The New York Times By Allan Kozinn, Published: August 27, 2010 “In its annual run of four free concerts, the 4x4 Baroque Music Festival offers an inviting balance of the familiar and the arcane, and in its opening concert, on Thursday evening at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, rarities held the spotlight. The program, directed from the organ by Avi Stein, picked up on a subject the group explored pleasingly last summer — the music of German composers in the generation before Johann Sebastian Bach, including the work of an illustrious cousin, Johann Christoph Bach. [...] The ensemble — violins and violas, French horns in the Kuhnau and a continuo group that included two lutes, cello and organ — supported the vocal works with performances that were fluid and often vigorous but never overpowering. And the instrumentalists had a few moments in the spotlight, too. The group gave a lively account of Biber’s Sonata No. 8, from the 1676 “Sonatae Tam Aris Quam Aulis Servientes” (“Sonatas as Much for the Altar as the Table”). And Mr. Stein, switching from the chamber organ from which he led the vocal pieces to the church’s larger, more flexible instrument, gave an energetic and appealingly shaded performance of a Prelude by Nicolaus Bruhns.” (more) The New York Times  By Allan Kozinn, Published: August 31, 2010 “In its four free concerts, offered as a farewell to the summer for early-music fans, the 4x4 Baroque Music Festival has touched efficiently on a broad sampling of the repertory, with an emphasis on tantalizing obscurities. But having explored works by Bach’s German predecessors, glanced at Handel’s Italian years and offered vocal music from 17th- century Venice and Rome, the festival devoted its final concert, on Monday evening at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, to a beloved set of Vivaldi concertos. [...] All told, the festival’s resident ensemble played half the set: five works in Vivaldi’s original scoring and one, the Concerto No. 8 in A minor, in Bach’s keyboard reconfiguration. Avi Stein, the keyboardist who directs the festival, gave a robust account of that work on the church’s organ; otherwise, he played harpsichord in a continuo group that also included two lutes (or a lute and a Baroque guitar), two cellos and double bass. Mainly, this was an evening for the group’s violinists, Robert Mealy, Amelia Roosevelt, Katie Hyun and Daniel Lee, who alternated in the vigorous, often speedy solo lines. Mr. Mealy and Ms. Roosevelt in particular proved virtuoso duelists. The cellists, Ezra Seltzer and Katie Rietman, made appealing contributions as well, especially in the Concertos Nos. 2 in G minor, 10 in B minor and 11 in D minor, which include the most elaborate cello writing in the set. [...] The interpretations were carefully streamlined throughout, with great attention to both nuance and the larger details that make “L’Estro Armonico” such an appealingly varied collection. Dynamics were often fluid and expansive, though where the score called for sudden, sharp contrasts, the players usually magnified the gulf between forte and piano. Some of these touches may have been exaggerations, but they yielded dramatic, incisive performances that left you wishing the ensemble had played all 12 concertos. (more) .::. 4x4 Baroque Music Festival .::. July 29-30 - August 2-3 .::. Saint Peter's Lutheran Church, 619 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY .::. 4x4 @ Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church All concerts will start at 7;30pm, at Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church, 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street, in New York City (click on the map to enlarge). FREE ADMISSION $20 suggested donation General seating. No advance tickets or reservations required. For more information please contact Avi Stein avi.stein@yahoo.com