Kevin Mallon, the third of four aspirants this season for the directorship of Seattle Baroque Orchestra, took the helm Saturday night at Town Hall for a performance of four Bach cantatas for Lent or Easter. Four singers joined the orchestra: soprano Linda Tsatsanis, mezzo-soprano Hannah Penn; tenor Aaron Sheehan and baritone Sumner Thompson.

Expecting a sublime performance, given the individually excellent musicians and the equally fine singers, it was disappointing that, while there were sublime moments, there were dynamic imbalances between performers, and sometimes tempos which seemed extreme for the context.

The four cantatas were not performed in the order of dates for which they were composed. BWV 42, “Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats,” which began the program, was intended for the first Sunday after Easter, with the story of Jesus’ rising. Next came BWV 159, “Sehet! Wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem,” for the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, presaging pain and sorrow; BWV 158, “Der Friede sei mit dir,” for the Tuesday after Easter is one of weary acceptance, and BWV 4, “Christ lag in Todes Banden,” an early cantata for Easter Day, reaches for joy.

The program began with promise. The opening Sinfonia of Cantata 158 showed the orchestra playing at its best, with the sound light, lively and clean, with the interweaving of the two oboes (Debra Nagy and Curtis Foster) and the violins led by Linda Melsted, plus fine bassoon from Anna Marsh. It continued with the highlight of the evening for this listener, Penn’s singing of the alto aria describing the risen Jesus appearing to the gathered disciples. (While translations were given in the notes, the German original of the words was not, an unfortunate omission.)

With a lovely voice, expressive and nuanced, a fine even range and well-supported low notes, Penn’s singing together with the oboes obbligato brought a feeling of soothing and peace. The tempo was on the slow side, but the flow never sagged and it gave time for the music to breathe.

However the succeeding aria for soprano and tenor suffered from a range perhaps too low for Tsatsanis, whose upper range is strong but whose lower range rapidly lost volume. At the same time, the tempo seemed surprisingly jaunty for an aria inviting the disciples not to despair despite fear and dread, and the cello continuo’s upwards swoops seemed positively flippant.

An excellent Bach singer with a strong voice, baritone Thompson sang his arias and recitatives throughout the evening with eloquent delivery and feeling, and tenor Sheehan’s lighter voice was a pleasure to hear also.

Each cantata ended with a chorale, and here the imbalances between voices and orchestra were most obvious. While tenor and bass were easily audible, soprano and mezzo could hardly be heard over the orchestra. This was somewhat better in the second half.

Except for the final cantata, much of the range for the soprano was not very high, almost mezzo range and it was hard on Tsatsanis to make herself heard.

In No. 158 the instruments were reduced to just continuo players—lute, cello, harpsichord, plus violin. In the first aria, for baritone with the soprano alternating with a chorale, Melsted played the obbligato line which became increasingly florid, though her performance lacked nuance to go with the vocal lines.

Lastly, throughout the evening, the continuo line in the cello (played by Nathan Whittaker) seemed overly prominent, almost aggressive, though surely meant to be grounding for the melodies and harmonies above it.

Seattle Baroque Orchestra can do better than this. It’s possible that with more rehearsal time (an expensive proposition) the imbalances could have been corrected.