Last night at the Southern Theatre, Chamber Music Columbus presented a holiday recital by Anonymous 4 and virtuoso harpist Andrew Lawrence-King. "Wolcum Yule: Celtic and British Carols and Songs" was a 90-minute, uninterrupted program of music spanning centuries and presenting a new face for the celebrated female vocal quartet known for its medieval plainchant and polyphony.

Interestingly, Anonymous 4’s visit followed a midmonth evening with the four men of the Orlando Consort, who sing a similar repertoire.

The quartet, founded in 1986, is named for a 13 th-century Englishman, a valuable resource for French religious music of his time. Its members are Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, Jacqueline Horner and Johanna Maria Rose. With clearest diction and well-blended, often bell-like voices singing in English, Irish, Welsh, Cornish and old Scots, they launched what is to be their final full-time tour here in Columbus.

Lawrence-King, a leading performer of early music, accompanied on baroque and Irish harps and psaltery, taking the solo spotlight at times. The modern-day copies of 16 thcentury instruments required considerable onstage tuning.

The near-capacity audience settled down to a slow-paced, low-key program that took a while to reach its highest levels of performance. The women, wearing flower-accented black gowns and holding songbooks, began the evening with a setting of Awake, and Join the Cheerful Choir, from the 18 th/19 th centuries. Of the occasional, generally effective solos, the hauntingly beautiful traditional Irish hymn Flight into Egypt was tops. The four voices were most attractive in ensemble performances, whether a cappella or accompanied. Among these were the spirited The Holly and the Ivy, the folk-like A New Year Carol by Benjamin Britten, a lively I Saw Three Ships, Grene Growith the Holy by King Henry VIII, and the encore, Silent Night, sung in German. Commissioned by Anonymous 4, A Calendar of Kings by Peter Maxwell Davies was not a highlight.

Lawrence-King’s solo artistry was perhaps best displayed in his playing of the catchy Scottish Reel of Tullochgorum.