The Dryden Ensemble Presents MUSICA STRAVAGANTE For Two Performances

The Dryden Ensemble presents "Musica Stravagante," a program of Baroque music by German and Italian masters on Saturday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 6587 Upper York Road, Solebury, Pennsylvania, and on Sunday, April 7 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 oboe and strings. Opening the program is Vivaldi's Concerto for Strings in G Minor, followed by Albinoni's beloved Concerto in D Minor for oboe and strings. Two 17th-century works by Biago Marini and Andrea Falconieri follow, both for two violins with continuo. Marini, who served at St. Mark's in Venice under Monteverdi, was well-known as a violin virtuoso and his Sonata sopra la Monica clearly demonstrates prowess on the instrument. Falconieri, a lutenist and composer from Naples, is represented by his Passacalle, an engaging work with an ostinato bass. Johann Rosenmüller functions as a bridge between the Italian and German halves of the program. An German organist and composer, he served as an organist in Leipzig, but after being involved in a sexual scandal, was forced to flee to Venice to avoid prison. His Sonata Decima in F for five-part strings features polychoral and fugal sections. It was written in Venice, but published in Nuremberg in 1682.

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. He introduced many new techniques, including scordatura, or alternate tuning to produce particular affects. In his Partia III in A Major, published in 1696 for two violins and continuo, the violins are tuned AEAE' rather than GDAE', making it easier to play double-stops and chords. After a solo work for Baroque lute, the program closes with Bach's Concerto in A Major for oboe d'amore and strings. Like many of Bach's concertos, it survives in its later incarnation as a harpsichord concerto. Originally written for oboe d'amore 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.

The Dryden Ensemble includes Jane McKinley, oboe and oboe d'amore; Vita Wallace and Rebecca Harris, violins; Andrea Andros, viola; Lisa Terry, viola da gamba & cello; Anne Trout, double bass; Daniel Swenberg, theorbo and Baroque guitar; and Webb Wiggins, harpsichord, all performing on period instruments.

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.