St Werburgh’s Church, Dublin

Medieval-music ensemble Morisca’s hour-long celebration of Christmas was neatly packaged as an invocation plus four tableaux respectively depicting the Annunciation, the Shepherds, the Nativity and the Magi.

It was with reference to the Magi that the ensemble was able to honour its name – which means “Moorish” – with a spicy Arabic item, complete with a racy riff from percussionist Francesco Turrisi.

The 12th-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen was represented by a prose reading of her Symphony of the Blessed and a drone-accompanied rendition of her Marian hymn Ave generosa. Vocalist Pauline Graham tackled the latter in a coolly cloistered manner that suggested there was room further to interpret the expansive melody. This and other plainchant pieces formed effective contrasts to some lively Italian and English dances. An Estampie originally for keyboard yielded stylishly alert exchanges between Laoise O’Brien on recorder and Sarah Groser on vielle – the vertically held, medieval fiddle.

Turrisi’s percussion garnishes were widely varied, turning the mood from ceremonial (with small bells) to folksy (with Jew’s harp).

Alternation of vocal and instrumental verses was the formula for three 14th-century German carols now well known in churchly choral arrangements: Quem pastores, Personent hodie and In dulci jubilo.

All received fresh injections of their long-suppressed dance element, while Angelus ad Virginem, transmitted in a manuscript of Dublin provenance, risked a single verse of its prickly original counterpoint.

It was in these snappier numbers that Graham successfully took a less formal pose, starting verses with an enlivening vocal scoop, and elongating the blue notes of the Wexford Carol against Turrisi’s atmospheric hurdy-gurdy accompaniment.