Baroque music’s sizable contingent of fans and curiosity-seekers in Santa Barbara have sometimes been an underserved community in a given season. It can seem like the special culture of baroque and early music is an esoteric side channel of classical music, rather than a formative bedrock of western musical tradition.
Not so this season, which is blessed with reasons for baroque aficionados to rejoice. Within the next three months, the concert calendar features Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (featuring soprano Julia Bullock) at the Lobero Theatre on January 21, Camerata Pacifica’s still-young baroque subplot focus, at Hahn Hall on January 17 and February 28, and, more pressingly, the acclaimed Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra on Tuesday, November 12, at The Granada Theatre — presented by CAMA.
Tuesday’s affair, also featuring the return of mandolinist Avi Avital and soprano Estelí Gomez on the thematic turf of Vivaldi and Venice, promises to be a very fine introduction to the baroque smorgasbord to come. Although the centerpiece of the program heads down the middle of baroque best-of channels, with the oft-heard chestnut of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, the context becomes more inventive with the intertwining of Venetian songs popular among gondoliers through the years.