Handel’s Dixit Dominus, the magnificent psalm setting composed in Rome in 1707, seems to have an eternal power to startle and delight in equal measure. This performance captures the flamboyant tension and precocious genius that must have struck the 22-year-old’s Roman patrons like a thunderbolt. The superb Balthasar-Neumann Choir possess laudable clarity and precision, although the in-house male soloists are less impressive than their rivals for John Eliot Gardiner and Andrew Parrott.

The soprano duet ‘De torrente’ is ideally hushed and plaintive, but apocalyptic moments such as ‘Juravit Dominus’ make Thomas Hengelbrock’s version comparable with the most striking in the catalogue. I have rarely heard the staccato chords on ‘conquassabit’ delivered with such impeccably controlled aggression. The orchestra is magnificent, with the contrast between first and second violins presented in thrilling SACD sound. Two theorbo players drive the music along with firm determination and make the opening of the ‘Gloria’ snap with an energetic bite.

Some of Hengelbrock’s most important work has been the championing of Italian Baroque sacred music (especially Lotti). This time it is the turn of Antonio Caldara, a Venetian active in Rome at about the same time as Handel and was subsequently the most popular and prolific composer at the Viennese court of Emperor Charles VI. The Kyrie of the Missa dolorosa, composed in 1735, instantly establishes that Caldara was infinitely more than a mediocre talent blessed by good fortune, although the feeling persists that the Mass was made to fit circumstances rather than to endure for posterity. Its splendid moments range from the graceful bassoon solo in ‘Domine Fili’ to an abrasively dramatic ‘Et resurrexit’. Caldara’s reputation is further restored by the gorgeous 16-part Crucifixus which rounds off this exceptional disc. Highly recommended.