IT might have been the wettest and wildest night outside but inside this slightly distressed church there was peace and beauty aplenty in an admirably programmed mixture of the old and new.

The Sydney Consort - husband and wife team Stan and Monika Kornel on violin and harpsichord and flautist Hans-Dieter Michatz - recently finished one successful European tour and is about to embark on another.

Their program includes works by the highly-influential German organist-composer Dietrich Buxtehude, Georg Philipp Telemann, J.S. Bach and pieces by three contemporary Australian composers, including one by Harbord's Alan Holley.

Buxtehude, who died 300 years ago this year, is hardly a household name in Australia and judging from the pieces played in this concert we have been missing out for far too long.

Michatz's arrangement of Auf Meinen Lieben Gott, a series of short dances based on variations on a simple theme, proved a charming way to start the night. This was followed by two Telemann pieces, a duo for violin and harpsichord and a Fantasia for solo recorder which challenged the performer with its frequent and quick octave leaps between the low and high registers.

Australian composer Stephen Yates was commissioned by the Consort to compose a piece, Trietto, for this concert and it's a shame that the shocking weather prevented more people from hearing this deceptively simple and melodic little trio.

The second half started with a captivating Telemann duet for recorder and violin before a performance of Holley's 10-minute Opal Wings, inspired like all his works by nature - in this instance the flight of lorikeets and rosellas in his Harbord garden. Making full use of the unusual combination of instruments, Opal Wings starts with an evocation of the bird's whirring flight in the harpsichord while the solo instruments in turn capture the dazzling colours of the birds in sunlight. The final section has a slightly menacing feel with an insistent two-note motif in the keyboard underpinning some brilliant flourishes from the recorder and some brittle effects from Kornel's violin.

More Buxtehude - a lovely hapsichord suite and trio sonata - made up the rest of the program along with a virtuoso three-movement solo by Michatz composed by Sydney clarinet and saxophone specialist Margery Smith.

Michatz commissioned this work, A Species Of Fire, which was inspired by the Baroque notion of emotion, or ``affect'', being governed by increased or decreased heat. The three movements - joy, sadness and anger - not only showcased Michatz's superb technique but also enabled him to play a variety of instruments ranging in tone from a penny-whistle effect to the low, breathy bent notes of the shakuhachi japanese flute.

The Sydney Consort has just released a CD of this program of music. For details go to

www.sydneyconsort.com.au

Reprinted from Manly Daily