At 4x4 Baroque Music Festival, Five

Introducing "Concertos à 5," the opening program of the 4x4 Baroque Music Festival on Tuesday, the harpsichordist Avi Stein said that each era has its ubiquitous format, like the string quartet in the 20th and 21st centuries and the Trio sonata in the Baroque era. The five-part ensemble, an invention of an earlier period, is the "dark sheep of the family," he added. Its Renaissance flavor, with a rich polyphonic texture created by the instrumental combination, lingered in scores written in later centuries.

These works were the focus of Tuesday's lineup at St. Peter's Lutheran Church on Lexington Avenue, the first of four one-hour free concerts featuring well-known composers and worthy rarities.

Mr. Stein was joined by colleagues including the excellent Baroque violinist Robert Mealy, and the violinist Julie Andrijeski, two violists (Daniel Elyar and Daniel S. Lee), a cellist (Katie Rietman), a bass player (Motomi Igarashi) and a theorbo and guitarist (David Walker).

The playing throughout was polished and spirited, with striking dynamic contrasts, as in the Sinfonia in A minor by Francesco Navara, one of the few surviving works of this 17th-century Italian. The instrumental music of Albinoni has fared better; he was represented here with his Sonata in A (Op. 2, No. 5).

The program opened with spry, lively renditions of three dances: the Paduana, Coranta and Galliard by William Brade, an English composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. The lineup also included a soulful, elegant interpretation of the alluring Sonata No. 9 by Philipp van Wichel. The other obscurities on the program included the virtuosic Sonata No. 2 in G minor by the Austrian composer Romanus Weichlein, given a colorful performance, and the Canzona on "O Nachbar Roland" by Samuel Scheidt.

Sandwiched between the rarities was Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E flat (BWV 552) for organ, sometimes nicknamed the "St. Anne" because of the opening fugue's similarity to a popular English hymn of the era. (It's likely that the resemblance is coincidental, since Bach probably never heard the tune.) The Prelude and Fugue were a suitable inclusion on a program of five-part works, said Mr. Stein - who offered a stirring performance - because of its five-voice triple fugue.

The 4x4 Baroque Music Festival runs through Saturday at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Lexington Avenue at 54th Street; 4x4baroque.com.