If you think Latin is a dead language, you've never heard it sung by the women of Anonymous 4.

One of the world's most popular early music ensembles, this four-woman vocal quartet takes the music of the 14th and 15th centuries and suffuses it with shimmering vibrancy. Where one might expect to find cool and somber liturgical texts of the ancient church are instead songs full of heart and disarming honesty. And, yes, they're often sung in Latin.

On Wednesday night, Anonymous 4 brought warmth to a cold night with a sweetly sung concert at Minneapolis' Basilica of St. Mary. Delivering a collection of songs inspired by Christmas, the New York-based foursome used the expansive cathedral's stony sanctuary to inspiring effect, their harmonies hanging in the air resonantly. But the most memorable moments came when one of the four women demonstrated her skills in a solo setting, bringing chills that had nothing to do with the weather.

While the music of the medieval and Renaissance eras is what put Anonymous 4 on the map - and on the top of the classical sales charts - they eclipsed their earlier popularity in recent years by delving into 19th-century American folk hymns. Five of those tunes were sprinkled into Wednesday's 18-song, 65-minute program, and they fit alongside the auld tyme carols quite comfortably.

In one memorable case, a work fit both categories, when Marsha Genensky filled the church with an arresting, sorrowful interpretation of "The Cherry Tree Carol." Her version came from 1917 Kentucky, but the song shared the same source as most of the program, 15th-century England.

The strongest solos came from Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, her powerful soprano bringing a stunning immediacy to ancient material. Be her voice soaring above the harmonizing others or piercing through the ethereal echoes on a haunting solo, the soprano made marvelous use of the Basilica's acoustics.

While most of the pieces were sung in English, it wasn't an English your average American would understand. The texts leaned upon pronunciations straight out of Chaucer, and the brogues the women adopted were probably quite historically accurate, knowing this group's reputation for scholarship. But the words became secondary when their voices wove such an intricate and colorful musical tapestry.