SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1997
by Philippa Kiraly, Special to the P-I

"Good news for early music buffs: yet another fully professional early music group has set up shop in town, the Benevolent Order for Music of the Baroque, or BOMB.

Although the group began in 1993 and three of the peformers live here, Saturday night's performance at Nippon Kan Theater was its Seattle debut.

Led by baroque flutist and recorder player Kim Pineda, BOMB also includes two baroque violinists, Jolianne von Einem and Rob Diggins from California (both have performed here with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra), baroque cellist Elisabeth Reed, and harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree.

The programming was artfully chosen, not only to display the range of 16th-18th century chamber music from Italy and Spain, but also to give each performer a chance to shine.

Only a couple of sonatas by Scarlatti and a concerto by Vivaldi were familiar. The remaining works were all well worth hearing. A dramatically played Sinfonia by Alessandro Stradella was a passionate dialogue between cello and violin (Diggins), with harpsichord comments; Francesco Mancini's Concerto V, from a book of 24 published in 1725, was unusually designed and noteworthy, particularly the lovely slow movement.

Diggins and von Einem, stylistically well matched, perform as two halves of a whole. Meticulous about tuning their instruments to each other as well as to the harpsichord, the results threw into relief, and added to the pleasure of the give and take between their violins.

Seattle hears more viola da gamba than baroque cello, so to have a player here of Reed's caliber can only be a plus. A sensitive continuo player, she came to the fore in a fine, emotive performance of Frescobaldi's "Canzona Ottava," a piece highly florid and ornamented in the style of the time.

Dupree, well known to Seattle audiences, did her usual good work. Pineda is an effortless performer on his instruments, a solo player who can meld into the ensemble as necessary.

BOMB's stylish playing, excellent precision, and understanding of baroque conventions is combined with a casual approach, calculated to disarm the audience member unfamiliar with the music. Pineda and Reed gave oral vignettes of the composers, as much about their salacious escapades as their music, and audience members were offered crayons and a blank page in the program to scribble on, as well as soft drinks to sip during the concert.

Such an approach doesn't seem necessary. It made the concert a little too long."

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