MUSIC REVIEW : Baroque Revival at Barclay

There is something preachy about the performance of early music on period instruments in what is called “authentic style,” a subtext to the actual sounds that seems to assert, “ this is the way it goes.” Trouble is, listeners want to be communicated with, not lectured to.

Communication with its audience is what seemed most important for the chamber ensemble Musical Offering, which appeared Tuesday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Forget authenticity, forget period instruments (the group plays on modern instruments, except for harpsichord), forget whether or not Bach would have taken a rubato here or there; this was no museum event, but a concert that attempted to get Baroque music across to the contemporary ear, and showed that Baroque music need not be a specialty--for performer and listener alike.

Among the many strengths of the concert--part of the UCI Chamber Music series--was the repertory. There were no dead spots in the generous and wide-ranging program, which is saying a lot considering it opened with a Trio Sonata (in B-flat) by Telemann. But here, the often routine formulations of this prolific composer seemed the very definition of vim, in a bright and buoyant performance from the entire ensemble: violinist Yukiko Kamei, oboist Allan Vogel, cellist David Speltz and harpsichordist Owen Burdick.

Similar liveliness--with a driving and actively expressive basso continuo, and wonderfully alert, dashing and unabashedly nuanced playing from Vogel and Kamei--propelled trio sonatas by Bach (in C, from “Musical Offering”) and Boismortier (Opus 37, No. 2), and Handel’s “Concerto a Quattro” in D minor.

Solo turns were taken by Burdick, in a marvelous selection, penetratingly performed, of Scarlatti sonatas, K. 516, K. 208 and K. 517, and by Speltz, in an assertive but subtle reading of Bach’s Third Cello Suite.

In the fifth set of Rameau’s “Pieces de Clavecin,” Speltz and Kamei made an intriguing stylistic change, playing their high-ranging parts mostly without vibrato, the music thus taking on the airy frills of a Fragonard painting.

Incidentally: Given the smallness of the gathering, the friendliness of musical expression and the easy and witty spoken commentary, the white tie and tails worn by the men seemed too formal.