Where would music be without femmes fatales? In presenting Geminiani’s score for the 1754 pantomime The Enchanted Forest, Les Passions de l’Ame (a Swiss baroque ensemble based in Bern) realise that in the absence of any visual element this instrumental music, however well played, would lack a certain something. How sensible then to programme a cantata by Handel on the same subject (namely from Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata).

Enter our temptress, Armida. This scarlet woman bewitches a crusader, Rinaldo, and holds him in thrall to her charms. Rinaldo’s comrades break the witch’s spell and the abandoned Armida is left to lament her fate, even as she tries to win back her beloved with magic and womanly wiles.

The clear, stylish singing of soprano Robin Johannsen provides a welcome contrast to the relatively long stretches of Geminiani’s rather mannered concerti grossi, especially given the variety of moods encapsulated in Handel’s cantata. Her rage aria, Venti, fermate, sì, is an excellent contrast to the more resigned final aria.

Les Passions de l’Ame play with dedication and establish their credentials with a fiery account of Geminiani’s own arrangement of Corelli’s take on La Follia. It’s a pity that the rest of Geminiani’s music lacks the...