Classical reviews

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> Le Concert Spirituel au temps de Louis XV. Le Concert des Nations. Alia Vox CD.

Concerts known as "Le Concert Spirituel" began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790. They were perhaps the first public music concert series in existence, founded to provide entertainment during Lent and on religious holidays when the other spectacles like the Paris Opera and Comedie-Francaise were closed.

Well-to-do bourgeois, the lower aristocracy and foreign visitors assembled at 6pm in the magnificently decorated Hall of the Hundred Swiss Guards in the Tuileries Palace. There they heard choral works and virtuosic instrumental pieces.

Jordi Savall, on viola da gamba, directs a group of 24 musicians keen to reconstruct the quintessence of such musical life during the reign of Louis XV. They present delightful works by Telemann, Corelli and Rameau.

Highlight: Deluxe package with 166-page booklet.

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> Jewel. Australian gems for violin and piano. Elizabeth Holowell (violin), Robert Constable (piano). Atoll CD.

This title work was composed by Robert Constable in 2009, commissioned by an Auckland goldsmith and his artist wife, and uses ancient techniques (the sound of a Tibetan cymbal is an addition) to describe the jeweller's creativity. Other items are the Sonatas by Don Banks (1954) and Margaret Sutherland (1925) and Irkanda 1 for solo violin, by Peter Sculthorpe (1955).

The latter is a dramatically descriptive sound painting of the outback _ an important seminal work.

The other Australian works featured are The Ludlow Lullabies (Vincent Plush, 1989) and Beta Globin DNA (Martin Wesley-Smith, 1987).

The Holowell-Constable duo has concentrated on Australian music and some of this was specially written for them.

Highlight: Hear cockatoo whistles, buzzing flies in Sculthorpe.

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