Expectations aroused by this group’s recording of the first five of Handel’s ever-pleasurable Op. 6 Concertos (9/97) are, happily, fulfilled in this continuation of the set. The same qualities of vitality, clean-cut articulation, crisp rhythm and effective but natural-sounding tonal contrasts are in evidence; and except, rightly, in the sombre colours in the splendid Sixth (G minor) Concerto – here played with Handel’s extra oboe parts and with the agreeable addition of a theorbo to the continuo – there is a general air of cheerfulness about the performances that is most engaging. The fugue in No. 7 is wittily buoyant, the Allegro in No. 9 borrowed from the Cuckoo and the nightingale Organ Concerto could scarcely be more high-spirited, the final Passepied of No. 6 and the Hornpipe of No. 7 are spring-toed; and Standage’s feeling for convincing tempos is nowhere better shown than in the long Musette of No. 6, which too often, in other hands, can drag. Phrasing everywhere is shapely, and the surprise chords that interrupt the flow of No. 8’s Allemande are admirably ‘placed’. (Another surprise here, however, is that the disc’s producer writes that “each of this movement’s two sections is repeated” when he doesn’t make the players do this.) A thoroughly enjoyable disc, cleanly recorded: now for the completion of the 12 concertos, please!'