For some years Carolyn Watkinson has been collecting good notices for her performances in baroque opera, often in castrato roles, for which she has many of the requisites, notably a clean firm tone and decisive delivery (not to mention when it comes to stage performance, her height and her bearing). The present disc offers some baroque pops—and later ones, for by no stretch of the imagination or the borderlines of history could Gluck's Orfeo be called baroque. Watkinson gives an excellent account of these pieces, stylish, musicianly, tasteful. In Dido's lament she excusably allows herself a little more vibrato than might be ideal, and the top Gs don't sound easy. ''Ombra mai M'' ('Handel's Largo') is gently done, as befits a eulogy of a tree, and the famous Rodelinda aria has a pleasing natural expressiveness, there is a very little ornamentation, discreet, in the da capo. But of the Handel items it is, I think, the Hercules song, Dejanira's expression of remorse, that is outstanding, for her splendid passionate expression and powerful attack.
The Gluck pieces are impressive too, ''Che faro'' being very nicely judged at a sensible tempo (here again she does not always resist the temptation to use a touch of vibrato). This said, I have to add that the performances, immensely capable, unfailingly musical as they are, and probably as good as any mezzo today could offer, don't often thrill or inspire, perhaps there isn't much individuality or strength of muscial personality behind them. Admittedly, the recording and the orchestral playing do not always help. For a recital disc the balance favours the band inordinately; sometimes the voice gets submerged within the texture. And the playing leaves something to be desired: this group is one that considers ''the language of baroque music more important than the sound idiom of original 18th century instruments'' (I quote the note): well, that's one of those fatuous statements on the subject that we often read—if you use a wrongly balanced bow, for instance, you can't articulate the music the way it was meant to be articulated as the rough, coarse accompaniment to the Ariodante aria here (to cite one example) all too clearly demonstrates.'