That’s the name of a Renaissance band, a five-person ensemble consisting of musicians who’ve chosen recorders, shawms (period oboes) and dulcians (bassoons) to make their music from a period of so long ago. Those instruments proved not shy at all, filling the up-and-down and in-the-round space of the Monroe County Courthouse rotunda.
The sounds, greeted by an overflow of listeners, were more often brash than mellow, suggesting informality, entertainment for the streets and plazas of the 15th and 16th centuries rather than more formal venues.
Some of the music was written by those we recognize, such as Orlando de Lassus, Josquin des Prez, Claudio Monteverdi, and Guillaume Dufay. Others — the Franco/Flemish composers Gaspar van Weerbeke, Nicolas Gombert and Antoine Busnois, the French Jean L’Heritier and the Spanish Francisco de Penalosa — added their own zest and personalities to the occasion.
Of course, the musicians themselves, the members of Forgotten Clefs, contributed more than significantly with their command of the instruments and feel for the Renaissance era, they being Charles Wines, Chris Armijo, Keith Collins, Sarah Huebsch and Kelsey Schilling. An add-on came from the rotunda’s wonderful resonance and an amusing strike every half-hour from the courthouse gong.

The junior high school I attended a bunch of decades ago in Houston, Texas, was named after the esteemed poet Sidney Lanier. He belonged to a branch of a long-standing family named Lanier, its patriarch along the way having been Nicholas Lanier, much honored during his lifetime (1588-1666); he became the first Master of the King’s Music. He kept himself busy, not only through music but fathering nine or so children. And somewhere in the lush family tree, one finds poet Sidney.
And those who attended Saturday afternoon’s BLEMF program by the Ensemble Lanier watched and listened to Brady Lanier, master of the viola da gamba and descendant of Nicholas, whose music, along with that of other composers in the family, was featured on the program.
Ensemble Lanier’s other members include the fine lutenist Everett Redburn, distinguished recorder artists Eva Legene and Sarah Cantor and soprano Christina Lynch. They excelled.
Lynch, in particular, was important because much of the music performed was vocal in nature. Her voice, beautifully trained for this music of old, was a stunning instrument to carry the tones, sometimes magically floating them through the worship hall of the First Presbyterian Church, at other times piercing dramatically to address matters of romance or romance lost. Example: “Lo here I burn in such desire that all the tears that I can strain out of my empty love-sick brain cannot allay my scorching pain.”
The music, whether sincere or poking fun, enticed, thanks to Lynch and her instrumental colleagues and also to the melodies and harmonies left to us by creative composers attuned to their society of some 400 years ago.

Edmund Battersby, the eminent pianist who died two months ago at the far-too-young age of 66, was a good friend of the Bloomington Early Music Festival and, on several occasions, contributed well-remembered concerts to earlier festivals. He triumphed not only on today’s Steinway grand but on the fortepianos favored by composers of 200 years ago.
BLEMF’s Saturday night concert in the First Presbyterian Church recalled Battersby’s friendship and amazing talent with a program of Beethoven (Quintet in E-Flat Major, Opus 16), and Mozart (Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K.448, and the Quintet in E-Flat Major, K452).
The two quintets joined fortepianist Hsuan Chang Kitano to a horn ensemble (Sarah Huebsch, oboe; Elise Bonhivert, clarinet; Kelsey Schilling, bassoon, and Burke Anderson, horn). In the Mozart sonata, she teamed with fellow fortepianist Mike Lee.
The music was praiseworthily realized in the cheerful Beethoven and the lovely Mozart quintets. The Mozart sonata, as performed by the two keyboard artists, was absolutely beguiling and virtuosic, a show stopper. As a means of honoring Edmund Battersby, its reading — of note — proved a reminder of how capable he was at shaping surprises and memorability. Like the beloved Battersby, Kitano and Lee struck a chord with their performance; he would have cheered it.

Sunday afternoon was to belong to Nigel North, the virtuoso lutenist who honors with his presence both the concert world and the Jacobs School faculty. Reportedly, he suffered a back injury the day before and had to cancel his recital in St. Thomas Lutheran Church.
In his place, BLEMF called upon pianist Mike Cheng-Yu Lee who, on Saturday, had helped celebrate the late faculty pianist Edmund Battersby. As partner with Hsuan Chang Kitano, Lee had stunned an audience, certainly me, playing “Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos,” K.448. That performance was a tour de force.
His Sunday appearance was a lecture/music combine about “Mozart and His Piano.” Its climax was Lee’s reading of Mozart’s “Sonata in F,” K.332, on fortepiano, an absolutely gorgeous performance that stressed the work’s lyricism, an element strongly suggestive of the Romantic period soon to come.
As keyboard performer, Lee really is a major talent, no doubt about it; I expect press notices to start coming before long in praise of his musicianship. As Nigel North’s substitute, he was a giving soul to be thanked for his generosity. As lecturer, however, though he knows his stuff, he should have been told that a microphone helps get the message out clearly and that back-and-forth physical movement should be limited because constant and purposeless pacing also gets in the way of successful communication. Call that advice for the future.

The seven musicians in Opera Nova used their performance to sharpen details for a forthcoming debut at the prestigious West Coast version of BLEMF, the Berkeley Early Music Festival. So, they’ve gained a foothold in the profession, and the manner in which they took us, their Sunday audience, on “A Musical Tour of 17th Century Italian Cities and Courts” served as proof that they’re on the right path.
The performance at the First Presbyterian Church amounted to a colorful tapestry of tunes, sonatas and canzones, songs rich in melodies that folks would hear informally on streets and, more formally, at inside gatherings of various persuasions. The composers are not so well-known now, but reveal in these 17th-century pieces a gift for attracting audiences: the Venetians Dario Castello and Biagio Marini, the Assisi-born Giovanni Battista Buonamente, from Ferrara, the keyboard virtuoso Girolamo Frescobaldi, Cremona’s Tarquinio Merula and Verona’s Antonio Bertali, along with Marco Antonio Ferro, birthplace a question mark.
Their music varied at least slightly, one from the others, but in sum evoked the land and people and era in festive manner. For base and body, Opera Nova has harpsichordist Dawn Kalis, violist da gamba Sarah Lodico and lutenist Everett Redburn, each a significant contributor to the instrumental weave. As featured and terrific soloists, the ensemble starred violinists Reynaldo Patino and Martie Perry, sackbut artist (trombone) Caleb Ketcham and, on dulcian (bassoon), Charles Wines. They embraced the music, energetically making it their own. As such, they are fun to watch and hear.