Intended to relax and entertain Perth Chamber Music’s guests were an Octet of Scottish Opera Winds. In the acoustic of St John’s Kirk (“We are glad to get out of the pit!”) they gave a conspectus of Harmonie-Musik, music for wind band.

Each half began with a lively Mozart Overture – Marriage of Figaro, second Don Giovanni. Jonathan Dove’s Figures in the Garden, extended the Mozart opera by putting its characters in eight short movements into different situations, ending with a Nocturne, the final duet of happy agreement that Figaro and Susanna do not get in the Mozart. Ruth Gipps’ substantial Wind Octet completed the first half. A bold composer with strong tunes and an orchestral depth of sound in the first movement, she moved to a Waltz with winsome clarinet, then oboe in the second and, Andante doloroso, was lyrically plaintive with sensitive horn in the fine writing of the third.

After Don Giovanni, five minutes of serene beauty came with Beethoven’s Rondino: dignified horns, oboe decoration and the horns finally ambling off into the distance. With ear pleasing tunes Suckling’s Medicinal Herb Garden toured plants and remedies, with the guide of a twittering persistent oboe bird. By turns it was sonorous, perky, pleasant and very ably written.

As horn Sue Baxendale said, the final piece was “totally bonkers”. An update of Mozart’s Dice Game it was Carpenter’s Ein musikalisches Snookerspiel, played out over five frames, its (im)possible to apply a scoring system detailed in full in the notes.

The fanfare start was given with gusto, moving on to a kind of minuet with wild horns and clarinet yodelling. Relaxing with a slower oboe tune, then a countrified waltz it accelerated to a fun end.

To much applause Opera Winds encored with bounce and delight a chorus from Don Giovanni: Giovenette che fate all’amore

Ian Stuart-Hunter