening of Salve regina is sung as beautifully as I’ve ever heard it, so it is a pity that the editor has left too much silence before the imploring sublimity of ‘Ad te clamamus’. The theatricality of Agrippina’s desperate soliloquy ‘Pensieri, voi mi tormentate’ is neatly captured.

Giovanni Antonini usually adopts gratifying tempi; he also plays flute obbligato over a charming pizzicato accompaniment in Dafne’s wistful ‘Felicissima quest’alma’ (Handel composed the part for an oboe but it is hard to imagine he would have minded this much). Lezhneva’s economical restraint and emotional truthfulness are spellbinding in Bellezza’s ‘Tu del ciel ministro eletto’, but this is not quite matched by Sinkovsky’s meandering embellishment of the obbligato violin part. This curate’s egg of a disc sometimes misses its mark on multiple levels but at its best there are some special moments that every Handelian will savour.