It wasn't only Handel who wrote Water Music, his contemporary Telemann also supplied a suite. His 1723 offering, entitled Hamburger Ebb und Fluth and conjuring up a succession of sea deities at rest and play, makes Handel's collection of dances seem a tame conception by comparison, if a more graceful one. In this programme, the Academy of Ancient Music tipped the balance even further in the underdog's favour by presenting Telemann's work alongside the gentler G major Suite from Handel's Water Music, rather than the grander and more famous ones in D and F.

However, with Richard Egarr in the driving seat at the harpsichord, nothing in this concert stayed very gentle for long. The smoothly duetting flutes in the second movement of Telemann's suite may have made an apt lullaby for the sleeping goddess Thetis, but in the ensuing bourrée Egarr made sure she and we were good and awake.

On a cursory listen Egarr's tempos seem metronomic, but they are always subject to a subtle ebb and flow. This seemed to hold back Zephyr's Menuet, which was also marred by slightly flat recorders. In contrast, some faster movements seemed poised on the verge of running away. But Egarr was an invigorating presence, providing an irresistibly propulsive force behind everything except, perhaps, Handel's Sonata à 5 in B flat. In this Pavel Beznosiuk took the lead, skipping through a complex solo violin part probably written with Corelli in mind.

These three works were sandwiched by four Concerto Grossos, and it is strange that while Handel is the acknowledged master of the genre - the three we heard from Op 3 were richly textured examples - it should once again have been Telemann who provided the spark of imagination. Just when the evening was threatening to become no more than a series of wellcrafted and well-played baroque movements, the finale of Telemann's E minor Concerto for flute and recorder - a mad, distinctive splash of eastern European folk colour - broke the mould.