Intimate but Uneven Sounds of the Season

The “Renaissance Christmas” program by Michael Eagan’s Musical Angelica and a small vocal ensemble Thursday in Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa promised the intimacy and directness of a holiday celebration as it might have occurred among friends centuries ago.

But as it turned out, some things worked better than others. The instrumental contributions were consistently strong; the vocals were varied. The instrumental ensemble consisted of Eagan, archlute; Elizabeth Blumenstock, baroque violin; and Elisabeth LeGuin, baroque cellist. The vocalists were sopranos Samela Aird Beasom and Susan Judy, mezzo-soprano Christen Herman and tenor Daniel Plaster.

Blumenstock gave delightfully unpretentious spoken introductions to two of Biber’s pictorial “Rosary” Sonatas--”Annunciation” and “Mary’s Visit to Elizabeth.” Then she played the blazes out of the prominent violin part while Eagan and LeGuin provided unobtrusive support.

The vocalists blended well, whether as a trio of women in works by Hildegard von Bingen and other early composers, a quartet in works by Bach and in Holst’s arrangement of a 15th century lullaby, or in other combinations. The latter included Eagan’s challenging unaccompanied setting of “In Dulci Jubilo” nestled between a 1601 arrangement of the same work and an arrangement by Bach.

But solos and other selections from Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” or works by Monteverdi were less impressive. Perhaps the singers were reining in their power in consideration of the small room. But their vocalism was often quite modest. Their Italian and their English, too, also emerged as strangely accented at times.

Bach’s “Puer natus in Bethlehem” was the single encore.