The Sixteen: Hercules, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford

And it was from Oxford that Christophers' inspiration for founding this choir (backed by the capable Symphony of Harmony & Invention) stemmed. On the Magdalen lawns abutting the River Cherwell, a performance of The Water Music provided a colourful conclusion to three days of toasting the Baroque master.

"Jealousy, infernal pest, tyrant of the human breast." It was Christophers' intelligence and flair conducting Hercules at Buxton last year which highlighted the fiery dramatic potential of Handel's oratorio. Written in 1744,Hercules offered - thanks to Thomas Broughton's firmly shaped libretto - a glorious chance for the composer to draw on the strengths of his secular operas and pen a piece of power and urgency.

If an over-leisurely opening took its time, Christophers soon revealed the dazzling range of moods Handel evokes: tenor James Gilchrist (Hyllus) delivering an oracular response as if he were the crazed Sibyl himself; Susan Bickley's yearning aria "Myrtle shades"; and wonderfully aching strings for Iole's prayer, "Peaceful rest", exquisitely sung by Gillian Keith. Hercules himself (Eric Owens) is a bluff fellow, happy with a club in his hand.

Handel's music sears and poisons, thanks to some scintillating playing. Both Act I's rustic finale, terrifically sung with folky underlay and drone effects, and the astonishing chorus "The world's avenger", seem to peer half a century ahead, to mature Haydn.

With crisp linking between movements, Christophers paced the second half with a vital energy. The tragedy is not so much Hercules' as his wife Deianeira's: from her first teeterings between foreboding and optimism, Bickley showed us a woman as mentally racked as Medea: her final, guilt-ridden outburst was scorching. Terrific power, matched by terrific pathos.