Dryden Ensemble Closes Phoenix Season with BAROQUE PASSION

The Dryden Ensemble will conclude its “Phoenix Season” with a richly contemplative concert titled Baroque Passion: Musical Meditations on Holy Week, on Saturday, April 19 at 4:00 p.m. at the Princeton Theological Seminary Chapel, 64 Mercer Street in Princeton. The performance is free and open to the public, with donations gratefully accepted via drydenensemble.org. Parking is available in the lot between Stockton and Mercer Streets.

The performance marks the final concert of Daniel Swenberg's first season as Artistic Director. In addition to leading the ensemble, Swenberg is also a noted lutenist. For him, the return to live performance—after a brief hiatus for the ensemble—has been both energizing and enlightening. “It has been wonderful to reconnect with our audience and to see it grow,” he reflects. “Seeing ‘how the sausage is made'—the intricacies and practices of operating a non-profit ensemble—has certainly provided surprises and a lot to learn. Programming this season has been particularly rewarding. Bringing rare works—often for lute—out of dusty archives and into conversation with other repertoire brings me joy.”

This concert, like Holy Week itself, traces a journey from mourning to renewal. It opens with Marin Marais's haunting Tombeau de Monsieur Meliton, a meditative work for two viols that Swenberg notes echoes the opening theme of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. “Marais' Tombeau is such a meditative, dramatic, and desperate piece,” he says. “We open at the tomb with a long, mournful and building intensity.”

That journey continues through Purcell's divine hymn Lord, what is man?, selections of Lutheran chorales by Esaias Reusner, and Mein Heiland, dich vergess ich nicht from Bach's reconstructed St. Mark Passion, a poignant aria scored for soprano, lute, and viols—an instrumentation central to this program. At its heart lies Giovanni Battista Ferrandini's rarely performed cantata O Spettacolo Pur Troppo Funesto, which inspired the instrumentation and spirit of the entire concert. “It's scored for soprano, two viols, and lute—rather archaic by the late 18th century—plus organ,” Swenberg explains. “That special ensemble helped shape the whole program.”

In a season themed around rebirth, it's fitting that the program concludes with Michel Corrette's Le Phénix, a concerto for viols that Swenberg discovered while searching for works that could symbolically represent the ensemble's own renewal. “We had a good laugh about how we might follow the Swan Season with the Phoenix Season,” he says. “Corrette's concerto—with its Vivaldian flair and gorgeous middle movement—felt like kismet. It's a secular resurrection of sorts, and a perfect way to conclude our season.”

Joining the ensemble are two remarkable guest artists: soprano Clara Rottsolk and gambist Arnie Tanimoto. “I've known both Clara and Arnie for years and am thrilled to introduce them to our audience,” says Swenberg. “Arnie teaches at Princeton and is a beautiful and acclaimed player. Clara and I have been creating programs together for over a decade. Her intelligence, commitment, great technique, and beautiful voice have long inspired me.”

For Swenberg, the themes of the program reach beyond the liturgical calendar: “Whether secular or sacred, believer or agnostic, the themes of suffering, loss, cruelty, hope, and resurrection are universal. Baroque Passion is meant to offer catharsis, beauty, and—hopefully—meaning for everyone.”