By John K. Toedtman
Enquirer contributor

The Catacoustic Consort program Saturday evening at Christ Church in Glendale was a delightful journey into the realm of "old" music that sounds new to our 21st- century ears.

One often approaches early music performed on period instruments with questions. Will the music be interesting and filled with contrast? Will it contain emotion and a message to the listeners? Will it, in fact, be in tune?

When such music is presented by the Cincinnati-based Catacoustic Consort, the answer to all of these questions is a resounding yes. A small but devoted audience heard music from the 16th- and 17th- centuries that was played with fervor, discipline, enthusiasm and panache.

Catherine Webster, who possesses a dazzling well-trained soprano voice, bass violist John Mark Rozendaal, tenor violist Russell Wagner, tenor violist Julie Jeffrey, and artistic director Annalisa Pappano who plays both the treble viol and the lirone are a remarkable combination of talented and artistically compatible musicians.

A wide variety of thoughts and emotions are expressed in the music played by the Consort. A song called "Venus Birds" by John Bennet (c. 1570-1614) is haunting and mournful. "Ne reminiscaris" by John Wilbye (1574-1638) is an earnest prayer for forgiveness of sins.

"My Mistress Had a Little Dog," by the well-known Englishman William Byrd (1543-1632), is a song of political protest by a closet-Catholic in Protestant England. "Fantazia No. 4"in G minor is an instrumental piece by the "patron saint" of the viol, Henry Purcell (1659-1695), one of England's finest composers of the period.

"Une jeune fillette" by Eustache du Caurroy (1549-1609) is a tongue in cheek story about a young girl "charming and pretty...against her will she was made a nun; this doesn't please her at all, so she lives in great pain."

The last piece on the program "Ach, herr lass deine lieben Engelein," by the German composer, Franz Tunder (c. 1595-1668) contained perhaps the most spirited, moving music of the evening. A prayer upon the approach of death, it implores God to "let thy dear little angels, at the parting of my soul, bear me into Abraham's bosom...awaken me from death, that my eyes might behold thee in everlasting peace."

Bravo to the Catacoustic Consort for bringing this "new" old music to life so convincingly.