The Brandeis Early Music Ensemble, directed by Prof. Sarah Mead (MUS), presented a Hero and Leander-themed concert for a small audience in the Slosberg Recital Hall Sunday at 3 p.m. Of all ancient tales of starstruck lovers, the legend of Hero and Leander is perhaps one of the most heartrending. According to the Greek myth, Hero was a priestess of Aphrodite who lived across the Hellespont from the man she loved, Leander. Since Hero was commanded to keep her virginity, Leander swam to her across the Hellespont in secret, guided by a lamp Hero faithfully held for him throughout his voyages. When a storm came one night and blew out Hero's lamp, Leander drowned with no light to guide him; having failed her lover, Hero threw herself from her tower to die on the shore where his body washed up.The mostly Italian and English composers whose pieces were featured on the program found inspiration in the tragic legend to compose a variety of madrigals, ballads and recitatives, and EME took advantage of this full range of works to assemble a varied program. The entire first half of the concert was devoted to L'amorosa Ero, or "Hero in Love," a set of madrigals on a poem by Paduan governor and Count Marc'Antonio Martinengo. Madrigals such as these are challenging, relying on accuracy of intonation and ensemble to bring out the complex counterpoint that is at once peaceful and mysterious. The EME musicians were ill at ease with some of the more touchy sections of the piece; sporadic errors in intonation and lapses in ensemble detracted from the rich, ever-shifting voices that form the madrigal. The Claudio Merulo madrigal featured the best of early stringed instruments' clear, slightly nasal tones, but was marred by complex canonical passages that were never quite together. Similarly, lapses in tuning consistently distracted from the lush singing of the a cappella Alfonso Ferrabosco madrigal.

After a brief intermission, the second half of the concert began with a simple, sweet, charming ballad that brought a bit of Renaissance pop culture to a rainy Sunday in Waltham. Leander's Love to Loyal Hero featured various combinations of instruments joining singers Jake Aaron '09 and Amanda Gadrow Ph.D. '12, much like period performers would have done in a recreational situation. The piece was sung and performed with much more pep and confidence than in L'amorosa Ero, and it was clear that the set of madrigals could have benefited immensely from this confidence. During John Downland's Lachrimae Amanti, a string on Mead's treble viol snapped, to which she reacted with impressive sangfroid; after a second instrument was fetched, one of the best pieces of the concert began. Hero lamented through Gadrow's clear soprano in Weep, weep mine eyes, and again later in the concert with Hero's Complaint to Leander. Aaron gave another impressive performance as Leander in Hero, care not if they pry, and the concert finished with a solidly-performed Orlandus Lassus motet, Heroum soboles.

The performers may have simply needed time to build confidence or warm up, or it could have been that the pieces on the latter half of the program were simply less challenging, but the finish to the concert was much more impressive than the opening. During the motet, the rich, interweaving complexities of early Renaissance music came through as they never did during the madrigals, ending the concert on a high note.