San Francisco Classical Voice

Domenico Scarlatti's astounding output of keyboard sonatas (some 555 in all) blends elements of unity and variety: characteristic traits permeating these works, such as a basic two-part formal structure, support musical ideas that spin out into all different directions. Harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper offered two sonatas that aptly displayed this contrast: the Presto in F Major, K. 17, performed with a fits-and-starts approach that alternated abrupt staccatos with rubato phrase endings; and the Allegro in a minor, K. 175, a fiery Spanish piece full of crunchy dissonances.

The little-known Giovanni Platti, Venetian by birth, built his career mostly in Germany as a jack-of-all-trades type (singer, multi-instrument performer, composer) at Würzburg's court. His 1743 Sonata for Flute and Continuo, Op. 3, No. 6 spotlighted the dynamic flutist Carol Wincenc in a variety of moods: graceful and elegant in the opening Adagio; effortlessly agile in the Allegro; soulful with touches of lightness in the third- movement Cantabile; and ecstatically energetic in the final variation movement, whose increasing technical pyrotechnics surged toward a dizzying conclusion.

Puccini's string quartet I Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums) introduced a sudden jolt of Romantic angst to the program. Written to commemorate the death of Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, in 1892, Puccini's aptly titled work (chrysanthemums have a traditional association with funerals in Italy) conveys a sense of barely contained rage, never blowing over but seething just underneath the surface. Violinists Philip Setzer and Ian Swensen, violist Hsin-Yun Huang, and cellist Peter Wyrick exquisitely captured the work's combination of sobriety and agitated intensity, from the pathos-tinged opening figures to more plangent themes that seemed to emerge like cries in the dark.

Soprano Josephine Mongiardo delivered a pair of Verdi canzone ("Il tramonto" and "Stornello") with confidence and dramatic flair, albeit with a tendency toward singing flat. Her rich, sonorous soprano, at home amid Verdi's languid melodic lines, seemed a bit too weighty for two Baroque arias by Agostino Steffani, another expatriate in Germany, although she dispatched the pieces with agility.

Anyone in the audience who didn't like Vivaldi was in trouble for the program's second half, which consisted entirely of his music. Vivaldi is often scolded for recycling musical techniques among his hundreds of concertos, and Music@Menlo's program certainly offered an opportunity to test this theory. Still, one can identify distinctive features-notably, programmatic touches such as the fluttering bird in the Concerto in D Major for Flute and Strings, "Il Gardellino," RV 90, rhapsodically performed by Wincenc with delectable charm. One can also appreciate the genuine enthusiasm and vigor with which the performers tackled this repertoire. The Concerto in F Major for Three Violins and Strings, RV 551 featured Swensen and Ani Kavafian's masterful, gleeful noodling in the outer movements dovetailing against Setzer's more calmly expressive Andante melody. The Concerto in C Major for Two Trumpets and Strings, RV 537, brought back Washburn, here positioned antiphonally with James Rodseth, whose brassier tone and more staccato playing stood in marked contrast to Washburn's warmer sound.

A nice touch in Music@Menlo's program was the inclusion of student participants from the festival's International Program Workshop. These emerging artists acquitted themselves well in Corelli's Concerto Grosso in D Major, op. 6, no. 4, performing with violinists Sophie Arbuckle and Arik Braude, as well as in their Vivaldi ripieno parts.