MUSIC REVIEW : Bland Baroque From Camerata Musica

You know there’s a problem when ostensible specialists in 18th-Century music sound better in faux -antiquities by Respighi and Grieg than they do in their primary source material.

That was the case Thursday at Ambassador Auditorium, when the Camerata Musica of Berlin turned in stylistically bland accounts of its mostly Baroque program.

Period practices were more apparent than real, all the 17 members of the modern-instrument string ensemble standing to play, except the two cellists and the harpsichordist. They offered some pertinent generic ornamentation, but little sonic differentiation between composers, let alone eras.

Three Vivaldi concertos and a concerto grosso each from Handel and Telemann formed the basis of the program. Under the guidance of concertmaster Wolf-Dieter Batzdorf, the ensemble worked with skill if not overflowing inspiration, in a soft-edged version of the mainstream modern style.

The Berliners boast a capable concertino group in Batzdorf, violinist Axel Wilczok and cellist Matthias Pfaender.

The trio played with fluent agility, some portamento smudging aside in more athletic passages from Vivaldi. Pfaender and harpsichordist Gabriele Kupfernagel also formed an effective continuo team. Susanne Ehrhardt provided fleet, lithe tootling on the sopranino recorder in Vivaldi’s familiar Concerto in C. She demonstrated her stylish and communicative virtuosity again in Jacob von Eyck’s popular solo “Nightingale” in encore.

The printed agenda ended with the third set of Respighi’s “Antiche arie e danze,” and there the Berliners suavity found full and appropriate employment.

The group played with grace and uniform, sensitive phrasing, although there were some audible disagreements about avoiding open strings.