Chandler’s tempos are invariably ‘just so’ – expertly executed, spaciously recorded, the disc consolidates and celebrates the ensemble’s Vivaldian roots as its 25th anniversary year beckons. Quarter of a century or no, La Serenissima’s youthful mojo shines brightly!

It’s a feast of pleasures right from its RV539 kick-off: the most glittering of Vivaldi’s two double horn concertos…headed up here by soloists Anneke Scott and Jocelyn Lightfoot with some fantastically nimble, neat, exuberant period horn-playing…However, you’ll forget to miss the horns here in the concerto, RV538, because what we get instead is another soloist to whom I could listen all day, cellist Vladimir Waltham; hear his gently grainy, luminous tone and his sighing trills, and fall in love.

It’s exuberantly joyful from start to finish, and the players’ enjoyment of this holiday spirit is palpable in cheeky shades of rubato license, in lusty tuttis and in pair-solo passages that seem to bespeak an almost telepathic level of mutual understanding between the soloists…Pride of place has to go to the incredible talent of the two horn soloists Anneke Scott and Jocelyn Lightfoot.

Under Chandler, the playing, vibrant yet polished to perfection, is superb.