Ian Bostrdige's new Wigmore Hall residency is called, after the old hymn book, "Ancient and Modern". After almost 20 years of Wigmore song recitals the tenor has become, like many of us, a combination of both: an ancient modern who always stands tall, willowy and anguished, text enunciated with almost neurotic passion. It is hard to imagine now that he once unbent sufficiently to record a CD of Noel Coward.

On the residency's opening night - entirely ancient in repertoire - Bostridge stayed fairly firm and clear, though straying sometimes into the overengineered blusteringly melodramatic. High emotions dominated Alesandro Scarlatti's expressive cantata L'Orfeo, reaching their peak in the painfully stretched syllables of the word affanni (troubles) and the lurid dynamic explosions detonated in the following aria. No such scenery-chewing affected the encore of Scherza infida; more anguish here, from Handel's Ariodante, but delicately modulated and moving.

Handel had featured just before in the Italianate solo motet Silete venti. Not all the music comes from the great man's top drawer, but Bostridge pressed ahead anyway, pouncing on each illustrative effect (wind gusts, pierced breasts), and rocking and rolling through the florid final Alleliuas.

Throughout the night one joy was constant: the ensemble spirit and iridescent colours of the English Concert, directed by Harry Bicket. They had the best repertoire, too. I didn't leave humming the Handel; I left with the dancing memory of Francesco Venturini's Op 1 No 9, an instrumental suite of fresh invention and striking instrumental colours. The central movement was the most glorious: becalmed, swaying, richly textured in 11 parts, with two particularly active bassoons.

Scarlatti showed his mettle in Sinfonia from the serenata Clori, Dorino e Amore, arresting right from its grave opening melody, with harmonies slowly wriggling like a snake. And no ancient programme would be complete without its Vivaldi concerto. From the factory stockroom Bicket dug out RV 454, in D minor, an eloquent showcase for Katharina Spreckelsen's oboe. An engaging concert, all told.