Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in a journey from Vivaldi to Haydn

With Vivaldi's music claimed by baroque-performance specialists in recent years, does that mean we have to wait for one of them if we're going to hear his many concertos outside of recordings?

Though she's clearly a generalist, cellist Hai-Ye Ni stepped up as guest soloist and leader of Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in a five-concerto baroque-to-classical program with nothing not to like anywhere. It was a chronological journey that cut a path from Vivaldi to Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major - a great idea, since listeners so easily take genial Haydn for granted, and this concert showed from whence he came.

But it was an inconsistent journey. Of the other concertos, Tartini's Cello Concerto in D major was a significant discovery, but one of the three Vivaldi concertos could have been dropped to leave more rehearsal for the rest.

Performances were all shipshape but rose to a different level with the Haydn concerto, the comparison showing how other performances lacked conversational specificity, each phrase answering and building on what came before in ways that can make lesser-known baroque pieces a going concern.

Current fashion has Vivaldi concertos starting off with a dazzling first-movement tempo; Ni's were surprisingly stately and tended to grow more probing as the music went on, though not always producing revelations. Lightly scored slow movements showed the full depth of her considerable lyricism, often heard with spontaneously expressive support from Davyd Booth on harpsichord. Final movements were livelier, but there's where the barrier with modern instruments was apparent: Her cello's sound wasn't just bigger than a baroque instrument's, her modern vibrato slowed the music's potential fleetness.

Hailing as it does from a later generation than Vivaldi, the Tartini concerto was much more suited to the performance approach, its soulful opening largo movement having a more operatic language that prompted greater identification from the musicians.

Thus, Haydn's concerto, though lacking the sophistication of his later symphonies, could be appreciated for the many strands of instrumental writing the composer brought together with casual brilliance. Has this music ever been heard with such a strong sense of arrival?