London Baroque Provides Pure Sound, Trianon-Style

Chamber Music in Historic Sites, the series that puts musical performers into fitting performance spaces, did it again Sunday in Pasadena. The pairing of the adjustably sized ensemble London Baroque with a re-creation of a Versailles pavilion, the so-called Petit Trianon, resulted in high-fidelity listening, 18th century-style.

Modeled after a retreat built for Madame de Pompadour, the interior main gallery of the residence offered a near-perfect acoustical atmosphere for the four musicians on this tour of the period-instrument group. One was enveloped in the sound without wallowing in it.

Violinists Irmgard Schaller and Richard Gwilt, cellist Charles Medlam and harpsichordist Terence Charleston took full advantage of the situation to present works with stereophonic effects by French and Italian composers.

Corelli’s Sonata, Opus 3, No. 12, produced rapid-fire echoes between its two violins, which traded in brilliant, fanfare-style motifs. Locatelli’s Sonata, Opus 8, No. 8, intensified this back-and-forth into a duel, the violins interrupting and outgunning one another over harmonies of increasing tension. Leclair’s Sonata V a Deux Violons sans Basse was a decidedly more ornate and merry affair, a duet as a frolicking game, the violin lines tumbling over one another like two children playing on a slope.

Two pieces for harpsichord by Forqueray proved wonderfully freewheeling in their harmonies and phrase-lengths, which Charleston highlighted in ruggedly sculpted readings. Medlam gave a rare glimpse of a Vivaldi cello sonata (in A minor), which seemed standard issue and deserving of its rarity.

The performers meshed like old friends rather than cold virtuosos. Their togetherness had an ease that made them comfortable to listen to, and focusing on musical content, not ravishing performance, was the listener’s reward.