Before Maureen Nelson joined The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 2016, she was a founding member of the Ensō String Quartet. The core repertoire of any quartet really begins with Franz Joseph Haydn, who fashioned the ensemble of two violins, viola and cello a chamber music mainstay, but that ruled out centuries of great music, including the entire Renaissance era (roughly 1400-1600). To remedy that gap, Nelson created her own Renaissance Suite, arranging music from a range of sources.

The set begins with a Spanish Villancico by Pedro Guerrero (born c. 1520), in the Arabic-inflected style of Moorish dance, or Moresca. As Nelson writes, “The text is vocalized by a crazed lover, demanding why the object of their desire is a slayer of hearts.”

The French chanson Mille Regretz was probably composed by Josquin des Prez (born c. 1450), expressing the “thousand regrets” of parting, and filling the music with pathos to match its lyrics that expressed “so much sadness and such painful distress.”

The final selection is Nelson’s fantasy on a Cachua, a traditional form of round dance from Peru that was transcribed and archived in Spain by a missionary bishop in the 1700s.

Aaron Grad ©2022