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CLASSICAL MUSIC
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-- Charles T. Downey
Con Brio!
Friday night in Georgetown, several players from President Bush's house band, the Marine Chamber Orchestra, had a chance to be soloists instead of scenery. Led by flutist Shaughn Dowd, the Con Brio! ensemble presented a remarkable program of baroque music, the fourth of five performances at Grace Church's 15th annual Bach Festival.
These eight musicians proved consummate professionals, able to perform unfamiliar music as a unified ensemble. Dowd and her colleagues played two Bach sonatas, plus a few more obscure works written around 1750, most notably a striking sonata for two violins and continuo by Johann Joachim Quantz. Kim Miller, a recently retired orchestra concertmaster, and Erika Sato, a current member, deftly negotiated close, post-Bach harmonies that occasionally diverged into counterpoint. Lawrence Molinaro provided sensitive accompaniment on harpsichord, plus entertained the crowd with a calliope-like organ sonata by Bach's son C.P.E. Bach.
The concert concluded with another work by the younger Bach: the Concerto in D Minor for Flute, Strings and Harpsichord. The string players, who used modern instruments and bows, maintained consistent tone, vibrato and shifts in dynamics -- quite a feat for an ad hoc ensemble. Dowd soloed with sincerity and poise, recovering nicely from a shaky sonata that opened the concert.
-- Rebecca J. Ritzel
