It is a happy coincidence that the venue for this Ensemble 642 concert, an imposing Victorian pile in the high Italianate style, is named Benvenuta or “welcome”, and that the opening number in the programme was Welcome every guest by John Blow. Ensemble 642, a group of young early music devotees, did indeed have a welcoming air as it presented this hour-long exploration of 17th-century English consort and vocal music.

Lutenist Nicholas Pollock’s laconic sense of humour set the mood well, in comparing the vocal music on the programme to the winter weather: if it fines up too much, you know something is wrong. Such a comment does capture something of the cheerful melancholy that has suffused much English music since.

^{Ensemble 642’s Hannah Lane and Nicholas Pollock}

On this occasion the ensemble was joined by Melbourne-born tenor, Daniel Thomson, who is currently based in London and studying at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. Thomson’s fine, light instrument is a joy to listen to. At the centre of the programme was his accomplished performance (from memory) of Hero’s Complaint to Leander, an extended work by Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666), Master of the...