Bostridge, Europa Galante, Barbican

We have good days and we have bad days. Ian Bostridge, at last night’s concert at the Barbican, was not having one of his better ones. But time and CD releases wait for no man, and so he gamely ploughed through his programme of music written for three great Baroque tenors (no prizes for guessing what the title of the album is – do you think EMI would pass up an opportunity like that?), and by the end appeared a little more comfortable than at what was a rather tentative start.

The concept is actually quite an interesting one. Most of us could tell you about that castrato-extraordinaire Farinelli, or his compatriot Senesino. Many of us know of the famous soprano rivalries between Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni. But somehow the tenors of the day have been knocked off the rostrum. Perhaps it’s because in the majority of Handel’s operas the best roles go to castrati: despite a welcome resurgence in Vivaldi’s operas in recent years, we don’t tend to hear so much Scarlatti, Conti, Caldara or Boyce, where there are more opportunities for the tenor. Either way, Three Baroque Tenors offers a good chance to hear some less familiar music performed in an interestingly crafted programme.

We got a mixture of instrumental works, from Italian ensemble Europa Galante (more of them later), and six arias, two written for each of the tenors in question. Francesco Borosini was perhaps the most well known of the three: he arrived in London amid great tan-ta-ra from roles in Venice and Vienna, and Handel promptly wrote the part of Bajazet for him in Tamerlano. Last night we heard a pugnacious aria from Caldara’s Gioaz and one of three arias added to the (originally castrato) role of Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare. Perhaps it was Bostridge’s cold, but neither of these arias really hit the heights. He was much more suited to the music of English tenor John Beard: William Boyce’s “Softly rise, O southern breeze!” from Solomon was all murmuring streams and whispering bulrushes, with a bassoon obbligato that was almost hornlike in its mellowness. Similarly “From celestial seats descending” from Handel’s Hercules was more successful: Bostridge was able to match Beard’s "expressive and intelligent interpretative ability" much better than the pizzazz of Borosini.

The two arias written for Annibale Pio Fabri covered music by Alessandro Scarlatti and a starkly effective number by Vivaldi: “La tiranna e avversa sorte” from Arsilda. Not all the tragedy and feeling came through: Bostridge has a tendency to lean on one leg in a slightly detached/slightly embarrassed manner – one imagines him propping himself against a 19th-century mantelpiece singing parlour songs at an “at home” – and it doesn’t always lend itself to the heightened emotions of these operatic works.

But boy, did Fabio Biondi and his band Europa Galante give us value for money. His ensemble is the dryly witty uncle of Italian Baroque groups: it doesn’t set out to shock, perhaps, but it comes up with some fantastic stories, and it grips you from start to finish. Biondi was pleasingly unostentatious in his direction; in fact, there was very little obvious direction at all (nor did there need to be, such was the sense of ensemble among the players), and when, in the first encore (Handel’s “Scherza infida” from Ariodante), he allowed himself a bit of gentle showmanship in spearing the gorgeous bassoon entry with his bow, it was well placed.

The instrumental numbers were superb: a suite by Telemann, a chucked-together job of instrumental movements from Handel’s Rodrigo, Corelli’s Concerto grosso in D major Op 6 No 4, and a Sinfonia from Vivaldi’s Ercole su’l Termodonte. The last offered the highlight of the evening: a simple slow movement, with all seven violinists playing the same elegant, loping melody over a pizzicato accompaniment. I don’t know if you’ve ever sung plainsong in a choir, but if you have you’ll recognise the feeling of performing something that’s inherently easy but which offers disaster at every turn. Just one small slip from the single line everyone else is singing and the effect is ruined. Here, all was exactly as one could hope for. The melody sang as if it were a taut steel tightrope, with balance and style and gentleness, and a perfection of intonation that was simply marvellous.

• See what's on at the Barbican this season
• Catch the concert broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Monday, 1 November at 7pm
• Find Ian Bostridge recordings on Amazon
• Find Europa Galante recordings on Amazon