Visually, it might provide one of the most magnificent settings imaginable, but aurally, Canterbury Cathedral proved a tricky venue for the English Concert to succeed in at the start of its autumn tour. The period-instrument orchestra's strings in particular suffered in terms of clarity and focus in an acoustic whose reverberation recedes into infinity. There were moments when you felt that you were hearing not just the bar they were playing, but also the bar before, and the bar before that. However, the stone surfaces gave the oboes, trumpets and drums a grand enveloping resonance in the first work, Bach's Third Orchestral Suite, while Andrew Manze's direction kept the show on the road even in the fastest and most densely contrapuntal passages.

He took on the soloist's role in Bach's Violin Concerto in A Minor. Always a spirited player, Manze brought an imaginative sense of character to each phrase that made this a more flamboyant performance than is regularly met with in historically correct circles. In addition, his strong feeling for tempo kept the slow movement's chord sequences purposefully on the move.

The second half was a selection from Handel's Water Music - a work this orchestra has previously played in the equally recalcitrant acoustic of the river Thames, where the very first performance took place during George I's royal barge party one summer night in 1717. There's not a weak number in the entire three suites Handel wrote for the occasion, and Manze's choice took in quite a few familiar favourites. Here, one or two slower pieces lacked pace, and, though the horns were as well served by the cathedral's sonic ambience as the trumpets had been earlier, it could not save them from a handful of out-of-tune notes. But generally Handel's textures were kept open and lucid, and his graceful airs and dances bounced healthily along.