Sampson is quite remarkable. She has the capacity to soften the vocal line with carefully controlled vibrato, but also deploys tone of crystalline clarity...bright, vibrant, responsive and entirely in tune with the expressive language and virtuosic demands of the period.

don't be put off by the apparently recherche repertoire: this is a programme that leases as much today as it did in [Fel's]...the longer we listen to Sampson's voice, the more she seems to inhabit the aura of Fel...Sampson's performance is the more admirable for evoking the spirit of another singer. Start to finish, Jeffrey Skidmore devotedly shapes and paces the programme.

Sampson is here in glorious voice. She turns ornaments with the exquisite skill of a master jeweller. The support from Skidmore and his excellent chorus and orchestra is unfailingly accomplished and idiomatic. It is difficult to envisage a more fitting tribute to one of the great divas of the past, a singer of whom her friend Voltaire said, ‘Those who have only ears, admire you; those with feeling as well as ears love you.’

I’m sure Jeffrey Skidmore and Ex Cathedra won’t mind me saying this is a very English interpretation...Sampson sings it all beautifully: words, affect, heart and spirit in everything, plus the most natural-sounding control in the coloratura. A really lovely disc of rare and beautiful music, performed with love.