The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall – Baroque Concertos.

Albinoni
Concerto in D-minor for Oboe, Strings, and Continuo, Op.9/2
Telemann
Concerto in E for Flute, Oboe, Viola, Strings, and Continuo, TWV53:E1
Locatelli
Concerto in G-minor for Violin, Strings, and Continuo, Op.3/6
Tartini
Concerto in A for Cello, Strings, and Continuo
Vivaldi
Concerto in D for Flute, Strings, and Continuo, RV428 (Il gardellino)
Bach
Concerto in C-minor for Oboe, Violin, Strings, and Continuo, BWV1060

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
[Michael Sponseller (harpsichord); Francisco Fullana, Ani Kavafian, James Thompson (violin); Paul Neubauer (viola); Edward Aaron, Mihai Marica (cello); Anthony Manzo (double bass); Sooyun Kim (flute); Stephen Taylor (oboe)]

This superbly curated and splendidly performed program was the first of three in this season’s Baroque Festival at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Four of the six pieces – those by Albinoni, Locatelli, Tartini, and Vivaldi – serve as vehicles for virtuosic display, while the two others favor players working together in a more collaborative mode. 

Ani Kavafian and James Thompson’s noble violins got the evening off to a stately start in Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto. Things gradually became more energetic after Stephen Taylor entered and brought the first movement to a dramatic close. His bright and beautiful tone was especially remarkable in the Adagio, when his instrument intoned a gentle lullaby as the delicate strings retreated into the background.

Telemann’s Triple Concerto is interesting for its combination of instruments – flute, oboe, and viola – rather than any emphasis on technical virtuosity. The work, one of many that Telemann conceived for innovative groupings of instruments, received a persuasive performance with the CMS players displaying impressively polished ensemble.

The G-minor Concerto is one of twelve in Locatelli’s The Art of the Violin, one of the early-eighteenth-century’s most influential musical publications. The outer movements end with a virtuoso caprice, a sort of extended cadenza, for violin. Thompson’s spirited playing made the maximum impression. His show-stopping performance, replete with style and fire, was a highlight.  

Tartini, who mainly composed for the violin, is best known for his technically demanding ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata. His Concerto in A, one of two he wrote for cello, very likely at the behest of his friend Antonio Vandini, involves some unexpected tonal fluctuations. With nimble playing on hisSoltis cello, Mihai Marica gave a gorgeous performance, expertly capturing the work’s textural variations, harmonic idiosyncrasies, and emotional changes. 

The radiant Sooyun Kim was the inspired soloist in a vivacious and dazzling rendition of Vivaldi’s Flute Concerto in D. The piece, nicknamedthe ‘Goldfinch’) because of the woodwind’s chirping figures in the opening measures, shows the Baroque master in his very best light. There was some particularly enjoyable interplay between Kim and violin and cello in the outer movements, and the delightful middle movement Cantabile was graciously executed.

A spirited account of BWV1060 closed the evening. The most notable moments came in the second movement, when – after a false start caused by a restive reed – Taylor’s still buoyantly sounding oboe and Kavafian’s expressive violin followed each other closely, trading the gentle long-lined melody.