Seattle's best new concert series comes in the form of the lute

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Seattle, Saturday night (repeated Sunday afternoon)

The lute song duo Dulces Exuviae (Sweet Reminders) played the final concert of their first season in Seattle. The principals, soprano Linda Tsatsanis and lutenist John Lenti, have provided the best new concert series in the city this year.

As with many artists in an inaugural season, they remain largely undiscovered, but the quality of the music is indisputable. Even as the pop artist Sting makes the lute song much more widely known, it is no surprise to the early-music crowd that this lovely, charming form has always been a quiet treasure trove. The repertoire is huge, spanning centuries, so even seasoned listeners can find new gems at every concert.

One of the big attractions of this group is Tsatsanis, a soprano. She has made quite a splash in her first year in Seattle as a guest of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra and in the recent production of Monteverdi's "Coronation of Poppea." The crystalline purity of Tsatsanis' voice carries perfectly in the tall, reverberant sanctuary of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Lower Queen Anne.

The theme of this program was music inspired by three great poets: Virgil, Petrarch and Shakespeare. It included, appropriately, a setting from Virgil's "Aeneid," from which these musicians take their name. "Dulces exuviae" is the observation of Virgil's great heroine, Dido, as she looks at the bittersweet reminders of the lover who has left her forever. Tsatsanis sings this dramatic text brilliantly, and brings it to such life, it's not even necessary to peek at the translation.

Lenti's mad skills on the lute and its larger, long-necked cousin, the theorbo, are a joy to behold. He got no breaks on this program: Between vocal pieces, Lenti was playing even more technically challenging solo works. He was most impressive on John Dowland's "Fancy" on the lute, but then outdid himself in the second half with Bellerofonte Castaldi's variations on the famous "Follia" theme, on the theorbo, usually just an accompanying instrument. But Castaldi wrote incredible solo pieces for theorbo: One variation was made entirely of trills.

The final set of songs on the program included two settings of the same Petrarchan sonnet, providing apt contrast to the possible approaches to this rich poetry. Despite the appearance of obscurity, the appeal of all this music and poetry is universally human; it requires no special scholarship to appreciate. Dulces Exuviae presents music that anyone with ears and a soul can love.