Three stars
Early Music Festival; July 13

As an early-music group, Seattle-based Zephyrus has performed under Festival Music Society’s auspices many times. Their appearance here last Sunday with five instrumentalists and a soprano, the History Center once again cooled from its Friday melt down, maintained their prestige as consummate Baroque-period artists. Zephyrus’ choice of repertoire proved, however, a limiting factor in my unabashed enjoyment so prevalent up to then in the Early Music Festival series. The French Baroque music chosen for this concert was, for the most part, austere and repetitive. And with composers such as François Couperin (1686-1733) and Robert de Visée (1650?-1732?), we were subjected to a mind-numbing excess of mordents (decorative little trills seemingly used in each measure). The instruments used were the flute, violin, viola da gamba, harpsichord and theorbo (an oversized lute). While each instrumental player had his/her turn at the forefront, soprano Linda Tsatsaris sang in only three offerings — the most ambitious being the group’s final piece, “La Mort de Didon” (“The Death of Dido”) by Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (1667-1737). Though featuring singing with a well-projected voice and the players all doing their parts well, “La Mort” seemed to conclude a concert with the dour element pervasive throughout. In this period of French music, only Jean Philippe Rameau seems worthy — and he wasn’t included. July 26-27 the Early Music Festival presents Red Priest: www.emindy.org.