The few hardy souls who braved Friday’s chilly, pre-storm air took pleasure in the enchanting concert of Music for Viols and delivered in the intimate Lindsay Chapel at the First Church in Cambridge on Friday. Based at the Somerville Museum, Carol Lewis (viola da gamba) and  Olav Chris Henriksen (vihuela and baroque guitar) have concertized as the Duo Maresienne for over three decades, wowing audiences with their musical explorations of Renaissance and Baroque Europe. As Trѐs Maresienne with violinist Lisa Brooke, and in the company of mezzo-soprano Carrie Cheron, they offered pasacalles, recercadas, romances and tonos humanos by Ortiz, Ca bezón, Milan, Sanz, Durón and Hidalgo from the height of Spanish empire with great warmth.

Listening to the varied styles that evolved confirms that in the Renaissance, musicians found inspiration within the diverse regions of the far-flung Spanish empire. Indeed, this thoughtfully programmed concert made use of many. The concert began with two quite different pieces by Antonio de Cabezón (1510-66), a much-admired keyboard virtuoso during his lifetime, and luckily for today’s listeners, a composer, blind from birth, beginning with his Tiento del Segundo Tono, a prelude with qualities of a fantasia arose the 15^th century in Spain and Gallarda Milanesa, a rendering of a popular danse tune sparked admiration for meticulous playing. The sounds of Brooke, Lewis and Henriksen would certainly have delighted de Cabezón, though this Tiento can be heard on organ or harpsichord as well on other instruments.

Luis(or Luys) de Milàn (~1500-1561) is credited as the first to compose for the vihuela, a renaissance guitar with a lute-like back, tuned as a lute. Henriksen’s vihuela, a contemporary version by Cezar Mateus of Princeton Junction, NJ, provided authenticity. Here the Fantasia del primero y Segundo tono and Sospirastes Baldovinos allowed the audience to hear the instruments and mezzo-soprano Carrie Cheron; her rich and joyous voice and persona enhanced this and other of the evening’s gems of the Spanish Renaissance.

Many musicians of this Baroque era enjoyed creating (and, no doubt, improvising “diferencias,” variations, in this evening, demonstrated through La Folia (the folly), which ultimately evolved in the works of Corelli, Marais and Vivaldi, among others.  Here, La Folia explored in examples by Diego Ortiz (1500s), Henry du Bailly (1600s), Gaspar Sanz (mid-17^th to early 18^th century) and Santiago de Murcia (1673-1739), propounded this evolution.  

The precise and sensitive playing of Lisa Brooke on her 1750 Baroque violin from the Klotz family of Mittenwald contributed greatly to this concert. The versatile artist is also well known for her contemporary pop persona with the likes of the Boston Pops, Liza Minelli, Mannheim Steamroller and other groups, as well as chamber works of all styles. Gambist Carol Lewis was consistently exquisite, intelligent, and spirited. Performing and recording widely, she also is a noted teacher. Olav Chris Hendriksen is recognized for his exploration and range as a lutenist as a master of lute, theorbo and early guitars. The Cezar Mateus Renaissance guitar he played here produced the most beautiful sound I have ever heard while its intricate sound-hole parchment looked as gorgeous as any I have seen.

Due to this past weekend’s storm, the January 25^th reprise of renaissance and baroque masterpieces has been rescheduled to February 1^st at 3:00 PM at the Somerville Museum. 

Julie Ingelfinger studied piano at the Hartt School of Music, Aspen Music Festival and School and at Harvard. She enjoys her day jobs as professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, pediatric nephrologist at Mass General Hospital for Children and deputy editor at the New England Journal of Medicine.