Pro Musica Rara opened its 42nd season Sunday afternoon with a program tilted toward Haydn -- always a welcome tilt -- and spiced by the cool instrument called a baryton.
That instrument has one set of strings in front for bowing and another on the back to vibrate sympathetically with the first (and also to be used by plucking). The baryton went out of favor by the start of the 19th century, but enjoyed enough attention to generate a substantial repertoire.
Haydn generated much of that repertoire, tailoring it to his patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, a devoted baryton player. Pro Musica dug up one of those Haydn pieces, along with one by Tomasini, who likewise benefited from Esterhazy's patronage.
Handling the baryton for this concert at the Churches of the Nativity and Holy Comforter was Kenneth Slowik, an eminent musician and scholar who runs the chamber music program at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and is a founding member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players.
Slowik demonstrated keen technical skills and expressive felicity, especially in Tomasini's vividly colored E minor Divertimento, enjoying lively interplay with violinist Cynthia Roberts and cellist Allen Whear.
The versatile Slowik also fulfilled the program's keyboard needs seated at the fortepiano.
His articulation was cloudy in the opening work, a trio by Pleyel, but grew steadily more assured. Slowik reached an impressive sparkle in Haydn's popular "Gypsy" Trio at the concert's close, deftly matched by his colleagues.
A cello sonata by Boccherini, delivered in elegant form by Whear and Slowik, provided another highlight of the afternoon.
This was Pro Musica Rara's sole concert of the fall season. The organization will resume in the new year with three programs performed at the Baltimore Museum of Art.