As her career has progressed, Watts hasn't lost the ability to get to the heart of an aria and peel back the layers…there's scintillating playing from The English Concert, including a dashing obbilgato solo by violinist Huw Daniel in 'Esci omai'.

it’s amazing, tightrope walking stuff there; the fact that she can control her vibrato and actually distinguish between a trill and that vibrato and some of those high notes; the sheer tone quality is astonishing, and the way she’s managing to blend with the trumpet; this is a contest without an obvious winner, and that’s very much in the recording’s favour.

The music is fascinating, often revelatory, the playing of The English Concert first-rate (Laurence Cummings always has a precise ear for texture and colour), while the mingled grace, brilliance and expressive intensity of Watt’s singing could hardly be bettered.

Here given new life with the invigorating English Concert, skittering firework displays alternate with soulful contemplation in a programme full of surprises.

Golden-voiced soprano Elizabeth Watts has spent the past few years unearthing neglected arias by Alessandro Scarlatti...Watts just about gets away with the spectacular pyrotechnics but is most affecting when Scarlatti takes his foot off the accelerator.

this is exciting music, revealing an enormous range of colour and emotions through both scoring and vocal line. Watts grabs every opportunity with a voice of perfect weight, pliancy and line, offering a solid middle balanced with an exciting top.

Watts and director Laurence Cummings give us a dazzling sequence of numbers. Her voice is thrilling at full pelt: brassy enough to make your windows rattle, but sensitive and seductive in the quieter moments. There’s some glorious, athletic trumpet playing from Mark Bennett, and the whole anthology fizzes with theatrical energy.

Trumpeter Mark Bennett joins the singer occasionally, most effectively in the martial A battaglia, where soprano and brass battle it out for the virtuoso honours, while violinist Huw Daniel also vies for attention in an extended sequence from the serious opera Mitridate. But the album, of course, belongs to Watts, who receives nothing but the most sympathetic support from Laurence Cummings and The English Concert.