Gerard McChrystal (saxophone)/Kathryn Page (piano)

Music by - Ian Wilson, Eric Sweeney, Michael McGlynn, Seamus McGuire, Bartok, Bach and others

One of the pleasures of the AIB Music Festival in Great Irish Houses is the chance to visit unfamiliar venues. Hillsborough Castle is a government property and one can't normally just walk in. A chance to admire this becomingly modest 18th-century mansion, PVC windows and all, enhanced the pleasures of the music.

I must stress "music", as it's music one goes to hear, not speech. In this case, an already longish programme was lengthened further by spoken introductions which featured a lot of name-dropping and which in some cases seemed as long as the ensuing piece.

There's always a repertory problem for saxophonists, especially as McChrystal admits to disliking the few classical pieces written for his instrument. Instead, he freely transcribes from the whole repertory, often effectively. In Bartok's Romanian Dances the soprano saxophone sounded like a primitive folk instrument; in a sonata attributed to Bach it was strangely redolent of the cor anglais.

Unfortunately, too much of the evening was taken up with minimalism, bland folksiness and domesticated jazz. The most rewarding item was the first, Ian Wilson's I Sleep At Waking, a meditation for solo alto saxophone which explored the technical and expressive resources of the instrument.

Kathryn Page excelled in demanding piano parts. Indeed, as the saxophone is such a naturally dominant instrument, one felt she could have asserted herself more.