Obscurity Breeds Content at Finale to Baroque Festival

Digging into the archives of the National Museum of Prague, Burton Karson came up with two unknown works by obscure 18th century Czech composers, which he presented in the final concert of the 16th Baroque Music Festival Corona del Mar.

In St. Michael and All Angels Church on Sunday, the festival performers gave what were almost certainly the U.S. premieres of Frantisek Ludvik Poppe’s “Peccavimus, impie gessimus” and Ceslav Vanura’s “Intonuit de coelo Dominus,” both sacred works worth dusting off.

About Poppe virtually nothing is known except that he composed in the early part of the century. His “Peccavimus” is a neatly crafted and somber 15-minute motet on a Latin text for choir, vocal soloists and strings. Slowly woven polyphony, harmonies that lean on dissonance and imitative vocal writing powerfully express the suffering and pleading words of the text. A single-note drone over changing harmonies sensitively captures the beseeching words “Do not forget us for all eternity.” Let’s hear it again.

The work by Vanura (1694-1736) is a brief and less impressive work, though charming enough. A festive piece, it runs along like a gurgling creek, a pair of trumpets providing sunshine. In a nice bit of word painting, cascading “Alleluias” break out to the words “And fountains of waters appeared.”

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These two works were solidly performed by conductor Karson and his festival musicians. The formidable Bach pieces on the program fared less well. The assured vocal quartet of Jennifer Foster, Alejandro Garri (a countertenor), Mark Goodrich and Christopher Lindbloom pleased in the Cantata “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (based on the Lutheran hymn), especially a graceful Foster in her aria and a forceful Goodrich in his recitative.

In the rest, including the Cantata “Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft” and the Orchestral Suite, BWV 1069, Karson, his period-instrument orchestra and 25-voice choir hadn’t mastered the complexities enough to clarify them. A blur of information--undifferentiated lines and textures--emerged instead. Bach should make more sense than this.