You can have too much Vivaldi. For all his popularity, he is a trickier composer than might initially appear, astonishing in his melodic and harmonic facility, yet apt to seem samey when heard in quantity. An evening of his music can be cloying, but violinist and enthusiast Adrian Chandler, founder of the period band La Serenissima, has discovered ways of making Vivaldi riveting.

Essentially, this was a kind of lecture-concert, with Chandler introducing each piece from the platform. Concertos and sinfonias were interwoven with operatic arias sung by Mhairi Lawson. Chandler invited us to compare the similarities between Vivaldi's vocal and instrumental writing, as well as pointing out the technical challenges the violinist faces. Our prior knowledge of the dangers allows Chandler both to show off and slip up in the most appealing way.

The D minor Concerto RV 243, for instance, demands both that the soloist scale stratospheric heights without using his E string, and also that his G string be tuned up a tone. The pitch of the tautened string, as Chandler points out, will automatically sag, so we end up expecting something to go wrong with his intonation. This remains faultless, of course, though our fascination with it deflects from the fact that he sometimes has to slow the speed in the most virtuosic passages to get all the notes in.

For all his extrovert brilliance, Chandler is at his most affecting in the long, singing slow movements that form each concerto's emotional kernel. Lawson's approach to the arias is ultimately not dissimilar. Some of them require a grand diva, all fire-breathing coloratura and declamatory extravagance, which isn't quite Lawson's thing, despite her considerable technical dexterity. She was astonishing, though, in a slow, sexy aria from La Fida Ninfa, sung with such tonal beauty and grace that, for a moment, time seemed to stand still.