Ah! Few things are as warming in the middle of a school day as a “Bach’s lunch” – especially when it has been packaged so lovingly.

Join me for today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, when we’ll present “Bach & Beyond,” with The Dryden Ensemble. On the menu will be music by George Philipp Telemann, Johann Gottlieb Janitsch, Johann Christian Bach, and Johann Sebastian Bach himself. The only thing missing will be a note from Mom.

The Dryden Ensemble’s Bach Cantata Fest will be presented on two concerts this weekend: on Saturday, October 20, at 7:30 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 6587 Upper York Road, in Solebury, PA; and on Sunday, October 21, at 3 p.m., at Miller Chapel, on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary.

The program will include the Cantatas 87 and 154, with selected Bach arias performed by mezzo-soprano Kristen Dubenion-Smith, tenor Jason McStoots, and baritone William Sharp.

The Dryden Ensemble is made up of artistic director Jane McKinley and Julie Brye, oboes; Vita Wallace and Dongmyung Ahn, violins; Andrea Andros, viola; Rebecca Humphrey, cello; Motomi Igarashi, double bass; Daniel Swenberg, theorbo, and Webb Wiggins, chamber organ, all performing on period instruments.

The ensemble will continue its celebration of Bach on November 10 at 3 p.m. with a Bach organ recital performed by Jacob Street at Miller Chapel on the Princeton Theological Seminary campus. On January 19 & 20 the group will present “Queen Christina Goes to Rome,” a theatrical program featuring two acclaimed actors. The season will conclude on April 6 & 7 with Musica Stravagante and glorious music for oboe and strings by Albinoni, Vivaldi, Biber, Bach, and others. Tickets and information are available at drydensensemble.org.

Following today’s broadcast concert, stick around for the Symphony in B flat by Alexander Zemlinsky, a work written very much under the influence of Brahms and Dvořák. Zemlinsky’s style would evolve. Some of his mature works undoubtedly achieve greater distinction, but there’s something to be said for great tunes and abundant charm. He also happened to be the teacher of Arnold Schoenberg and Vienna’s great musical prodigy of the day, Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Korngold, of course, went on to become one of the great film composers. He applied the same romantic opulence that made his operas so successful to his work for the silver screen. His Piano Trio in D major, Op. 1, written at the age of 13, reveals him to be already in command of the distinctive musical language that would serve him so well.

Schoenberg too wound up in Hollywood. He may have been the godfather of dodecaphonic music, but his neoclassical Suite for String Orchestra in G, his first piece composed in the New World, could almost be described as a charmer. This work “in the olden style” is wholly tonal and betrays the composer’s love of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

I hope you’ll join me for Bach and beyond today. The lunch box doubles as a music box, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.