The Cathedrals of Germany.

At the West Vancouver United Church on Saturday, December 4

An evening with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra is more than just a concert; it's a history lesson as well. The local ensemble concentrates on early music, often resurrecting composers whose works have been all but forgotten.

For the orchestra's Cathedrals of Germany program, such unfamiliar 17th-century names as Dietrich Buxtehude, Samuel Scheidt, Johann Rosenmíƒ ¼ller, Johann Schmelzer, and Heinrich Biber were on the bill, which offered short biographies of each composer. These gripping profiles were worth the price of admission on their own.

Rosenmíƒ ¼ller, for example, was a teacher at the School of St. Thomas in Leipzig but was imprisoned in 1655, along with several of the schoolboys, on suspicion of homosexuality. He managed to escape and fled to Italy, later becoming a composer at La Pietíƒ  , the same girls' orphanage where, a generation later, Antonio Vivaldi would make his mark.

Buxtehude's story is no less fascinating. He was organist at the Marienkirche in Líƒ ¼beck, where his compositional skills gained him such acclaim that the young Johann Sebastian Bach apparently travelled more than 300 kilometres on foot to study with him. George Frederick Handel made the same trip, and both he and Bach hoped to succeed Buxtehude in his post. Neither, however, was willing to accept an onerous condition of employment: marriage to Buxtehude's exceptionally unattractive daughter.

These composers' works were as enthralling as their life stories, thanks to the Pacific Baroque Orchestra's sensitive and sophisticated interpretations. The seven players, led by violinist and conductor Marc Destrubé, delicately phrased the music, shaping melodic lines with graceful ease and perfect balance, interacting with one another flawlessly.

Nowhere was this more obvious than during the "Paduan íƒ   4", by Scheidt. A slow and melancholy piece performed with minimal vibrato or ornamentation, it ebbed and flowed just so. Each note felt carefully, deliberately placed, and the effect was meditative and soothing.

The four members of the Madrona Ensemble--who sang in every second piece--weren't as skillful and attentive. Siri Olesen's bright, clear soprano voice often overshadowed the rest of the quartet, while tenor Jonathan Quick needed more volume at times. It's not that their performance was weak: they handled complex ornamental passages with ease and imbued their pieces with a range of moods. But when matched with Destrubé's group, they did not appear to be on the same level. There was simply too much variation in the tonal quality of their voices for them to mesh as effortlessly as the instrumentalists did.

Nonetheless, the final selection of the night, "Alles Was Ihr Tut", a song by Buxtehude with a distinctly Christmas-carol feel, offered Oleson and bass Geordie Roberts a chance to solo. Unfettered by the other singers, their unique voices invited appreciation, Oleson for her crystalline tone, and Roberts for his gentle rumble. But when the applause began, it was clear that the loudest clapping had been earned by the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, who, with their musicality, had breathed new life into these long-buried works.