Music Review : Pinnock’s English Concert at Ambassador Auditorium

Only a decade ago, such antiquarian ensembles as Trevor Pinnock’s English Concert were generally considered odd, esoteric, perhaps faintly subversive.

These considerations seemed a dim memory, perhaps even a fantasy, in the presence of the large, enthusiastic audience that welcomed these period-instrument paragons back to Ambassador Auditorium on Thursday. Such erstwhile curiosities as Pinnock’s group have achieved mainstream status, with modern-instrument performances of Baroque music having become, justly or not, both suspect and relatively rare.

Thursday’s program, directed from the harpsichord by Pinnock, proved satisfying in each of its segments. The grandeur of Handel, in the fourth of his Opus 3 concerti grossi, and J. S. Bach, via the rousing Orchestral Suite No. 4, were served in readings both orderly and energetic.

The manic intensity of the A-minor Violin Concerto from Vivaldi’s “La Stravaganza” was captured in the agile solo of concertmaster Simon Standage, while the heroic efforts of an oboe trio made up of Paul Goodwin, Lorraine Wood and Sophia McKenna distinguished a delectable C-major suite from Telemann’s Darmstadt collection.

The novelty of the evening was a Trumpet Concerto in D by one Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765), an uneasy, unconvincing mixture of Italian and French styles made palatable by the silken-toned, unassuming virtuosity of soloist Mark Bennett.