Classical

Christmas drives a lot of good music out of our concert programmes. In the week before Christmas itself, the flag is kept flying at the Courthouse Centre in Tinahely tonight by the violin and double bass duo of Maya Homburger and Barry Guy, offering a stimulating mix of baroque and contemporary work. And tomorrow at Dublin's Hugh Lane Gallery (12 noon), Homburger joins flautist Eleanor Dawson, gamba player Sarah Cunningham and harpsichordist Malcolm Proud for a performance of Bach's Musical Offering. Roy Goodman conducts a free, BBC invitation concert with the Ulster Orchestra (Ulster Hall, Tuesday), which sets out to have the best of both worlds. The programme offers Handel's Concerto a due cori (which borrows from Messiah), the Christmas Concerto of Corelli, a Christmas Cantata by Alessandro Scarlatti, Dies Natalis by Gerald Finzi - these last two with soprano Catherine Bott (right) - and an Overture in D from Bach's Christmas Oratorio.