Music / Concord of Sweet Sounds, Salut Baroque. At Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest, January 30. Reviewed by SARAH BYRNE.

It is a tribute to the Salut Baroque ensemble that its dedicated supporters braved the sweltering heat to pack out the Wesley Uniting Church for this short but interesting program.

Not only was the church packed in sauna-like conditions, diehards were even making their way to the even hotter choir loft to be able to catch the show (shout out to our intrepid photographer!).

The 2026 Salut program promises an intriguing exploration of the dynamics between political power, and the curation of pieces in this concert made an excellent example, assisted by the always excellent program notes from co-artistic director Tim Blomfeld.

The program opened with Christopher Tye’s In Nomine Crye, a bright and harmonious piece for recorders and the cello piccolo. This was followed by some Telemann, now using the full ensemble: the Overture Suite in D Minor, melodious and charming, leading into a Courante, Loure, some earnest Menuets, an engaging Hornpipe and aptly chirpy piece called Canaries. Some lovely work here from the treble recorders in particular.

Next came the allegro and the allegro assai from Valentini’s Concerto in A minor, and it was at this point that I became a little concerned. Perhaps it was the weather, which may have affected tuning as much as comfort, but this particular outing was not Salut at its storied best. While the recorders were virtuosic, the strings lacked their usual clarity, though Monika Kornel on harpsichord provided a reliable spine throughout.  At times both timing and tuning seemed a little muddy in the violins.

George Wills on baroque guitar then gave us a strikingly modern opening to Caresana’s thoroughly entertaining La Tarantella, a nicely Latin interlude including a few slide whistle effects from recorders, responding to the strings, who had their house back in order.  This was followed by Heinichen’s cheerful Concerto a 8 in C major, as typically baroque a gem as one could hope for.

The next piece was a faultless Greensleeves, for recorder quartet, attributed to Anon, unless you believe Flanders & Swann (“A charming rondelay, but I doubt me if it be commercial”.) I was distracted from yearning thoughts of the ice cream van by two delightful allegretto variations on the theme.

Alas, the strings’ travails continued in the next Telemann quartet, Sarah Papadopoulos popping a string and having to replace it, while the other baroque violins – John Ma, Jared Adams and Brad Thamdid their best to entertain us by trading eights. Papadopolous gracefully rejoined us but unsurprisingly (and understandably) all strings had to retune more often than was ideal.

Matters improved with the anonymous Chacona from Collection Flores de musica, featuring valiant dexterity from John Ma, impressive versatility from the recorders of Anna Stegmann and Alicia Crossley, and completely disarming use of the baroque viola in the style of a guitar, from Brad Tham.

The evening concluded with another excellent piece by Fiorenza, the Concerto for flute in F minor, delivered in great style and with a flair in timing, a clever idea given the few opportunities for dynamics afforded by period instruments.  Soloist, and the evening’s undoubted MVP, was Anna Stegman, whose use of various recorders gave a vast array of effects and whose tone and delivery were flawless throughout.