Music : L.A. Baroque Orchestra Closes Season

In just a few years, the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra has become a distinctive and cherishable component of our music community. This weekend it ended its fifth season with a typically joyful program, presented in churches in Santa Monica, Long Beach and Pasadena.

Would only that LABO included consistent intonation among its virtues! After five years together for the core players, a better ensemble ear than apparent Friday at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Monica might be expected.

This is a problem that begins at the top, as music director Gregory Maldonado and principal second Jolianne von Einem demonstrated in Vivaldi’s Concerto in D for two violins. Their generally limber and expressive work often fizzled into thin and sour sounds at the turn of a modulation or an ascent up the fingerboard.

It is also an equal opportunity problem, as oboists Michael DuPree and R. Aaron Lewis immediately proved in their Vivaldi duo concerto. Their wonderfully characterful sound and fluent playing frequently out-squalled the strings.

The inability to agree on temperament or cope with recalcitrant period instruments consistently was all the more regrettable in the context of this blithe and faceted program. Maldonado led buoyant, stylishly inflected performances of great verve and clear, warm sonic sheen.

Besides the Vivaldi concertos, the agenda included the Overture and Act III Entr’acte from Handel’s oratorio, “Solomon,” the Sinfonia from Bach’s cantata “Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats,” BWV 42, and the third orchestral suite from Telemann’s “Tafelmusik.” All were lively and substantial offerings, but with their charms undercut by the freethinking about pitch.