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Saturday, March 23, 2002

By Jane Vranish, Post-Gazette Dance and Music Critic

Chatham Baroque consistently maintains a high quality of musicianship, along with rigorous academic standards of music research. But, lest things become too confining, the members use a definite theatrical flair in concocting thematic angles at its concerts.

Last night's offering at the United Methodist Church in Sewickley featured virtuoso lutenist Paul O'Dette, the latest in a string of artists on "The Bottom Line" or continuo. The very name of his instrument, when pronounced, makes the lips purse as if sipping nectar from the gods.

This concert both sipped and dipped into a tantalizing array of lute (actually archlute and family members mandolin and guitar) music, inspired by O'Dette's nimble fingers and probing continuo mind.

The opening works served as a pleasant prelude, where Visconti's "Sinfonia del Gasparino" showed off dueling archlutes (O'Dette and Scott Pauley) in spirited exchanges and Arrigoni's sonata for mandolin, violin and continuo gave Chatham second violinist Emily Davidson a welcome chance in the spotlight. Hasse's concerto for mandolin then exhibited a lovely melody in the middle section for O'Dette. But the ensemble still seemed to be adjusting to the delicate nature of the lute versus the more robust and sustained nature of the bowed instruments.

The meat of the program proved to be very tasty indeed. Violinists Julie Andrijeski and Davidson stepped to the fore in one of Handel's early trio sonatas, with their overlapping linear passages more animated than usual.

O'Dette then took his turn in several selections. An anonymous "Concertino" juxtaposed solo passages and continuo on archlute, followed by a Scarlatti sonata that revealed the unerring brilliance of O'Dette's mandolin technique.

The Corbetta duets for two guitars (O'Dette and Pauley) veered into an Ivesian mode, where the chordal structure embraced dissonance and flirted with meter in a surprisingly avant garde fashion. That set the stage for a zippy finale, with some of the more exotic of the 159 variations from Bertali's "Ciaccona." Andrijeski and Davidson were remarkably synchronized in the cascading runs, while the ever-agile O'Dette played both ends against the middle.

"The Bottom Line" will be repeated tonight at 8 at Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside and tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Chatham College's Laughlin Music Center.