IN THE Hugh Lane Gallery late midday on Sunday, Aedin Halpin and Luke Tobin presented both old favourites and new works for recorders and guitar. The old favourites included Andrew Challenger's Round Dance (1990) and John Golland's New World Dances (1980) which are old only in the sense that they have been made familiar by this duo. All set to become another favourite is the Rondeau Hongrois by Ernst Krahmer (1705-1837), Irish music was strongly represented with first performances of works by John Buckley and Fergus Johnston, and Luke Tobin's arrangement of Port na bPucai for tenor recorder and guitar. This particular slow air has a great hold on the imagination, but after its first statement on guitar alone its repetition on recorder accompanied by guitar was an anti-climax.

This was the first time that John Buckley's Fantasias 1 and 2 for treble recorder solo have been performed together as the composer intended and the contrast between the first slow piece and the second fast one enriched them both. Aedin Halpin played them with deft assurance and a persuasive sense of line.

Fergus Johnston's Opus Lepidopterae (1995) was inspired by the butterfly invasion of that summer but the three piece the composer warns us are not programmatic. The instrumentation, for treble recorder and guitar, spread the interest between the two players, and the abstract patterns created had, on first hearing, the instabilities of butterflies.

Dario Castello's Sonata Prima (17th century), was a brilliant display of musical feeling and technical dexterity on the descant recorder.