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SITE RATING:  8/10 SITE REVIEW:  Another attempt to recreate the original "Dublin" premiere performance of 1742, this bright new recording by Hans-Christoff Rademann and the Gaechinger Cantorey embraces Baroque performance techniques, but doesn't eschew warmth and accessibility in the process.  Recorded in the Margarethenkirche Gotha, September 2019, the recording possesses a natural ambience in recorded sound, and the playing and singing are precise and controlled.  Tenor Benedikt Kristjansson is very good - a natural, unforced timbre gives his arias an unstudied, but pleasing sound, with only the hint of vibrato, his tone is straight, but full of expression.  Baritone Tobias Berndt has more of a natural vibrato, but again, is unforced, and his warm timbre is very pleasing.  The Gaechinger Cantorey are quite spectacular - with wonderful clear tones, marvelous unity, and good diction, containing just a hint of their German origin.  Counter-tenor Benno Schachtner is fine, with a creamy tone, but giving some odd accents to his readings, and being the most 'mannered' of the soloists, his readings are more studied, and less purely natural - I found him the weakest of the four soloists - calling attention to himself with distracting ornamentation.  Soprano Dorothee Fields has a rich tone and fruity vibrato which I enjoyed - she has a cheerful timbre which brings welcome lightness to her arias.  Tempos are generally moderate, and occasionally workmanlike, but the recording has several moments of undeniable beauty - and rates as one of the more accomplished recordings in recent memory.  Recommended.

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