The following night the series presents the United States debut of Zefiro, a lively period instrument ensemble, playing Mozart's Serenade in B flat for winds ("Gran Partita"), a major Mozart score.
(Vivien Schweitzer) Classical Music American Classical Orchestra (Monday) The American Classical Orchestra, the lively period-instrument ensemble that has specialized in overlooked works from the 17th- through early-19th century, presents a program of Italian works, titled "Fiori Musicali," ending with a sort of Italian symphony, conducted by the orchestra's founder Thomas C. Crawford.
It contains some extremely effective music, bracingly performed by Federico Maria Sardelli's lively Italian period-instrument group Modo Antiquo and soloists, among whom Roberta Mameli's lustrous soprano shines in one tiny, brilliant aria that steals the show.
Organ aficionados may wince, but to non-specialist ears the instrument sounds lively and flexible, from delicate to all-out beefy, much like its communicative player.
With their string instruments and lively Southern twang, they clearly impressed the judges.
The most familiar symphonies benefit from crisp articulation, lively tempos and masterly period-instrument playing.
The final section, fully notated, proved the most consistently rewarding music on the program, with a rhythmically vivid canvas punctuated by a lively and melodic dialogue between instruments.
Mainly, though, he couches it in such thoroughly modern scoring that the ear is lured to other things, including the juxtaposition of eerie string writing with playful material for the clarinet and piano, or the lively interplay among all five instruments.
And, in a way, the lively scene of new and evolving instruments represents part of a larger split in the classical music world between traditionalists and experimenters.
Ms. Clearfield's consonant and melodic style, and the ease with which she moves between graceful tracery and lively, rhythmically vital writing, suits these instruments and players perfectly, and the trio gave the work the quicksilver performance it demanded.
