MUSIC REVIEW : BRUEGGEN AND FRIENDS AT BECKMAN AUDOTORIUM

Instrumental music of the pre-Baroque is mostly an acquired taste. Though the works of Machaut and his 14th-Century contemporaries are fascinating in their complex polyphonic explorations and discoveries, they lack the melodic charms most modern ears prefer.

Nonetheless, the concert offered by Frans Brueggen and Friends at Beckman Auditorium, Caltech, on Tuesday, promised--on paper--a welcome degree of lightness, since the program of “Hockets, Canons and Musica Ficta” would be played on that most charming of period instruments, the recorder.

No such luck.

In the pedantic, monotone introductions of Kees Boeke, in the endless series of redundant canons and in the dead-serious demeanor of Brueggen, Boeke and Walter van Hauwe, the evening seemed positively endless.

A pity, too, since the impeccable artistry of the veteran Brueggen and his younger cohorts remained beyond question. No matter how demanding the score, the players were always equal to the task.

Constantly shifting instruments, as well as stage position, the trio brought faultless ensemble and a clear, warm tone to a dreary program in which Bach was the most modern of the ancients.

The agenda also included some contemporary works: five minutes of bird-like chirping by Jo Kondo, an amusing, beginningless and endless setting (by Boeke) of a canon from Bach’s “Musical Offering” and Boeke’s interminable piece of nonsense, “The Chain.” With Brueggen providing a droning two-note cantus firmus on synthesizer, Boeke and Van Hauwe made a pair of amplified bass recorders sound like electrified Coke bottles.

The 25-minute pre-intermission piece drew stares of bewilderment from the listeners, and seemed to encourage a hefty number of them to flee before the concert resumed.