St Bartholomew's Church,  Clyde Road, Dublin

Johann Christoph Bach — Ach, dass ich Wasser g'nug hätte. JS Bach — Harpsichord Concerto in D BWV1054. Purcell — O Solitude. Le Roux — Trio Sonata in F. Vivaldi — Stabat Mater

GIVEN HIS name and his entrepreneurial interest in early music, it was probably inevitable that harpsichordist and conductor Desmond Earley would be tempted to create an ensemble with a punning monicker. The Earley Musicke Ensemble made its first tour with funding courtesy of a Music Network performance and touring award.

The programme was an enterprising and wide-ranging one. At the well-known end were Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in D, BWV1054 (a reworking of his violin concerto in E); Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater; and Purcell’s song O Solitude.

At the other end were a trio sonata by Gaspard Le Roux and an expressively probing lament by Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703), a cousin of the great Johann Sebastian, who is described in the New Grove as “probably the most important member of the family before Bach”.

Earley has recruited players from the Irish Baroque Orchestra – Anita Vedres and Aoife Ní Dhornáin (violins), Carla Vedres (viola) and Malachy Robinson (violone) – and the mezzo soprano Sharon Carty. But at St Bartholomew’s Church on Monday the ensemble didn’t sound as if it had yet fully gelled. Earley may have named the group after himself but he hasn’t yet imposed a clear musical character on it.

Without any sense of strong overall direction, there was a lack of focus in the music-making, and even the harpsichord concerto sounded a bit breathless and unstable.

The evening’s strongest contributions came from the clear-toned, intelligent singing of Sharon Carty. She may not always have carried the words with sufficient import but her contributions suggested she has real potential in the area of early music.