Soloists Add Power to Baroque Festival

Ingenuity and individuality marked the performance of the 17th century concertos that opened the 19th annual Baroque Music Festival Corona del Mar on Sunday. At times, the transfiguring power of genius soared in St. Michael and All Angels Church.

Midway through a pleasantly lulling afternoon, the concert took an abrupt shift into musical hyper-drive in Bach’s D-Minor Concerto for Two Violins, BWV 1043. Amiable and virtuosic noodling gave way to muscularly asserted and developed ideas, radiant melodies and vaulting passions.

The powerful soloists were violinists Rob Diggins and Jolianne von Einem. Contrasting in tone and vehement in dialogue, the pair proved supremely articulate and technically able to sustain the heat of their interpretation. The sublime slow movement touched down emotionally just short of the goal line, but otherwise this was a richly characterized and tautly played thriller.

Festival co-founder Burton Karson led a small period-instrument ensemble in a strong, crisp, pertinent and fully integrated accompaniment.

The closest approximation to the flair and imagination of Bach’s masterpiece came just before it, in a Concerto in F for soprano recorder by Giuseppe Sammartini, the little-known older brother of Giovanni Batista Sammartini. A deft and eloquent Marianne Pfau blew through the intricately patterned challenges of the outer movements and sighed sensitively in the moody inner Siciliana.

Pfau showed equal agility but less sweet tone on the oboe. Her vehicle there was a nicely crafted, but rather faceless Concerto in B-flat, Opus 9, No. 11, by Tomaso Albinoni.

Diggins and organist Gabriel Arregui delivered elegant and responsive interplay in Vivaldi’s Concerto in F for Violin and Organ, which is formally and conceptually inventive, almost to a fault, in its exploitation of the oddly matched solo parts. But the composer neglected to fill in the intriguing outline with his usual supply of impulsive rhythms and zesty tunes, instead writing spotty, completely disposable accompaniment.

In the slow movement--a sort of trio sonata for two--the soloists had the benefit of Vivaldi’s most fully realized ideas.

Arregui opened the performance with the Concerto in G, Opus 26, No. 1, by Michel Corrette, which he played with clarity, finesse and affection, and a stylishly limited registration. Arregui also played harpsichord in some concertos.

All the soloists and the members of the small ensemble are regulars on the burgeoning Southern California early-music scene. Karson had little to do as conductor other than start and stop the capable band. Between concertos, he gave enthusiastic verbal paraphrases of his printed program notes.

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Schedule

The Baroque Music Festival Corona del Mar continues this week with three concerts through Sunday.

* On Wednesday, tenor Mark Goodrich, baritone Paul Cummings and violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock will be the featured performers in a program of songs and string music and neo-baroque creations by P.D.Q. Bach.

Wednesday’s performance begins at 8 p.m. at Sherman Library & Gardens, 2645 E. Coast Highway, Corona del Mar. Tickets are $30.

* On Friday, flutist David Shostac, violinist Clayton Haslop, violoncellist Timothy Landauer and harpsichordist Gabriel Arregui will lead the ensemble in music by Bach, Scarlatti, Telemann and Stravinsky.

Friday’s performance begins at 8 p.m. at the Sherman Library & Gardens. Tickets are $30.

* Sunday’s program finale will feature the Festival Singers and Orchestra, soprano Kris Gould, tenor Mark Goodrich and baritone Christopher Lindbloom in Vivaldi’s “Beatus vir” and other choral and orchestral works.

Sunday’s performance begins at 4 p.m. at St. Michael & All Angels Church, 3233 Pacific View Drive, Corona del Mar. Tickets are $25.

For more information, call (949) 760-7887.