Baroque Fest: Something Old for Something New

The audience for the opening program of the Baroque Music Festival Corona del Mar was treated to a reversal of common performance practices Sunday afternoon: the premiere of a composition, played on Baroque-style instruments, though written for modern instruments.

One can find some justification for this happy marriage of something old and something new. Artistic director and conductor Burton Karson had asked composer James Hopkins to satisfy a recent commission by festival patron Jerry Dauderman with a “neo-Baroque” concerto.

The resulting piece borrows the chorale “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” as a theme for a light-textured work that blends Baroque contrapuntal techniques, ornamentation and small structures into contemporary harmonies with an organic approach to form.

The 11-minute Chorale, Arioso and Gigue on “Wachet auf” for organ and orchestra--for which Daniel Kerr joined the festival orchestra on the Abbott and Sieker organ at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church--proved an effective mood painter.

Subtitled “Memories of Courtship,” it evoked a strong sense of somber nostalgia and mystery, established by presenting phrases of the Baroque theme--set for the strings in poignant dissonance--between florid, atmospheric organ passages. Eerie ostinatos sustained the aura.

Also new, at least to this country, was Johann Fasch’s Concerto for Flute and Oboe in B minor, which Karson reconstructed from parts long stored in the Archducal Library of Darmstadt, Germany. Playing period instruments, flutist Stephen Schultz and oboist Gonzalo Ruiz made a considerate duo for this concise and airy contribution to the literature of the time.

*

Ruiz’s delicate shading, so neatly complemented by Schultz during the double concerto, suffocated under its accompanists in J.S. Bach’s D-minor Oboe Concerto. Balance and intonation problems persisted in a performance of the 11th Concerto Grosso of Corelli’s Opus 6, nevertheless distinguished by the virtuosity of cellist Mark Chatfield.

Violinist Ingrid Matthews and harpsichordist Katherine Shao combined with Schultz as gracious soloists for the Fifth Brandenberg Concerto.