MUSIC REVIEW : Michala Petri’s Recorder Recital Delights

Those expecting profundity were in the wrong place Saturday night when Danish recorder virtuoso Michala Petri offered a recital of mostly Baroque music with harpsichordist Patricia Mabee.

The compensations were many, however. In this Ambassador Auditorium concert, Petri may have inadvertently highlighted the weaknesses of her chosen instrument and its repertory, but so mindlessly charming was much of the music, and so flawlessly, thrillingly was it executed, that only the most callous observer could have left undelighted.

The most remarkable moments came from unexpected quarters. In the Sonata in C by one Anton Heberle for descant recorder, Petri got going at such speed, each note popping out with pinpoint exactitude, that the instrument sounded as if operated by inhuman puffs of air and robot fingers. And she created, thanks partially to the reverberant acoustic, ringing chords with lightning-quick arpeggios.

The “Virtuose” Suite for recorder solo by Hans Ulrich Staeps (1909-1988) impressed as well, with its sophisticated Hindemithian harmonies, rugged rhythms and idiomatic technical display.

At the same time, Staeps’ Sonata underscored one of the recorder’s drawbacks: Markings of deciso and con grande espressione seemed like wishful thinking on the composer’s part--such is the incapability of the instrument of shadings in attack, color and dynamics.

These liabilities seemed most evident in music from the recorder’s heyday, works by Albinoni, Telemann and Corelli, which rarely seemed to rise above merely pleasant routine.

Handel’s Sonata in A minor fared better simply because the quality of invention seemed Mabee supplied solid, unobtrusive support on a Roberts & Brazier harpsichord. ccent,on

Rounding out the printed program, the empty-headed virtuosity of the Introduction, Theme and Variations by Ernest Krahmer (1795-1837) provided plenty of technical display--and historical interest: According to Petri, it was written for a recorder-like instrument that, with the addition of a handle, doubled as a walking stick.