Under the title “Invocazioni Mariane” – “Tears of Mary” or “A Mother’s Tears” – the German countertenor Andreas Scholl presented a programme of Italian Baroque devotions to the Virgin at the Barbican recently. In a relaxed concert containing beauty and disappointment in equal measure, Scholl was partnered by now regular collaborators the Baroque orchestra Accademia Bizantina led by violinist Alessandro Tampieri.

First the voice. Scholl still has his celebrated legato and beauty of tone. As a young singer he thrilled with his softness and control over the high notes and where other altos squawked, he floated. Here, however, he avoided the stratospheres and even when he had the opportunity to extemporise with a cadenza on the word salve in Pasquale Anfossi’s “Salve Regina”, he kept his graceful, modest ornament low in the stave, which was fine but uninspiring.