Vivaldi - La Serenissima - Manchester Evening News

Sitting in the pub next to Kendal Parish Church (the aptly named Ring O'Bells) one summer evening at the Lake District Summer Music festival, I noticed a smart-looking young man leaning on the bar, quaffing his soft drink.

He looked as if he could have been a prospective Conservative party candidate. In fact, he was Adrian Chandler, the leading UK virtuoso of the baroque violin today, and he was about to join Trevor Pinnock's sizzling Brandenburg Concertos performance.

Now he presents his credentials as arranger, director and performer, in company with young soprano Mhairi Lawson, whose voice in this repertoire is one to die for.

She recreates Vivaldi's cantatas with riveting passion, and the entire disc - with two world premieres of "Graz" sonatas with bass parts newly realised by Chandler, just to be going on with - is an immensely enjoyable programme, one you can just sit down and listen to from end to end. Chandler's violin playing is not just precise and stylish, it pulsates with rhythmic and melodic life.