At the age of 24, the Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva is already attracting considerable attention. Her ability to carry off with such aplomb this (nearly) all-Handel programme, skilfully accompanied by the Italian period-instrument orchestra Il Giardino Armonico under its director Giovanni Antonini, amply demonstrated why.

Hers is a light soprano, with a delicate range of colours and, at its best,a gentle radiance that casts a tangible spell in slow music. In fast music, too, she delivers the vocal goods, defining each and every note in rapidfire coloratura passages while also positioning them carefully within the wider context of each phrase or section.

Words, though, are something of a weak spot; she made relatively little of her texts, with consonants apparent yet rarely mined for their full expressive potential. In Agrippina's aria Pensieri, Voi mi Tormentate from the eponymous opera, her pristine tone was on the sweet and innocent side for Handel's scheming Roman matriarch. Her opener, Pugneran con noi le Stelle from Rodrigo, felt a little hasty.

There were undoubted highlights nevertheless. Two arias from the early allegorical oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno were despatched with immaculate ease, while Lezhneva conjured her most luminous tone for the middle section of Un Pensiero Nemico di Pace. She shone, equally, in two larger motets in the middle of the programme, Saeviat Tellus Inter Rigores and Salve Regina, where the perfect stillness at the centre of her artistry found unforgettable spiritual expression.

From many points of view, Antonini and his historically informed ensemble matched her approach to a nicety; their playing offered character without excess, and their tone substance without heaviness. All their accompaniments were vividly sketched, though they really came into their own in two concerti grossi by Handel and another by his London-based Italian colleague, Francesco Geminiani.