Magdalena Kozená is singing more satisfyingly than ever. The colour of her mezzo-soprano sound is as rich as before, but there is an extra vocal confidence now, which translates into a dramatic risk-taking that made this concert of Handel arias a very special experience, and whetted the appetite for her Covent Garden debut next month. It was characteristically brave for the Czech singer to start with two arias in English. There was lustrous gravity in "With Darkness Deep" from Handel's late great "Theodora" and pyrotechnic dazzle in the Victorians' beloved "Oh Had I Jubal's Lyre" from "Joshua". But the real dramatic peaks came later in Italian arias, when the voice was fully warmed up, and Kozená was fully engaged with her audience and her Italian accompanists . . . it was Alcina's lament, "Ah, Mio Cor", which drew the most ambitious interpretation of the night, allowing Kozená to showcase both her alluring sound and her maturing artistry, nowhere more than in a hair-raisingly intense and embellished account of the return to the main aria that would be beyond many singers . . . Andrea Marcon and his Venetian players were responsive accompanists. In between arias, they rattled off a succession of Vivaldi concertos . . .

Martin Kettle, The Guardian (London), 17/11/2008