The Arion Ensemble is a Canadian period-instruments ensemble of flute, violin, gamba and harpsichord. Founded in 1981 and based in Montreal, the group began its first Irish tour in Dublin Castle on Monday under the aegis of the Music Network and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

The Arion's programme focused on music published in Paris in the second half of the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries. The earliest pieces, a handful of Lully transcriptions by Jean-Henri D'Anglebert, were for harpsichord solo, the rest of the music - by the little-known Jean-Baptiste Quentin, and the altogether better known Jean-Marie Leclair and Georg Philipp Telemann (two of his Paris Quartets, one from each set) - called for the full ensemble.

The group trades a lot on contrast of timbre between the astringent tone of its violinist, Chantal Remillard (a characteristic highlighted by an extreme restraint with vibrato) and the soft, round tone of flautist Claire Guimond, who produced some ravishing sounds in the softest moments.

The general style of the playing, particularly in the first half of the evening, exhibited an extroversion which favoured the brighter humour of fast movements. The music-making seemed more settled after the interval and an evening of agreeable offerings climaxed by saving the warmest playing for the Sonata prima from the first set of Paris Quartets by that most prolifically agreeable of composers, Telemann.