The six trio sonatas for oboe, violin and continuo that make up the majority of this disc were long believed to be Handel's earliest surviving compositions, written when the composer was about ten years old. They are works of astonishing maturity and inventiveness for one so young, and twentieth-century scholars have cast doubt over their authorship, although this issue is unlikely ever to be resolved. What is clear is the quality of the music, which alternates slow movments of noble dignity with fast movements displaying quick-witted high spirits and contrapuntal interplay. The other Sonata on this disc, No 8 in G minor, was composed around 1720 and is a work of greater maturity and textural variety, with a mixture of elegant pathos and striking thematic richness.