PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA

Handel’s glorious setting of John Milton’s “L’Allegro ed il Penseroso” sumptuously was presented on Friday at Royce Hall, UCLA, by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Nicholas McGegan.

The Bay Area-based ensemble of period instruments has in the four years of its existence achieved a degree of cohesiveness and interpretive strength that allows favorable comparison with the three or four top “authentic” Baroque bands in Europe.

The winds’ bright-toned virtuosity--the flute solo of Janet See in the aria “Sweet Bird” was memorable--and the strings’ short, incisive, perfectly coordinated bow strokes, within the context of McGegan’s proclivity for terse rhythmic inflection, make for a Baroque sound of welcome tension and purity.

The presentation Friday of Handel’s “pastoral ode” included the usually omitted “Il Moderato” section, to a text by Charles Jennens: a typically sensible Age of Reason response to Milton’s fatalistic notion of the human mind as a duality comprising the pleasure-seeking “Allegro” and the pensive, pessimistic “Penseroso,” with the latter ultimately dominant.

Outstanding among the vocal soloists were Judith Nelson, using her small, perfectly focused soprano to optimum musical and verbal effect, and Jeffrey Thomas, the possessor of a sweet, cultivated tenor voice. Peter Stewart employed his slender baritone intelligently, but Christine Armistead’s frail, unsupported soprano gave little pleasure.

The UCLA Baroque Chorus sang with commendable sensitivity throughout a delectably long and rewarding evening.