MUSIC REVIEW : International Series Opened by Camerata Bern

At Segerstrom Hall on Thursday night, in the opening concert of the Orange County Philharmonic Society’s International Artists Series, the members of the Swiss chamber orchestra Camerata Bern proved themselves masters of versatility with a program that required swift stylistic shifts.

The evening was a veritable romp through music history--from the subdued, Elizabethan grace of Dowland’s “Lachrimae Antiquae” to Heinz Holliger’s chillingly atmospheric “Eisblumen,” written in 1985. Yet there was nothing academic about this history lesson.

The ensemble--14 strings and harpsichord led by concertmaster Thomas Fueri--reveled in the dramatic content of each selection, whether a crisp, balanced B-minor Symphony of C.P.E. Bach or a stirringly yearning “Verklarte Nacht” of Schoenberg.

Dramatic interest preempted historical authenticity. “Lachrimae Antiquae” was originally scored for five viols and lute but on this occasion was played on modern strings and harpsichord. A shocking transgression? Perhaps not too terrible, if you consider that musicians of Dowland’s own time were apt to adapt scores to the instruments at hand.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s instrumentation was also updated, in his D-minor Harpsichord Concerto (listed in the program as “Piano Concerto No. 1”). Not only did Bulgarian-born Emile Naoumoff hazard a performance on the piano, but he (shudder) also made liberal use of both pedal and dynamic shading.

Naoumoff lost some degree of definition simply because of the instrument (harpsichord offers a great deal more transparency of voicing than does piano, especially through registrational delineation). Still, his voicing was sometimes further obscured by a heavy pedal foot.

If some clarity was lost in this D-minor Concerto, a little extra romanticism was gained through extensive dynamic and rhythmic shaping and thrust. In this regard, Naoumoff was particularly successful in creating a most poignant Larghetto and in maintaining a nimble and captivating spirit in the outer movements.