This excellent Handel album, essentially as good as it gets in this repertoire, features music originally sung by the English tenor John Beard (1715-1791) who was for 25 years, as the title suggests Handel’s favourite tenor. Allan Clayton, accompanied by the choir and orchestra of Classical Opera directed by Ian Page sounds really well in music, some of which is familiar, like the title aria from Semele, but quite a lot of which is not at all well known, and should be. Stuff like “Tune Your Harps to Cheerful Strains” from Esther, where Clayton duets most beautifully with the delightfully played oboe of James Eastaway. Eastaway also features in a duet “As Steals the Morn” which also features the soprano Mary Bevan. This 69 minute CD really is a delight, and I cannot recommend it too highly.