There’s a special thrill hearing historic works brought to life. The Kansas City Baroque Consortium infused energy and excitement into a program of Italian baroque instrumental works at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in midtown KC on Fri. Jun. 19.
The program was entitled Musica D’Estate—Summer Music—and heralded the new season with early music delights. To be sure, some of the composers and works were moderately or well known, but others featured glimpses into the musical art of rarely heard musicians. Such is the approach of a period-style ensemble as opposed to other groups, as well as lowered tuning matching baroque pitch, gut strings instead of modern ones and stylistic approaches gleaned from musical treatises and literature of the time.
The concert opened with a work of Carlo Tessarini, the Overture in D Major from La Stravaganza, Op. 4. Prolific and popular in the 18th century, his music is not as well known today, and the ensemble’s performance offered an excellent introduction to the audience. The robust and lively work was performed by the entire ensemble, featuring 8 violins, 2 violas, cello, bass, harpsichord and theorbo—a type of bass lute.
The music was charming, with the opening movement displaying a wonderful ensemble blend, impressive phrasing and dynamics. The slow second movement highlighted a lovely melody filled with pathos and expression, while the dancelike finale was delightful. Tessarini’s music stands up well alongside that of better-known contemporaries, and the ensemble’s performance made a strong case for more frequent performances.
If anyone mentioned a “Summer” concerto from The Four Seasons, the famous work by Antonio Vivaldi would inevitably come to mind. While that work concluded the concert, a smaller contingent from the KC Baroque Consortium also performed a work of the same name by Giovanni Antonio Guido. It is quite different from Vivaldi’s iconic work. It featured seven brief movements and resembled a dance suite more than an Italian-style concerto—appropriate since Guido served as a violinist in France. The third movement, “Song of the Cuckoo” included bird calls, and the fourth movement “Prayer to Ceres,” showcased a lovely and lyrical melody. The final movement performed, “Storm,” ended the work with a bang, with very rapid strings representing thunder, lightning and driving rain.
A three-movement Sinfonia in G Minor by Luigi Mancia was beautifully performed by the entire Consortium. To my ear it was one of the most attractive works on the program, with a beautiful lilting opening featuring “echo” dynamics, a long-breathed melody in the central movement, and a bright buoyant finale.
A highlight of the concert followed, performed by five of the ensemble members: Arcangelo Corelli’s Trio Sonata in D Minor, Op. 3, No. 5. The work was exquisitely performed by concertmaster Daniel S. Lee and violinist David Hays. The continuo was likewise wonderfully realized by cellist and musical director Trilla Ray-Carter, theorbo player Joseph Harris and harpsichordist Devon Turner. The opening was filled with strings of expressive suspensions sensitively delivered by Lee and Hays. But it was the brief third movement that was most impressive. The violinists delivered their lines with a healthy portion of ornamentation that was tasteful, highly effective and period appropriate.
What is an Italian baroque summer concert without Vivaldi’s summer concerto from The Four Seasons? The audience quite literally sat up in anticipation of the well-known work. Daniel S. Lee served as the soloist, and his credentials are impressive—work with several period-style groups as well as a member of the Yale University early music faculty.
From the outset the sound was impressive, with an excellent ensemble blend and Lee’s incisive clear tone and virtuosic runs, along with sure support from the continuo cello, theorbo and harpsichord. The dramatic contrasts between soloists and the full group were expertly delivered and enhanced by the fine acoustics of St. Paul’s.
The concerto is based on an Italian sonnet, and the central movement represents a resting shepherd waiting for a storm to appear and troubled by flies and gnats. The seams between the restful solo and continuo and the insect-infested tutti were accurate and well-blended. A couple of entrances of the strings near the end of the movement were not quite in sync.
The finale was tempestuous, representing a summer thunderstorm with hail. Lee performed the virtuosic passages in expert fashion, although with a few slips in intonation near the end of the movement.
The Kansas City Baroque Consortium presented an excellent, well-paced concert, with adventurous programming and very strong performances.
This program will be repeated on Sunday, June 21, 2026, at 3 p.m. at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Kansas City, MO. The KC Baroque Consortium will present two more concerts in its Barocco Italiano summer series, one in July and one in August, each with two performances. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to www.kcbaroque.org.
This concert was reviewed on Friday, June 19, 2026.
