MUSIC REVIEWS : Amsterdam Baroque at Biltmore

Ton Koopman, who brought his excellent Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra to the Biltmore’s Crystal Ballroom on Sunday for a Chamber Music in Historic Sites concert, maintains a hard-nosed allegiance to stylistic practices that many of his period-performance colleagues have discarded in favor of a more genial way of going about the musical business of the 18th Century.

The strings of the 16-member ensemble, which Koopman directs from the harpsichord, almost invariably employ slashing, vibratoless bow strokes. Lingering, whether in the form of relaxed tempos, rounded phrases or expansive rhythms, is rare. Active ornamentation of solo lines and a busy keyboard continuo, which have likewise been modified in the direction of conservatism by other ensembles, remain the rule here.

On Sunday this approach succeeded admirably in two familiar works by J.S. Bach, the Double Violin Concerto, with orchestra principals Andrew Manze and Johannes Leertouwer projecting the solos with bright-toned brio, and a crisp, virtuosic reading of the Orchestral Suite in C.

The clipped, often aggressive articulation that complemented Bach sounded misapplied, however, in Mozart’s elegant, innocent Divertimento in F, K. 138. And with the G-major Concerto Grosso from Handel’s Opus 6, things turned downright weird.

This was Handel fatally tense, rushed and overdressed, with embellishment at times going so far afield as to make the notated themes impossible to discern. Balances, too, were awry in that the oboes, which should merely double the violins, usurped their role.

At least one listener left the concert with the impression that Koopman--a dazzlingly skillful keyboard player, by the way--and his pinpoint-responsive players had Bach well in hand while having Mozart and Handel by the throat.