‘BAROQUE ALFRESCO’

The second program of chamber concerts at the John Anson Ford Theatre, designated “Baroque Alfresco,” proved refreshing in many respects and disappointing in others Saturday.

It’s refreshing, of course, to be out-of-doors on a warm evening. And in the relative intimacy of the Ford, one can actually hear chamber music, unamplified and--most of the time--uninterrupted.

Violinist Linda Quan, flutist Anne Briggs, cellist Myron Lutzke, oboist Marc Schachman, viola da gamba player Richard Taruskin and harpsichordist Charles Sherman--known collectively as the Aulos Ensemble--play on replicas of 18th-Century instruments and duplicate, as faithfully as possible, Baroque performance practices. Balances were sometimes a bit off kilter. But it is infrequent that one finds an ensemble as rhythmically secure and interpretively unified as this.

That security and unity did not always apply to pitch, and therein lay one disappointment. Particularly in Vivaldi’s Concerto in C, P. 81, the three upper-range instruments displayed an alarming disparity. More significant, however, was the blandness with which much of the music was presented. Although the six musicians delivered Boismortier’s Concerto in E minor, Opus 37, No. 6 with crispness and accuracy, they seemed completely uninterested in communicating. The players showed no lack of expression, however, in their telling account of Telemann’s Quarte1948281198the Largo from the Vivaldi Concerto in C, in which Briggs played with exquisite charm. And no lack of zing hampered the fast movements of Telemann’s Quartet in E minor.

One additional disappointment: There were five aeronautical intrusions.