By David Abrams
http://www.cnycafemomus.com/David_Abrams.html    

Since its founding in 1949 by venerable violinist Louis Krasner, the Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music has been serving music lovers within Central New York a steady diet of first-rate chamber ensembles and the staples of the classical, Romantic and 20th-century chamber music repertory. Every so often, the conservative arts organization reaches deeper into the till to retrieve programs that offer its listeners something a bit different.

Saturday evening’s concert, presented by The Aulos Ensemble and titled Music at Versailles: a Royal Entertainment, drew from the highly stylized and heavily perfumed era of the French Baroque and Rococo periods. But while the program had its share of delightful moments, it was difficult to dismiss the acoustical shortcomings of Lincoln Middle School Auditorium, which tended to dampen the effervescence of the heavily ornamented embellishments (agréments) endemic to French music of this era.

The New York-based period-instrument ensemble, founded in 1973 and now comprising five instrumentalists, began life as one of the pioneering champions of historically informed performance (HIP) in this country. HIP ensembles use period instruments, subscribe to original tuning and temperament conventions and generally remain faithful to authentic performance practice conventions –– which, in the case of French Baroque music, means expertise in the execution of the pervasive agréments.

There’s no question that Aulos was thoroughly at home with the seemingly endless dressings of trills, mordents, turns and appoggiaturas throughout the four-work program. Still, I was left with the feeling that much of the manner of performance during the ensemble’s transcriptions of a pair of Rameau opera suites, Les Indes Galantes and Les Fêtes d'hébé (each of which was assembled from the composer’s own "short-score" manuscripts) was somewhat lacking in energy, vitality and spontaneity. Similarly, Couperin’s Rococo-flavored chamber suite, Troisième Concert Royal, provided more somnolence than it did stimulation.

Although no specific instrumentation for the suite to Les Fêtes d'hébé was given by Rameau, Aulos’ arrangement for three treble instruments (Baroque flute, Baroque oboe and Baroque violin) plus continuo (Baroque cello and clavecin) appeared sufficient to achieve a solid foundation of high and low voices throughout the five-dance suite. Unfortunately, balance here among the individual players was uneven and spotty, both in the oboe (Marc Schachman) –– which struggled throughout the evening with muffled tones (particularly in the lower register) and questionable pitch –– and in the flute (Christopher Krueger), whose notes in the lower register were swallowed by the other instruments or else disappeared into the parched acoustical vacuum of the auditorium.

Issues of tone and balance aside, there were plenty of attractive moments in Aulos’ chamber arrangement of three gorgeous character pieces (originally for clavecin) by Claude-Bénigne Balbastre. This unusual arrangement treats the cello (Myron Lutzke) as a virtual second violin, with lots of writing in the instrument’s treble range –– although I would have much preferred a second violin for the handsome middle movement, La Morisseau, a movement that portends the Romantic period and which makes several unidiomatic demands upon the cellist. I enjoyed the technique of double-stops in the violin (played by Linda Quan) during the arrangement of La Castelmore, in spite of the obvious anachronism of sound due to the Baroque instrument’s gentle-sounding gut strings.

If the novel arrangement of the Balbastre pieces provided the most interesting parts of the program, Aulos’ clever transcription of Rameau’s sparkling opéra-ballet, Les Indes Galantes, provided the most convincing contrast of instrumental combinations.

The many episodes of dance numbers and charming airs in Rameau’s large-scale work provide good fodder for this 13-movement arrangement for five instruments, creating colorful combinations of instrumental pairings, such as the oboe piping a tune over a cello drone set to the interval of a Perfect 5th during the Musette. There was some charming interplay between violin and flute during the relaxed Air vif pour Zéphire, and again within the Air pour Borée et la Rose. There were also quite a number of opportunities for clavecinist Arthur Haas to shine, such as during the Air pour les Esclaves affricains.

The crafty arrangement came to an agreeable conclusion at the final Tambourins –– whose lively writing and sharply edged wind articulations provided the singular greatest moment of excitement of the evening.

Details box:

What: The Aulos Ensemble
Where: Lincoln Middle School, 1613 James Street, Syracuse
When: December 4, 2010, 8 p.m.
Time: 1 hour and 40 minutes, including intermission
Information: call (315) 446-3424
Ticket prices: Regular $25, Senior $15, Student $10
Website: http://syracusefriendsofchambermusic.org    
Next: "Quintessential Quintets" January 25, 7:30 p.m. at Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church, 5299 Jamesville Rd., Dewitt