Christine Brewer, a leading dramatic soprano who will sing Brnnhilde in the Metropolitan Operas production of Wagners Ring this spring, does not leap to mind as a Handel interpreter. So the prospect of hearing her sing sacred arias by Handel in the final concert of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centers annual Baroque Festival was very intriguing. 
Because of a family emergency, Ms. Brewer, sadly, had to withdraw from Friday nights concert, titled Baroque Collection: The Beautiful and the Bizarre. Fortunately, the soprano Julianne Baird, acclaimed for her early-music work, was available on short notice. It was no surprise that Ms. Baird knew the pieces Ms. Brewer had been slated to sing: six of Handels Nine Arias for Soprano, Violin and Continuo, settings of household devotional texts by the 18th-century German religious poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes.
Thanks to Ms. Bairds alluring performance, these intimate arias worked beautifully in the spacious Rose Theater at Jazz in Lincoln Center. Die ihr aus dunkeln Grften, which opened the set, expresses a believers joy at the natural treasures found in the open air. The sentiment is touchingly conveyed in affirmative music that moves at a sturdy gait, like a gentle march, and abounds in sunny melodic lines.
Ms. Brewer sang with the almost vibrato-free sound associated with vocalists from the early-music movement. Yet there was nothing generic in the purity of her singing, which had body, color and earthy expressivity. Even in her low register, not the strongest part of her voice, when her tone turned breathy, neither the integrity of the vocal line nor the clarity of the texts was sacrificed.
Meine Seele hrt im Sehen, the sixth and last aria Ms. Baird sang, was another treat, music of buoyant lyricism and undulant flow. The impressive violin soloists were Eric Keefe in the first three arias and Arnaud Sussmann in the rest. Paul ODette, the acclaimed virtuoso of the lute; the cellist Fred Sherry; and the keyboardist Kenneth Weiss, who shifted from harpsichord to organ, provided lively continuo accompaniments.
There were also vibrant performances of diverse instrumental works by Vivaldi, Telemann and Muffat, but the only piece that seemed truly bizarre, as promised in the programs title, was Bibers Battalia for Strings and Continuo. This 10-minute, multisectioned piece depicts the sounds of a military battle, complete with fanfares, drumrolls and galloping cavalry. During one sequence Biber evokes a cackle of eight songs sung by rowdy soldiers all at once, producing a cacophonous collage to rival anything in Ives or Cage. This is no antiwar piece, however. The irrepressible music makes combat seem unambiguously exhilarating. Ian Swensen tossed off the virtuosic solo violin riffs brilliantly.
It was refreshing to hear Pachelbels well-known Canon in D which has been arranged to death and turned into saccharine choral pieces, novelty items for lush string orchestras and such played at a lithe tempo in its original version for three violins and continuo, and paired, as intended by the composer, with the zesty gigue that follows without a break.
Because of a family emergency, Ms. Brewer, sadly, had to withdraw from Friday nights concert, titled Baroque Collection: The Beautiful and the Bizarre. Fortunately, the soprano Julianne Baird, acclaimed for her early-music work, was available on short notice. It was no surprise that Ms. Baird knew the pieces Ms. Brewer had been slated to sing: six of Handels Nine Arias for Soprano, Violin and Continuo, settings of household devotional texts by the 18th-century German religious poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes.
Thanks to Ms. Bairds alluring performance, these intimate arias worked beautifully in the spacious Rose Theater at Jazz in Lincoln Center. Die ihr aus dunkeln Grften, which opened the set, expresses a believers joy at the natural treasures found in the open air. The sentiment is touchingly conveyed in affirmative music that moves at a sturdy gait, like a gentle march, and abounds in sunny melodic lines.
Ms. Brewer sang with the almost vibrato-free sound associated with vocalists from the early-music movement. Yet there was nothing generic in the purity of her singing, which had body, color and earthy expressivity. Even in her low register, not the strongest part of her voice, when her tone turned breathy, neither the integrity of the vocal line nor the clarity of the texts was sacrificed.
Meine Seele hrt im Sehen, the sixth and last aria Ms. Baird sang, was another treat, music of buoyant lyricism and undulant flow. The impressive violin soloists were Eric Keefe in the first three arias and Arnaud Sussmann in the rest. Paul ODette, the acclaimed virtuoso of the lute; the cellist Fred Sherry; and the keyboardist Kenneth Weiss, who shifted from harpsichord to organ, provided lively continuo accompaniments.
There were also vibrant performances of diverse instrumental works by Vivaldi, Telemann and Muffat, but the only piece that seemed truly bizarre, as promised in the programs title, was Bibers Battalia for Strings and Continuo. This 10-minute, multisectioned piece depicts the sounds of a military battle, complete with fanfares, drumrolls and galloping cavalry. During one sequence Biber evokes a cackle of eight songs sung by rowdy soldiers all at once, producing a cacophonous collage to rival anything in Ives or Cage. This is no antiwar piece, however. The irrepressible music makes combat seem unambiguously exhilarating. Ian Swensen tossed off the virtuosic solo violin riffs brilliantly.
It was refreshing to hear Pachelbels well-known Canon in D which has been arranged to death and turned into saccharine choral pieces, novelty items for lush string orchestras and such played at a lithe tempo in its original version for three violins and continuo, and paired, as intended by the composer, with the zesty gigue that follows without a break.
