Handel was not the only musical visitor at Cannons, the country estate of James Brydges (the Earl of Carnarvon, later the Duke of Chandos). Another frequent guest was Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667-1752), a leading light in the formation of the original Academy of Ancient Music. In 1719 he was appointed director of the Cannons Concert, the ensemble of household musicians that had grown from small beginnings (one or two singers and a few instruments in 1716) to an orchestra of half a dozen violins, one viola, one or two cellos, a double bass, oboe, trumpet and bassoon, and a choir of around seven adult singers and some boy trebles. This is exactly the scale adopted by Robert Rawson and The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen for Pepusch’s Chandos anthem Rejoyce in the Lord (Christmas Day 1719) and Magnificat (1720): a consort of seven expert soloists takes the lead in choruses reinforced by girl choristers from Canterbury Cathedral, and the orchestra has up to 14 players.

The Sinfonia of Rejoyce in the Lord has Will Russell’s buoyant solo trumpet pitted against pastoral-tinged strings. Ciara Hendrick and Alex Potter’s graceful interweaving in the duet ‘Praise the Lord with harp’ has counterparts in the lyrical concertante playing of violinist Tassilo Erhardt and oboist Mark Baigent. Another duet, ‘For faithful is the word of God’, is navigated mellifluously by Nicholas Mulroy and Nicholas Todd. Celebratory choruses resemble a meeting point between Purcell and Vivaldi, yet those looking for elements closer to Handel will find them in the lively choral setting of ‘The swelling floods together roll’d’.

The expensive chapel at Cannons was completed in August 1720, and its inauguration might have prompted Pepusch’s Magnificat. The influence of Lotti permeates the fusion of melodious soloists, eloquent chorus, running bass lines and adroit obbligato violins, and there are declamatory ritornellos akin to a tempestuous Vivaldi concerto in the duet ‘He hath put down the mighty from their seat’ (sung fervently by Hugh Cutting and Vitali Rozynko). Pepusch’s ability as a contrapuntist is proven by the doxology’s triple fugue replete with trumpet and oboe.

After Baigent’s vivacious performance of a single da capo movement oboe concerto, the survey concludes with the smaller-scale O praise the Lord, laud ye the name of the Lord. Just four solo voices in the unusual combination of soprano, two countertenors and bass are joined by only two cellos and continuo. The trio ‘O praise the Lord, for the Lord is gracious’ places two countertenors and bass in sublime conversation with a pair of rapturous cellos. This concise anthem was prepared for the Cannons chapel some time before January 1721, by which time the extravagant Duke’s financial bubble had started to burst. The profligacy of Brydges’s heir caused Cannons to be demolished for scrap in the 1740s, but the chapel’s ceiling – a gorgeous Annunciation painted by Antonio Bellucci – was reinstalled in Great Witley Church in Worcestershire, and is illustrated on the front cover and the booklet.