Musica Alchemica is led by the Spanish violinist and musical imaginista Lina Tur Bonet. For its eight-concert tour of Australia, which began in Canberra, she brought a handpicked group of Europe’s finest baroque musicians in Marco Testori (baroque cello), Giangiacomo Pinardi (archlute) and Kenneth Weiss on harpsichord.

They opened with a work by one of the most imaginative composers of any era, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber; his Sonata No. 1 in D minor ‘The Annunciation’. Three short movements, just six minutes long, and what a ride it is.

It began with harpsichord, cello and archlute on stage, as Bonet traversed the steps down to the stage from the back of the hall, playing her violin and making a grand musical entrance. The sound quality mesmerised as I was seated not two meters from her when she stopped to play for what seemed like was just for me.

The authenticity of the sound was immediately transporting. This glorious Baroque music, deeply affecting, makes one lose all sense of time and place. What an enthusiastic, dynamic performer Bonet is. Her dramatic presence and the sound she created were both alluring and captivating.