MUSIC REVIEW : Baroque Fest Ends on Imaginative Note

Burton Karson’s Baroque Music Festival concluded its 13th season here Sunday afternoon at St. Michael & All Angels Church with a serious, highly imaginative program, but only intermittently successful performances.

Things went best in the opening work, Giacomo Carissimi’s poignant cantata “Jephte” from the 17th Century. Countertenor Brian Asawa and tenor Gregory Wait handled their solos with distinction, Asawa in particular filling the small church with his richly florid sound. Soprano Amy Kane Jarman, as the virgin consigned to tragic sacrifice, began well with radiant tone and moving phrasing, but as the piece went on she lost her intensity. The 27-member chorus, meanwhile, sounded pleasant enough but slightly out of focus.

Then, Brahms’ short choral motet “O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf” overstretched the Festival Singers’ ability to articulate the complex strands of tune and harmony, and the music sounded dour and heavy when it should have been darkly profound.

Two works by Henry Purcell came next: A short trumpet sonata featuring Burnette Dillon, which was heartily ceremonial if short on subtlety and nuance; and the 10-minute “O sing unto the Lord,” which was dutiful where it needed to be illuminating.

After intermission, Karson offered Bach’s grim, spiritually adventurous Cantata No. 70, “Wachet, betet, seid bereit allerzeit!,” which describes in extraordinary musical detail the terrifying prospects of the final judgment. The performance began well, with surprisingly martial spirit, but as it pressed on the small orchestra’s intonation began to slip and Karson’s conducting failed to produce the cohesion this difficult music so urgently requires.

Still, the assembled forces achieved an impressively rich and chunky sound, Asawa and Wait excelled in their solos, cellist Timothy Landauer made his accompaniment to Asawa’s aria into a miniature concerto, and all combined to send the full-house audience away with the appropriate message of consolation and hope.