The cornetto – an early trumpet-like instrument that resembles a stretched out, wooden replica of the ice cream that now bears its name – fell out of favour towards the end of the 17th century, but underwent a revival in the hands of early music specialists in the 20th-century. The revival was driven by musicians like American cornetto virtuoso Bruce Dickey, who along with Czech soprano Hana Blažíková, is touring the pair’s Breathtaking program with Tasmanian HIP ensemble Van Diemen’s Band.

Bruce Dickey and Hana Blažíková. Photo © Vojtech Havlík

Van Diemen’s Band burst onto the scene in 2017 and has since released a highly regarded album on ABC Classic. The ensemble, along with Blažíková and Dickey, is on its first national tour, presenting Dickey and Blažíková’s program of music from the cornetto’s heyday, in which the colours of their two instruments intertwine.

And the two sounds were luminous – soprano clear and bell-like, cornetto mellow and nutty – in Sydney’s St James, King St, the program opening with Maurizio Cazzati’s setting of the ancient Marian hymn Regina coeli. Both Blažíková and Dickey charted exquisitely shaped phrases over Donald...