A durian is a smelly fruit that has been banned from being eaten on public transport in several South-East Asian countries. A dulcian, on the other hand, is the Renaissance grandfather of the bassoon and it has been excluded from modern concert halls for far too long, if this concert featuring Australian virtuoso Jane Gower is anything to go by.

Based in Denmark but a regular Baroque bassoonist with our leading HIP ensembles, Gower shows off the many charms of this keyless double reed woodwind instrument with a quartet of multi-national colleagues for an intriguing program of works by early Baroque composers who don’t normally make the playlists alongside Bach, Vivaldi and Handel.

Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Jane Gower: Baroque Without Bortders. Photo © Jay Patel

Czech violinist Helena Zemanová; Australian Julia Fredersdorff (Artistic Director of Van Diemen’s Band); Danish harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Gower hadn’t played as an ensemble before this concert which launches in a sprightly, fugal way as the two violins duel brilliantly in Venetian composer Dario Castello’s Sonata 9, one of just 29 works he composed before dying of the...