“Drive the Cold Winter Away” – that’s the weather-appropriate title for the upcoming concert by the stellar Baroque musical organization, Apollo’s Fire, a Knight Arts grantee.

With these days of sub-zero chill, the idea of a “cozy” concert, as Apollo’s Fire is billing this program, seems like a great idea. It takes on a little additional luster when one sees the list of songs to be played and sung for the evening, including an anonymous 17th century English ballad from which the concert title comes – “Drive the Cold Winter Away.”

The program will feature Grammy Award-winning lutenist Ronn McFarlane and soprano Meredith Hall, who will perform, so the press release says, haunting laments by John Dowland and Henry Purcell, as well as some contrasting pieces of hilarious secular ballads. Purcell’s nod to a Shakespearean verse, “If Music Be the Food of Love,” will show off singers’ abilities with the melismatic touches and the opportunity for lengthy and masterly cadenzas that the Baroque period embraced.

Meredith Hall, soprano, will appear in Apollo’s Fire “Messiah.” Photo from www.grandphilchoir.com

One probably shouldn’t think of the type of music as particularly dated, even if it did have its heyday in the Middle Ages and through the Baroque, but loads of contemporary singers (watch an episode of American Idol to see) go with the same sort of ornamentation. The more classic pieces that Apollo’s Fire will play though were composed with such variations in mind, rather than what sometimes seems like a modern-day singer searching somewhat endlessly for the right note to land on.

Other seasonal and timely songs will be things like early Renaissance and metaphysical poet Thomas Campion’s “Now Winter Nights Enlarge” and the anonymous “The Old Year Now Away is Fled.” Campion wrote over a hundred songs for lute, which makes his inclusion in this program apt indeed.

As part of the program right after the intermission, there will be three versions of “Greensleeves,” a still popular tune to which scores of lyrics (to include religious ones) have been arranged. And, there will be, as announced, John Dowland’s “My Lord Chamberlain’s Galliard,” a lute duet, only this time with both players plucking the same instrument, no doubt with arms around one another as other performers have done. Now that adds to the cozy, intimate ambiance that Apollo’s Fire is going for in this concert; it also adds to the fun that this group can create when presenting what some might perceive as stodgy classical music.

Ronn McFarlane, lutenist. Photo by Jackie Mathey

Check out some of the tunes and settings for some of these songs on YouTube.com. But then go to see Apollo’s Fire and watch how this superb orchestra and performance group can make it all come alive and be incredibly melodious.

Apollo’s Fire will perform “Drive the Cold Winter Away” at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22 at the First United Methodist Church, 263 E. Mill St., Akron; 216-320-0012; www.apollosfire.org. Tickets begin at $21 (students admitted free of charge).