MUSIC REVIEW : London Baroque in Santa Monica

Chamber Music in Historic Sites matched genuine Baroque musical style with a campy, mock-Baroque interior for the opening of the Nakamichi Brillante series Monday evening. The site: the Second City Theater (ex Mayfair) in Santa Monica. The players: London Baroque, an 11-year-old ensemble featuring some recent personnel changes.

The exuberant performances fit the gaudy showcase--its hospitable acoustic compromised by an insistent buzz from the ceiling lights--with an informal, almost improvised feeling. The sense of convivial camaraderie--and the length of the concert--were extended in a gracious and game but misplaced effort to serve everyone coffee and dessert during intermission.

The musical goodies were presented with thorough respect, understanding and affection for period practices--original instruments, very low pitch, ornamental elan, etc. Such attention to detail is no rarity these days for historically oriented groups, but the bracing vitality, conversational approach and sheer recreative joy of the playing is.

Violinists Hiro Kurosaki and Richard Gwilt, cellist Charles Medlam and harpsichordist Lars Mortensen played trio sonatas by Corelli, Handel and Bach as if the music had just been composed. Ideas were discovered and exchanged seemingly spontaneously, in elastic tempos and pertinent phrasing. Balances and textures were clear, and technique secure.

Kurosaki, a flamboyant fiddler and one of the newer members of the group, had the engaging solo duties in an animal sound extravaganza by Biber, the Sonata Representativa Avium. Mortensen, also new, gave an almost indolent, then explosively speedy account of Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, while ensemble leader Medlam proved eloquent although occasionally technically troubled in a sonata by Vivaldi.

Kurosaki and Gwilt completed the printed program with the dazzling interplay of an unaccompanied duet by Leclair. For their encore, the quartet turned to what Medlam characterized as modern music--a Church Sonata in D by Mozart.