Exploring unfamiliar territory

Rebel, a Netherlands period instrument ensemble currently in residence at Trinity Church in New York City, offered one of those fill-in-the-gaps programs Sunday at Second Church of Christ Scientist near USC.

Most of the 17th century composers were unfamiliar. Nicolaus Bruhns, Franz Tunder, Johann Rosenmuller and John Jacob Froberger will be recognized only by specialists. Heinrich Biber and Dietrich Buxtehude are names, for most of us, known more in the breach than in the observance. It’s always nice to hear new music, but there were no discoveries of neglected masterpieces.

Still, Rebel -- violinists Karen Marie Marmer and Jorg-Michael Schwarz, cellist John Moran and organist Dongsok Shinv -- played with vigor and commitment. Highlights included Biber’s Partita in D minor from “Harmonia artificiosa-ariosa,” which made use of specially tuned strings for technical and coloristic effects, and a stoic Rosenmuller Sonata in E minor.

Guest soloist Curtis Streetman applied his sonorous and agile bass voice to Bruhns’ somber “De Profundis clamavi” and jolly “Mein Herz ist bereit,” Tunder’s sweet “O Jesu duclissime” and Buxtahude’s bucolic “Ich bin eine Blume zu Saron.”

The concert was part of the Chamber Music in Historic Sites series by the Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary’s College.