The Dryden Ensemble Will Perform 'A 26-Course Feast: Baroque Lute Duets'

The Dryden Ensemble returns with its new artistic director, Daniel Swenberg, in a program entitled "A 26-Course Feast: Baroque Lute Duets" on Sunday, February 16 at 4:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, located on 50 Cherry Hill Road off Hwy. 206, Princeton, NJ. Admission is free, though donations will be gratefully accepted.

Lutenists Daniel Swenberg and Dušan Balarin will perform 17th- and 18th-century duets for the Baroque lute. While performances of Baroque lute duets are extremely rare, there is a significant repertoire from the early 17th century to the close of the 18th. Our program begins and ends with lavish galant duets from the center of the lute’s final flourishing—the court of Wilhelmine, Margrave of Bayreuth (Fredrick the Great’s sister). Wilhelmine was herself an accomplished lutenist and student of the great Silvius Leopold Weiss, and set out to create a mini-Versailles in Bayreuth.

Telemann (often under the pseudonym/anagram Signor Melante) spent a formative year in Sorau, Poland in 1705. He was particularly inspired by the gypsy fiddlers of the area. His Partita in g minor is found in a large collection of lute duets now in Warsaw. A manuscript in Poznan, Poland features a collection of English music, from which our Purcell Ground has been reconstructed. Duets by Frenchmen Francois DuFault and Robert DeVisée will be performed, as well as two sonatas for Baroque mandolino (smallest member of the lute family) by Conti and Sammartini, rounding out the program with delightful variety.

To post a comment, you must register and login.