In all the year's we've been running our New Artists Series we've had little in the way of 'early' music on period instruments and absolutely nothing from the gentle but mesmerising viola da gamba. So the recital by rising star of this world Christoph Urbanetz will be a first. And it will be a rare opportunity to discover at close quarters how this wonderful renaissance instrument - made famous in our own times by Jordi Savall and the film Tous Les Matins du Monde - sounds and works.

Christoph will play music by the subject of that film, Marin Marais, along with other 17th/18th century masters like Forqueray, Telemann, and the eccentric Tobias Hume who managed to combined parallel careers as a composer and a mercenary soldier - and as a result, wrote into his music the noise of battle and the sound effects of trumpet and drums.

This recital promises to be a night of curiosity and discovery; and, given the quiet intensity of the viola da gamba, a peaceful prelude to the stress of the Christmas season.