The program's first half was all-German by way of Leipzig, while the second half introduced rarely performed repertoire from Latin America circa the 17th century. Before the main event, the young treble singers of the Handel and Haydn Youth Choruses concert choir took the stage, performing two crisply melodious (and technically challenging) snow-themed contemporary pieces in front of the supportive Jordan Hall crowd.
Valenzuela set a breakneck pace right out of the gate for J.S. Bach's staple cantata, "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland," BWV 62, and at that gallop the winding oboe harmonies in the first choral movement sounded clipped and short of breath, but the muscular continuo section (two cellos, one theorbo, and Ian Watson on the organ) anchored the sound. With the small H+H Chorus standing in an arc at the rear of the stage, the voices seemed to divinely float above the earthly clamor. The conductor led from the Allan Winkler harpsichord at center stage; in unbroken, intentional motions he simultaneously cued the orchestra and brought his hands down to chime in on the keyboard, adding judicious, snappy accents to the continuo section. Taking the spotlight for the tenor's aria, soloist Steven Soph unfurled seamless, caramel-smooth melismas, but baritone Craig Juricka's low range was audibly smudged in the following vigorous aria for bass.
The orchestra and Valenzuela then took a run at a treasure of a Christoph Graupner overture, in which dance rhythms infused every gesture. The program note as written had me expecting an oboe solo in one of the slow central movements, subtitled "Le Desire," but concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky instead picked up the solo and rendered it with delicately spirited grace on top of the ensemble's tender plucked backdrop. Valenzuela is known to be an enthusiast for Graupner, who he described from the stage as "lurking behind Bach"; the two composers were contemporaries, and Graupner turned down the Kapellmeister position at the Leipzig Thomaskirche that Bach ended up taking. All this Valenzuela explained, then lightheartedly directed the audience that their "homework" was to look up more of Graupner's music.
The Latin American Baroque selections featured the chorus and an even smaller continuo section, including only one cellist alongside organ and theorbo. These pre-dated the German repertoire by several decades, and combined with the fact that musical trends spread slowly across the Atlantic in those days, the sacred pieces inhabited a blurry boundary zone between Baroque and Renaissance choral practices. Francisco López Capillas's reverent "Magnificat" for eight voices was arrestingly lovely, as the H+H Chorus -- divided into two sub-ensembles of sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses -- echoed back and forth across the stage.
The final piece -- dessert, if you will -- was from Peru, a Juan de Araujo villancico for Christmas; a festive song intended to accompany religious processions with a blend of sacred and comic secular lyrics in Spanish. Valenzuela clearly coached the chorus in expression and pronunciation given the time he had, but the performance itself could have used more rehearsal or troubleshooting; the solo verses were mostly inaudible over the rattling beats of the tambourine and cajon.