Palisander, St Mary’s Church, Aberfoyle

For much of the year the third Sunday of the month sees a classical or related concert taking place on Sunday afternoons at St Mary’s in Aberfoyle. These range from organ recitals to string quartets, and have in the past had artists as high profile as the Wallace collection. Palisander are a very highly rated recorder quartet, and it’s easy to see why. Four recorders of varying sizes doesn’t exactly set the pulse racing as a prospect, but these young musicians are not just highly skilled players, but are adept at putting an entertaining and varied set together. Much of the material dates from between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, and includes arrangements of well known material such as Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d, to Giuseppe Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata which was originally composed for violin. There were also Greek and Italian dances, a Broadside ballad about witch burnings, and original material including a suite composed by the group’s Miriam Monaghan inspired by Johannes Kepler’s work on the music of the spheres. All told it was a fascinating and hugely entertaining hour or so, one of the best chamber concerts I’ve seen for many a year.