What a delectable cast Christian Curnyn has gathered for his new recording of Acis and Galatea. Lucy Crowe’s Galatea is joined by three outstanding British tenors – Allan Clayton’s Acis, Ben Hulett as fellow shepherd Damon, and Jeremy Budd as Coridon. Add go-to Handelian bass-baritone Neal Davies as Polyphemus and rising soprano Rowan Pierce to fill out choruses, and you have a baroque dream-team even before you get to Curnyn and his superb period orchestra.

From a crisp opening Sinfonia, crackling with gut-texture and energy, to a graceful closing chorus, Acis is served supremely well here. The plot – in which the carefree, pastoral love of Acis and Galatea is...