The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia will return to its roots as a basically baroque music ensemble with a pair of concerts, Feb. 13 and 15, featuring either music composed during the baroque era (1600 to 1750) or inspired by music from it.

Music director David Hayes will conduct Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major, BWV 1051; Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Symphony in D major, H. 663; Ottorino Respighi’s “Trittico botticellano;” and Richard Strauss’ “Dance Suite from Keyboard Pieces by Francois Couperin.”

Both concerts will be performed in the Chamber Orchestra’s new principal home, the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square in Center City. The first is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 13, at 7:30 p.m., the second for Sunday, Feb. 15, at 2:30 p.m.

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, now in its 60th year, was founded by Marc Mostovoy as the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia. Its mission was to bring back to the concert stage of local audiences the orchestral works of the baroque period that had fallen out of favor and that were no long regularly programmed by larger symphonic ensembles, such as the Philadelphia Orchestra. Other than a few scores by J.S. Bach and Handel’s “Messiah,” most of the music of the late 17th and early 18th centuries were only rarely heard. The early symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, and a few by Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart plus solo concerti by Antonio Vivaldi, were ever performed.

Mostovoy’s Concerto Soloists reawakened the local public’s appreciation of these masterpieces. When the ensemble moved to the Kimmel Center at its opening in 2001, it changed its name to the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, moved away from its original repertoire, and blurred its public personality.

By leaving the Kimmel’s Perelman Theater and returning to one of its original concert venues, the Chamber Orchestra has completed the circle. For ticket information visit www.chamberorchestra.org.

Trio Excelsior! at Woodmere

The Trio Excelsior! performed an exciting recital at Woodmere in Chestnut Hill on Jan. 24, only hours before the start of one of the regions’ most devastating snowstorms. Although the weather outside was beginning to threaten, the feeling inside Woodmere was warmly enveloping.

The evening’s principal work for violinist Yevgeniy Dyo, cellist Elina Snellman-Lang and pianist Marja Kaisla was Beethoven’s justly celebrated “Archduke” Trio, Opus 97. The 1814 work was given its nickname because the composer had dedicated the score to the Archduke Rudolf, the youngest son of Leopold II, Hapsburg Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in an imperial line stretching all the way back to Charlemagne in 800 A.D.

The work is divided into four movements: Allegro moderato, Scherzo allegro, Andante cantabile, and Allegro moderator. The trick(s) in interpreting and performing it are projecting the ever-changing moods of the four movements while linking them together into a single-focused classical presentation. Tremendous digital technique, expressive musicality and expert ensemble are all required for the score to come alive as Beethoven intended.

Fortunately for the audience that packed Woodmere’s Rotunda, the Trio Excelsior! met and even surpassed every challenge. The playing was tight in ensemble and balance, strongly centered structurally, and expansively expressive.

The program was rounded out by Enrique Granados’ Piano Trio No 2 and “Café Music” by Paul Schoenfield.

You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net.