Performer: Onyx Brass

Brass chamber music may sound like an alarming oxymoron until you hear the warm sound of Onyx Brass, who brought their Tour de Brass programme to Auckland Castle as part of Durham's annual BRASS festival.

I must admit that Bach through Brass, as this concert was entitled, filled me with a certain amount of trepidation. Bach, on instruments for which the music in the programme was not designed, on instruments which were not even around in Bach’s time (at least not in their modern-day form), did not sound immediately appealing; nevertheless, something drew me in, and I was pleasantly surprised.