People often tell me, enviously, that I have a lovely job. It’s true. I do. And rarely have I been so aware of that than when I arrived at Wigmore Hall for a whole evening of Handel, focusing on his time in Rome in the first decade of the eighteenth century

Moreover this was the first time I’ve seen the Dunedin Consort live. Their original instruments and way of working are fascinating. Everyone who can is standing to play (so not, the keyboard player, cellists and theorbo player, obviously). Violins are played without chin or shoulder rests. There are no metal adjusters on tail pieces either so there’s a great deal of careful retuning between works. The gut strings sound mellow but vibrant. Players use very little vibrato and not much position shifting – presumably because, in the early eighteenth century, Handel was writing for shorter necked instruments. All string players are using Baroque bows – stockier and tighter than modern ones and typically held a few inches higher up the stick than usual.

Matthew Truscott – standing in to cover an illness – is a dynamic leader, using his whole body to keep the consort together with much eye contact and many smiles. He also gave us some virtuosic solo work, calmly blended into the ensemble, and proved himself an entertaining and informative speaker when he addressed the audience in the second half. Also in the second half Alison McGillivray switched from cello to viola da gamba – bowing underhand so that it the faster passages she looked as if she was stirring a pudding but the sound was pretty riveting.

The real high spot of the evening, however, was soprano Nardus Williams. After the overture and two other short orchestral items from Admeto she sang Ero e Leandro. Simply dressed in plain red silk, she has a way with impassive passion and intensely understated anguish as her Ero loses her lover. There was some immaculately sensitive duetting with Truscott, McGillvray and Rafael Arjona Ruz on theorbo. Williams found exactly the right resonance for the warm acoustic of Wigmore Hall in both this and in Tu del ciel ministro eletto from Il trionfo del Tempo Disinganno which followed it in a different mood.

After the interval we got the Concerto Grosso in C minor Op 6, No 6. The largo was suitably broad and the a tempo guisto second movement stressed all the colour implied by the word “chromatic”. Truscott was clearly having fun with it. The musette was played with elegant prettiness and there were lots of triumphantly virtuosic moments in both the allegro movements.

Then Nardus Williams returned for two final works: Tra le fiamme and Per me gia di morire from La Resurrezione, now finding more animated drama mostly in the lower part of her register in the former. And goodness me the bell like sound of that wooden oboe (Frances Norbury) playing descending scales with Truscott and McGillvray and then with Williams, as Mary Magdalene, will stay with me for a long time.

As if that weren’t enough – rapturous applause – there was then an encore. A short cantata from Aminta dating from the same period. It lilts along in 6|8 as the singer heads towards the sea and certainly sent me away with a happy spring in my step.

Susan Elkin