A Splendid Conclusion to 2024/25 PBO Season

Avi Stein on the banner for the Web page for last night’s performance

Last night the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) concluded its 2024/25 season with a program led by Avi Stein, Associate Organist and Chorus Master for Trinity Church Wall Street. He is the final candidate for the next Music Director; and, from a personal point of view, he is the one that left the strongest impressions, all of which were positive. The title of the program was Tout de Suite, which reflected on instrumental music with multiple movements.

The intermission was flanked on either side by such multi-movement works by the two leading composers of the Baroque period (both born in 1685), Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. The Bach selection was BWV 1068, the third of his orchestral suites, composed in the key of D major. This is best known for both its dazzling display of trumpet work and the second (Air) movement, which is the only one performed without those trumpets. Stein clearly knew that this was just about as old a chestnut as one can find, but his attentive conducting endowed the performance with an engaging personality, particularly in the execution of the livelier dance movements (not to mention the unforgettable opening fanfare). That stimulating rhetoric spilled over the intermission into the performance of Handel’s HWV 328 concerto grosso in D minor, the tenth of the twelve pieces in his Opus 6 collection.

Stein compiled a “Suite de théâtre” for his final selection. He collected individual pieces from six works by Jean-Philippe Rameau for theatrical performances. This ran the risk of coming across as “one thing after another.” Nevertheless, the excerpt from Les Boréades provided the most engaging music for bassoon I have ever encountered; and, if the reader will hold back a groan, the two piccolos in the final movement were a real hoot!

The program began with the noble effort of Johann Georg Pisendel to compile for performance Les caractères de la danse, a collection of dance movements composed by Jean-Féry Rebel. Stein’s opening gesture was a bit rough; but he managed to get “into the groove” almost immediately. This was the more vulnerable “one thing after another” offering; but one of the movements involved a ravishing duo for flute and second violin that made the entire journey worth taking.

Where my own personal biases are concerned, I have no trouble asserting that this was the most engaging evening of the entire season.