MUSIC REVIEW : Baroque Festival Program Lacks a Main Course : Artistic director Burton Karson’s presents a full plate, topped with the premiere of a commissioned concerto, but the feast is unsubstantial in the end.

The 13th annual Corona Del Mar Baroque Music Festival got underway Sunday afternoon with a bang and a whimper.

The bang was artistic director Burton Karson’s idea to put together a program of Baroque concertos, topping it off with a world premiere commissioned for the festival, a contemporary work in a Baroque idiom. This was Robert Linn’s Concerto Grosso for oboe, harpsichord and strings.

The whimper was the concert itself, in St. Michael & All Angels Church. Pleasant, yes; memorable, no.

Part of the problem was the music itself, which tended to evaporate from one’s aural memory as soon as the last chord stopped ringing. Bach’s Sinfonia from Cantata 35, for instance, is a decorative interlude from the middle of that work, not especially effective as a festival opener, which it served as here.

Telemann’s Flute Concerto in E minor is a typical offering from his pen, solid and uninspired; ditto Michel Corrette’s Concerto in D minor for organ and flute. Couperin’s scheduled “Pieces en Concert” for cello and orchestra actually did evaporate--in the wake of an arm injury to soloist John Walz, who canceled.

Only Handel’s Harp Concerto, Opus 4, No. 6, nourished thoroughly. Though it is a work on the fluffy side of center, written to be played between acts of an oratorio, harpist Lou Ann Neill’s pointed, shaded and luxuriant account made it fascinating.

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Linn’s Concerto Grosso manipulates the main theme from the first movement of the same Handel work cleverly in its finale and, in its most inspired moment, links it seamlessly to a quote from Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Otherwise, the work proved agreeable enough, a deconstruction/reconstruction of a Baroque concerto, safe and civilized.

The performances throughout were professional but not especially polished or inspired.

Karson as conductor seems not to have particularly strong ideas about these works. Harpsichordist Malcolm Hamilton plunked dutifully through Linn’s work, seconded by oboist Donald Leake. Flutist Louise Di Tullio and organist Robert Bates noodled effectively in their assignments, Di Tullio livening things up a bit with first-rate technical work. The church was full and appreciative.