Concerto a due cori No 1 in B flat - Handel

Christmas Cantata - Alessandro

Scarlatti Christmas Concerto - Corelli

Dies natalis - Finzi

Overture in D - Bach

Alessandro Scarlatti is counted among the great composers, but he has always been overshadowed by his son Domenico, the man who wrote all those harpsichord sonatas. A pity, because his Cantata pastorale per la nativita di Nostro Signore Gesu Christo is a beautiful work with a particularly memorable last movement. The soprano Catherine Bott sang it despite indisposition, and the warmth and clarity of her voice were nevertheless evident both here and in Gerald Finzi's setting of mystical texts by Thomas Traherne. Finzi's postElgarian idiom does not yield up its secrets at a first hearing, but Roy Goodman's understanding and flexible approach helped to put it over.

Goodman is of course best-Known as a baroque specialist, and the Corelli concerto was lively, clear, and sympathetic. The pastoral final movement flowed nicely, and the earlier movements were enlivened by some stylish and discreet ornamentation from the leader Lesley Hatfield and from Goodman himself on the harpsichord.

Oddly enough, it was the two best-known composers who appeared to least advantage. The Handel concerto (for an orchestra with two woodwind groups) is an arrangement by Handel himself from his earlier music, including our old friend And the glory of the Lord from Messiah. It would have needed a particularly sympathetic performance to save this rather bitty work from sounding pedestrian, and an extra rehearsal or two would not have harmed the Bach piece, an early version, minus trumpets and drums, of the first movement of the Orchestral Suite No. 4.