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 showed 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 launched in a sprightly fugal way with Venetian composer Dario Castello’s Sonata 9, one of just 29 works he composed before dying of the plague in 1631 aged 28.

The two violins duelled brilliantly while the dulcian, nimbler and more resonant than its modern equivalent, was given several challenging runs.

Less dramatic but a little more elegant was Zemanová’s handling of Sonata seconda for violin and harpsichord by Giovanni Battista Fontana, another plague victim. This work with its increasingly ornamented variations is similar in style to Biber’s celebrated Rosary Sonatas.

By contrast Mortensen’s solo spot, Michelangelo Rossi’s Toccata 7, featured quick-fire changes of mood and direction, as if improvised, ending with a Gothic chromatic flourish.

There was a brief detour from Italy to Spain for Diego Ortiz’ 3 Ricecares, short pieces for dulcian and continuo which gave Gower the opportunity to explain the history and nature of the instrument, as well as showing its soulful side in one piece and agility and rhythmic qualities in another.

All four musicians were on stage for the last of the Italian composers – albeit Francesco Turini was born in Prague – in a sonata which featured Zemanová and Fredersdorff outdoing each other against the 17th century rhythm section.

The violinists shared a yearning duet in a beautifully played work by German composer Johann Balthasar Erben (1626-1684), while Gower and Fredersdorff shared duties for a rather noble sonata by Philipp Buchner, a German composer who spent time in Italy studying Monteverdi’s music.

The European tour ended in Austria with a Polish bagpipe piece by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer for a highly danceable finale.

For more information on the Utzon Music series, visit sydneyoperahouse.com/utzon-music