The Dryden Ensemble Celebrates 25 Years With A Baroque Tapestry

The Dryden Ensemble presents "A Baroque Tapestry," a program of French, German, and Italian Baroque music on Saturday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 6587 Upper York Road, Solebury, Pennsylvania, and on Sunday, November 10 at 3:00 p.m. at Miller Chapel, located on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary, 64 Mercer Street, Princeton, New Jersey. General admission tickets are $25 per concert and student tickets are free with a valid ID. Tickets may be purchased online at drydenensemble.org or at the door.

The concert features glorious Baroque music for two oboes, bassoon, strings, and harpsichord. Opening the program is Lully's stirring Passacaille from his opera Armide, followed by Telemann's Concerto alla francese for two oboes, bassoon, and strings. Rosenmüller's Sonata XII for five strings from 1682 and Bach's joyous Harpsichord Concerto in D Major (BWV 1054) with soloist Jake Street conclude the first half. Originally written as a violin concerto in E Major while Bach was in Anhalt-Cöthen, it was later transcribed by Bach for harpsichord and performed at one of the public concerts given by the Collegium Musicum at Zimmermann's coffeehouse in Leipzig.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, a Bohemian-Austrian violin virtuoso, was one of the most important composers of violin music in the history of the instrument. His Serenada a cinque for strings opens the second half. Based on the Song of the Nightwatchman, one movement includes the tune in a part for bass voice. Albinoni's Sinfonia in G Major will be performed in an arrangement for two oboes, bassoon, and strings. The program closes with Georg Muffat's Sonata V in G Major, which ends with a brilliant, kaleidoscopic passacaille. Muffat played an important role in the creation of an international style, forming a link between Lully and Corelli, and making their works known in Germany and Austria, as he strove to bring countries closer together through music.

The Dryden Ensemble includes Jane McKinley and Julie Brye, oboes; Anna Marsh, bassoon; Vita Wallace and Dongmyung Ahn, violins; Andrea Andros, viola; Lisa Terry, viola da gamba & cello; Anne Trout, double bass; and Jake Street, harpsichord, all performing on period instruments.

The Dryden Ensemble's season continues on February 16 when lutenist Daniel Swenberg will perform a free concert, Three Centuries of Lutes. Capping off their 25th anniversary is an intimate production of Bach's St. John Passion on March 13-15.

Named in honor of John Dryden, the English poet laureate whose words inspired Baroque composers including Purcell and Handel, the Dryden Ensemble specializes in performing music of the 17th and 18th centuries on period instruments. A line from Dryden's Song to St. Cecilia captures the essence of baroque music and the ensemble's philosophy: "What Passion cannot Musick raise and quell!"

The Dryden Ensemble is a not-for-profit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and a registered charity in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

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