Le Trio Joubran, St Georges, 29 Sep 2010

A splendid show from the oud-wielding brothers from Nazareth. The oud must be one of the most beautiful instruments in the world, both in appearance and sound, and this concert was a real showcase. The trio's on-stage communication both with each other and the audience was remarkable, and the mellow sound they coaxed from their instruments was gorgeous. The music often started slow and tentatively, gradually gaining tempo and volume as the piece unfolded. So much of it was improvised, but the brothers had an intuitive feel for each other's playing and the solos were perfectly judged and paced. Both Arabic and Spanish influences suffused the music.

The last time I saw them was on the Radio 3 stage at Womad a few years back - a magical experience - but they didn't have a percussionist with them. This time they were joined by Youssef Hbeisch who sat behind a battery of darbuckas, cymbals and any number of shakers, bells, chimes and rattles plus a bass drum thrown in for good measure. I felt the percussion dominated proceedings - surely a single darbucka would have been sufficient - and a crash of cymbals accompanied almost every dramatic musical twist and turn. The brothers told us how the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, with whom the trio often collaborated, had emphasised the importance of the silence between the notes - unfortunately we were rather too often denied that beauty because of the intrusive percussion, but this is a minor quibble given the magnificent and evocative music which filled St George's this evening.