England is known for things green — spacious meadows, rolling hills — all part of “England’s green and pleasant land.” On a February Sunday afternoon, warm enough to make any gardener’s heart race with anticipation, the Richardson Chamber Players presented an instrumental and vocal concert devoted to England’s lush and opulent early 20th-century musical tradition. With an expanded ensemble including talented students, the Chamber Players musically reminded the audience at Richardson Auditorium that spring may not be that far off.

The Richardson Chamber Players have added new musicians to the roster this year, most notably violinist Eric Wyrick, concertmaster of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and now on the performance faculty of Princeton University. To open the concert, Mr. Wyrick was joined by violinist Anna Lim, violist Danielle Farina, and cellist Alberto Parrini in Frank Bridge’s Novelletten for String Quartet. Bridge is one of England’s lesser-known composers from the early 20th century, but his three-movement Novelletten well captured the spaciousness and melodic heart of British music from this time period. Mr. Wyrick brought a sense of power to the quartet of musicians, with sweet melodic passages from both violinists and violist. The players uniformly took time at the ends of passages, and showed particular clarity in a final ending to the work that sounded more like Beethoven than the early 20th century.

The Chamber Players took the audience on a journey through six English composers in Sunday afternoon’s concert, from the very well-known Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten to the more obscure late 20th-century John McCabe and towering Sir Edward Elgar. Vaughan Williams’ Merciless Beauty featured three “rondels” based on texts of Chaucer, expertly sung by tenor David Kellett, accompanied by Ms. Lim, Mr. Parrini, and violinist Emma Powell. Mr. Kellett sang with a sensitive and well-controlled sound, with attention to the text and an ability to find phrase direction in music with ambiguous meter, showing himself to be a singer who could sell a story well in song. Mr. Parrini began two of the three pieces with a clean cello introduction, and both singer and instrumentalists successfully found the humor in the third rondel, “Since I from Love.”

Soprano Rochelle Ellis also displayed sensitivity to text in three folk songs of John McCabe, as well as French folk songs set by Benjamin Britten. The McCabe songs were subtly accompanied by clarinetist Jo-Ann Sternberg and pianist Elizabeth DiFelice, and the Britten songs (with two others sung by Mr. Kellett) were well accompanied by Ms. DiFelice. Through both song cycles, Ms. DiFelice maneuvered complex and difficult piano parts, especially capturing the impressionistic feeling of the Britten songs. Ms. Ellis conveyed the diverse characters of the songs despite passages in very high registers, particularly maneuvering a great deal of text in McCabe’s arrangement of the folksong “John Peel.”

Elgar’s Serenade for String Orchestra brought to the stage more than 15 performers, led by conductor Michael Pratt. The Chamber Players saved the most substantial work for last, with the complete ensemble playing with a light and fresh sound. Mr. Pratt and the players easily found the ebb and flow of phrases, with particularly luxurious melodies in the second movement Larghetto. This work is rooted in the rich orchestration of 19th-century composers, and in the closing Allegretto, the string sections all worked well together, moving the piece along to an elegant close.

Richardson Chamber Players focuses on presenting music that is not often heard, as well as providing students with the opportunity to play alongside professional musicians. Sunday afternoon’s concert theme of “England’s Green and Pleasant Land” was appropriate for the season, and well met the ensemble’s mission of showcasing faculty and student instrumentalists and singers from the University’s music department.

Richardson Chamber Players’ next performance will be on April 9, 2017 in Richardson Auditorium. Featured will be music of Augusta Read Thomas, Marco Uccellini, Antonio Vivaldi, Arvo Pärt, and Juri Seo. For information call (609) 258-9220 or visit www.tickets.princeton.edu.