The inaugural concert at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Wednesday attracted a decent audience, the program was full of thanks to people and organizations donating services, and, in the end, the name may be viable - or at least more intriguing than generic ones like the Philadelphia Camerata. "It's a little quirky, it's something people remember. They'll be curious about the name and wonder what it is," said founder John Fowler, who plans a three-concert season in 2009-10. "I haven't seen anything [in Philadelphia] even remotely close to what we're doing."

No surprise. If the Buxtehude Consort's "Sacred Cantatas" program filled a gap here, it's one that few thought existed - until, perhaps, the Wednesday concert. (Even in hard-core European early-music circles, composer Dietrich Buxtehude - 1637-1707 - is regarded as an evolutionary step toward the greater music of Bach.) Others, like Fowler, hear something more and knew from the Bach Festival of Philadelphia (he's executive director) that the musical resources are close at hand.

The inaugural program featured five Buxtehude cantatas for one to three vocal soloists plus a small instrumental ensemble anchored by a chamber organ (titles included Salve Jesu Patris gnate unigenite and Singet dem Herrn nein neues Lied) in a trim 80- minute concert. While some works crossed into similar territory as Bach's most famous cantatas, comparisons weren't in the least unflattering. Though Buxtehude's response to the text isn't as consistently animated as Bach's and his tidy music fits neatly into the Germanic sacred tradition, his personality emerged in ways that allowed the music to stand on its own, outside any continuum.

For all Bach's richness, he had a highly codified sense of what his aesthetic would not allow. Buxtehude was less concerned with musical sweep and happily broke the flow to go with a strong word-painting inspiration. With Bach, voices and instruments seem conceived as part of an organic whole; with Buxtehude, you never know if the instrumental introduction is going to be a short call-to-attention or a more involved sonata. And the dull parts? One senses they are music recycled from other works - a common practice then - with less than full conviction or resourcefulness. If Buxtehude wasn't good at covering his tracks, it's a minor fault.

The Philadelphia community's pool of baroque-music instrumental specialists is a key factor in the consort's success. Less certain are solo voices: Beyond baroque specialist Julianne Baird ( said to be committed to concerts with the group), others can't afford to train their voices to any one specialty and make a living in Philadelphia. That said, Molly Quinn, Jenifer Smith, and baritone Fowler more than approximated the kind of baroque style suitable for Buxtehude, even if their voices slightly crowded his contrapuntal manner.

Economic impact on the group's future is, for now, oddly favorable. With cutbacks among other ensembles, the early-music crowd is eager for work. "They have fewer confirmed engagements and they're looking to fill in what's missing this year," Fowler said. "We can do it with a small donor base and program advertisements."

At least that's the case with his less ambitious plans. He hopes to end next season with what's considered to be one of Buxtehude's very best works: Membra Jesu Nostri, which contemplates Jesus' body parts (however oddly to modern ears). Then again, with movements dedicated to particular anatomical areas, there's the option to do the hands and feet in one season, knees and chest in another.