MUSIC REVIEW : Baroque Fest Opens on an Eclectic Note

NEWPORT BEACH — Following the dictum “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it,” the 10th annual Corona del Mar Baroque Music Festival opened like it did last year, with a varied program of works for solo organ and organ with strings. And, also like last year, the program was not only “not broke,” but a lot of it was not Baroque as well.

Yet the Sunday evening concert, at St. Michael and All Angels Church, suffered little from its deceptive identity. Organist Edward Murray offered a wide range of musical styles on the 24-rank organ available, bringing special prowess to the small instrument.

The best example was in the quirky polytonal language of contemporary Czech composer Petr Eben’s “Toccata Fugue,” for solo organ. Often losing itself in dissonance, the inventive music dances stiffly, but humorously, which Murray conveyed aptly.

A set of Bach pieces found two less pyrotechnic works--”Am Wasserflussen Babylon” and Trio in D minor--sandwiched between the spectacularly performed Fantasia and Fugue in G minor. Finishing out the solo organ fare were two of the Six Fugues on “B-A-C-H” by Schumann and a prelude by Buxtehude, all given solid, convincing attention.

Burton Karson--artistic director for the festival--conducted the string section of the festival orchestra in three works for organ and strings.

Their respectable performance of Handel’s Concerto in B-flat Opus 7, No. 3, carefully blended the more tentative ripieno sections with Murray’s flashier solo parts.

An organ concerto, discovered two years ago by Karson and attributed to an English composer known only as “Mr. Edwards” served as a pleasant opening piece, while Respighi’s Suite in G for Organ and Strings closed the event with a less convincing example of bombast.