MUSICAL OFFERING TO PLAY OCC

Though named after one of J. S. Bach’s late works, the Musical Offering--a five-member ensemble specializing in music of the Baroque era--plans to play no music by the German composer at its concert Saturday night at Orange Coast College.

“We do a lot of all-Bach and all-Bach-and-sons programs, and we’ve made recordings of all-Vivaldi, all-Telemann and Bach and sons music for Nonesuch Records,” bassoonist Kenneth Munday said in a recent phone interview.

“Now we’re really interested in breaking out and playing more diverse things, showing the more disparate types of styles and representing composers of different countries.”

So the Los Angeles-based ensemble--violinist Kathleen Lenski, oboist Allan Vogel, cellist David Speltz and harpsichordist Owen Burdick, with Munday--will play works by Jan Dismas Zelenka and John Jenkins as well as music by better-known composers Telemann, Rameau and Couperin on the 8 p.m. program. (The concert is sponsored by the California Arts Council’s touring program.)

Munday describes Zelenka’s Sonata No. 6 as “‘very virtuosic and florid.”

“It’s also very long and strange.”

Vogel elaborated:

“Zelenka’s style was unique--even bizarre. There are these virtuosic outbursts that are not typical of a sonata. And since he was a Bohemian composer, you also have these lively Czech rhythms.”

English composer John Jenkins (1592--1678), whose Royal Suite No. 6 will be on the program, however, represents a wider departure for the group.

“We’ve basically centered on the high baroque,” Munday said. “this is high Renaissance.

“The style is very contrapuntal, very rhythmic and then there are these sonorous sections that are very like Orlando di Lasso.”

Said Vogel: “Jenkins is the earliest music we’ve ever played and we’re experimenting with it. We love to try new things, going in both directions, earlier and later. We’ve been on the verge of doing Mozart, but his music is a little too avant-garde for us,” he kidded.

The five members, who made their debut in Los Angeles in 1977, also perform in other groups. Vogel is principal oboist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and he and Burdick teach at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. Munday is principal bassoonist with the L.A. Chamber Orchestra, and he and Lenski teach at Cal State Northridge.

“Speaking musically, a Baroque ensemble isn’t the same thing as a string quartet, which has to achieve a blend of individual parts,” Vogel said. “The oboe and violin don’t have to come to an absolute blend. So we’re more of a mix of individuality than blending.

“Actually, we each have extremely strong characters and leadership is not possible because no one would want to follow. Our rehearsals are very dynamic: Free-for-all is a good description.”

The group’s distinguishing characteristic is performing Baroque music on modern instruments.

“When we first started,” Munday said, “it was unique to play (Baroque music) on original instruments; now it’s unique not to play on original instruments.

“I still feel that an interpretation on modern instruments is very valid, as long as you keep in mind the proper style and have in your ear what those old instruments do.

“Besides, no one knows what it really sounded like. We’ve gone to these master classes where so-called esteemed experts say things were this way or that, but I think that a lot of these people are basically musicologists and not performers.

“And no one knows. It probably was done the way it sounded the best. The most important thing is how the music is served.”