Young Handel was a quick learner. Having moved to Rome in 1707, he had already received a major commission early that year from Cardinal Colonna to compose music for the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to be celebrated in the church of Santa Maria di Monte Santo in July. Such a feat shows not only the upcoming composer’s ability to master the prevailing Italian musical style but also a social adroitness that was to hold him in good stead for most of his life.

The three vesper psalms recorded here (Dixit Dominus, Nisi Dominus and Laudate Pueri) are some of Handel’s first great successes in the sacred genre, showing his skill at adopting a formula but never making it sound hackneyed. Justin Doyle and the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin bring plenty of verve to these performances, pointing out the striking contrasts between each section.

From the bustling, buoyant opening of Dixit Dominus we are aware of impressive agility of the singers and players who extract maximum dramatic effect for the score’s rhetorical utterances, for example the shuddering treatment of “Conquassabit capita” (He shall crush the heads) contrasting with the amiable pastoral scene...