"First, the bad news: one will have to wait until April of next year to hear the English Concert and conductor Harry Bicket bring another Handel opera to Carnegie Hall. And that is indeed unfortunate, because their Sunday performance of Rinaldo was so wonderful that the pain of its concluding was nearly as acute as the pleasure of its hearing."

“A certain magic occurs when Bicket gives the down beat: The players unleash gleaming rays of sound from the Carnegie stage.”

"Handel's genius shone throughout in The English Concert's magnificent orchestra, which played as if inhabiting the spirit of Handel himself. Bicket, leading from the keyboard, always caught the right tempo."

“There was no sacrifice in detail or emotion; the deftness of the bowing and finger-work was astonishing. The whole performance felt subversive and daring – when it finished the audience erupted with approval.”