St Finian’s Church (aka the Lutherhaus) on Adelaide Rd is compact and intimate, like a village church, not the most likely space to find so close to the city centre.
The Saltarello Trio includes Agnès Vesterman (cello) and Sylvain Lemêtre (percussion), and we see them set up at the front. Meanwhile, Garth Knox is quietly standing at the back, keeping out of everyone’s way. We don’t see him until he begins to play, starting the concert alone playing ‘Ave Generosa’ by the 12th-century mystic Hidegard of Bingen. As he wanders slowly up the aisle, it’s the raw sound of his medieval fiddle that you notice as much as the melody, the rich resonance of bow on string. Up at the front, the other two join in, Vesterman playing dulcimer, as they segue into an instrumental version of a song by Guillaume de Machaut, the sound immediate and vivid, before gently trailing off to nothing at the end. The sense of flow and openness continues in the three early dances that follow. There is the sense that music can come from almost anywhere and be turned into anything...