Hallenberg is on scintillating form, fluent alike in bravura, of which Graun's 'Mi paventi' with horns provides a dazzling example, and cantilena. The instrumental support provided by Il Pomo d'Oro under its director Riccardo Minasi is generally crisp and alert.

With her gleaming high mezzo, evenly produced over a wide range, dazzling agility (no hint of aspirates in the reams of coloratura) and specific sense of character, Ann Hallenberg does this trio of ladies proud...an enterprising recital of fine, largely unknown music, performed with style, flair and tonal beauty by a mezzo unsurpassed in Baroque opera today.

Hallenberg's singing pf this kind of repertoire is today simply peerless, while the considerable interest of the concept only adds to the value of a disc that is scarcely less than a treasure.

she delivers splendid accounts of the lilting Ogni vento, a searing Pensieri and a deliciously airy L’alma mia fra le tempeste, which make one hope for a complete recording...Hallenberg’s singing both moves and dazzles, while Minasi’s band is deft and stylish.

singers will be queueing up to include Mi Paventi from Graun’s Britannico in their recitals, and there’s an equally dazzling vengeance aria by Orlandini, in which Riccardo Minasi’s orchestra, Il Pomo d’Oro, really lets fly. Hallenberg is as convincing in these as she is in the more reflective numbers, and her three arias from Handel’s opera are very classily done, too.

In mostly unknown opera arias inspired by three different Agrippina characters, mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg shows enormous versatility: each Agrippina comes to life in her own way, with the appropriate feelings. Ann Hallenberg’s singing is technically stunning, and Il pomo d’Oro, conducted by Riccardo Minasi, adds vibrant colours and rhythmic vitality to this wonderful recording.