Baroque music concert sparkles like a jewel

It was a term once applied to a style of art that was ornamental, extravagant and rare. Eventually, however, the term baroque — which literally means pearl of irregular shape — came to describe a revolutionary era in music history.

And the translation has never seemed more appropriate than when applied to the unusual and distinctive qualities of last night’s concert by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at the Maine Center for the Arts.

On its debut American tour, the German chamber group, made up of younger-than-middle-age musicians, has imported its repertory of pieces from the early music period of the 17th and 18th centuries. Last night’s program included works by the leading figures of the era, Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as the lesser known Italian composer Lorenzo Gaetano Zavateri, and Archangelo Corelli.

From the beginning of the first piece, Vivaldi’s overture to the opera “L’Olimpiade,” the 14 musicians of this ensemble showed a collective facility and imagination. More like a rock band than a chamber group in their easy energy, they moved together with a wave-like grace and determination that never diminished through the two-hour concert. The phrasing was exquisitely rhythmic, a gentle pumping out of the music in just the right pace and volume and texture.

A conductorless orchestra that is led by concertmaster Gottfried von der Goltz, the group relied completely on thorough focus and second-to-second communication to produce a sound that had both complexity and clarity. During a solo in the Zavateri piece, von der Goltz had trouble with his bow, and second violinist Anne Katharina Schreiber quickly volunteered hers so he could continue. It was indicative of the kind of cooperation among these players.

Compelling visually and commanding musically, the musicians gave an outstanding rendition of Vivialdi’s Concerto for 2 violins, 2 celli, strings and continuo. Guest flutist Karl Kaiser added more flair in Bach’s Suite No. 2 for flute, strings, and continuo in B minor.

But the group dynamic did not for a moment steal anything away from the individual talent of each performer. The overall effect was a celebration of each person’s creative ability as he or she contributed to the larger experience of the music.

The Freiburg group performs on period instruments including the theorbo, which combines the lute and bass, and the harpsichord. The latter was played by Torsten Johann, whose reading of the solo sections in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 can only be described as sublime in its flourish, subtlety and beauty — something akin to a rare gem.