By John Paul Keeler
For Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
The Register Star

Two weekends of early classical music ended with a concert on June 10 titled "Going for Baroque."

The artists of "La Mela di Newton," harpsichordist Lionel Party, violinist Jonathan Keren and cellist Ira Givol, gave a superb program of Baroque music. They programmed works by three 17th century Italian composers - Biagio Marini (1595-1665), Marco Uccellini (1603-1680) and Dario Castello (c. 1590-1630).

These three composers are hardly giants of the period like Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), but the immediacy and charm of this delightful Italian music brought the composers higher in stature with each measure. It was rare and wonderful to hear such delightful music played to perfection by the three musicians. One reveled in the energy and expressivity of the music and enjoyed especially the Monteverdi touches in the Sonata in D Minor for Violin and Continuo of Dario Castello.

The high point of the first half of the program was the "Sonata for Cello and Continuo," Op. 50, of Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755). Considered the first sonata to feature the cello, it was played to the nines by Ira Givol. The work in its several movements was astonishingly vocal. Its beauty recalled the ravishing expression our great singers of the past - Schipa, Gigli, Albanese and Pinza - brought to ancient arias of the Baroque in their recitals. After intermission, that golden "Sonata in D Minor HWV 359a" of Handel was a show stopper and made one think that Handel was the greatest Italian composer since his entire style was nurtured by Corelli and Scarlatti in Italy, when the composer was 20 years old.

Lionel Party played three harpsichord pieces of Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1794) with knowing Baroque style and a singing sound. The concert concluded with the "Sonata in D Major, for Violin and Continuo, Op. 9, No. 3" of Jean Marie Leclair (1697-1764). The performance was a tour de force for all three artists.

Violinist Keren played with the flair of a Schlomo Mintz and Givol and Party were jamming along brilliantly in this wonderful Leclair work. The six movements of the sonata projected the most delicious aspects of Baroque music and a humor found in its fullest later in the century in the music of Haydn and Mozart.