Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Dryden Ensemble

Bach’s St. John Passion: Princeton & Solebury

When placed alongside the “St. Matthew Passion,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. John Passion” is especially striking in its immediacy. The work is smaller in scale, yet more extravagant, less contemplative, and perhaps even a little rawer. It’s also much less frequently performed. Though Bach never composed an opera, this is about as close as he would ever get.

The Dryden Ensemble will offer three opportunities to hear it live: this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., at All Saints’ Church in Princeton, and this Sunday at 3 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church in Solebury, PA.

The “St. John Passion” was first performed on Good Friday, 1724, shortly after Bach’s 39th birthday. Dryden will present the work using the same forces Bach himself employed: a choir of eight superb singers and a small orchestra of period instruments. Tenor Jason McStoots will sing the part of the Evangelist, and baritone William Sharp will portray Jesus. Scott Metcalfe will conduct. For tickets and information, look online at http://www.drydensemble.org.

Then join me this afternoon on The Classical Network, as I’ll be hosting Dryden’s artistic director Jane McKinley, Metcalfe, and McStoots. They’ll drop by at 5:00 to tell us more about this run of performances and to talk about the significance of the “St. John Passion.”

Following our conversation, which will include musical excerpts, I’ll also have a recording of Bach sonatas played by violinist Lara St. John.

As a counterbalance to this all-Bach hour, I’ll be celebrating the birthdays today of American composer Samuel Barber and conductor Thomas Schippers. We’ll also take in the otherworldly Theremin Concerto by Finnish composer Kalevi Aho. Here are a few comments by the soloist, Carolina Eyck, for whom the work was written:

As we chat about Bach this afternoon and enjoy his music, remember, we are currently in the midst of our Bach 500 campaign. In celebration of the anniversary of Bach’s birth (on March 21st, 1685), we are asking for 500 listeners to step up and make a donation to The Classical Network IN ANY AMOUNT. You set the level.

When we reach 500 donations, we’ll tally in the funds from our Bach Pot – contributions solicited in advance from some especially ardent supporters – and, best of all, we’ll be able to cancel fundraising on Bach’s birthday and enjoy just his music.

You can do your part to help make that happen by calling us during business hours at 1-888-232-1212, or by donating anytime online at wwfm.org.

Once we raise the money, we’re Bach to the music!

Thank you for your support. It’s because of the generosity of listeners just like you that we have been able to share the world’s great music since 1982. Make your donation, then join me today for Bach, Barber, and uncanny Aho, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

The Kalevi Aho Society

March 9, 2020
Classical Music Rakes Over Leaf Blowers

Who likes leaf blowers? Not Aaron Copland!

We’ll celebrate the birthday of the Dean of American Composers this afternoon with a performance of his Symphony No. 3. That’s the one that incorporates the “Fanfare for the Common Man,” making for a rousing quarter hour. But listen carefully to the symphony’s other 30 minutes, too – the fanfare’s intervals are all over the place.

First, we’ll enjoy another Noontime Concert on The Classical Network. Join me for a Bach birthday bash featuring The Dryden Ensemble. The program was presented twice in March of this year, within days of the anniversary of Bach’s birth. On the program will be music by Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Jakob Froberger, Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Bach himself. Performers will include oboist and artistic director Jane McKinley, violinist Vita Wallace, bass viola da gambist Lisa Terry, theorbist and lutenist Daniel Swenberg, and harpsichordist Webb Wiggins.

Dryden’s next program, “Bach’s French Taste” – focusing on Bach and the French composers he admired – will be presented this Saturday at 7:30 p.m., at Miller Chapel on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary, and Sunday at 3 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, Solebury, PA. The concerts launch Dryden’s 2017-2018 survey, “Bach for All Seasons.” Tickets are available at the door or online at drydenensemble.org.

Make America rake again! Also, join me from 12 to 4 p.m. EST. It’s music for common men by extraordinary composers, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

November 14, 2017
Dryden Ensemble: Music & Medicine

Okay, so the Philadelphia Orchestra is going to be at McCarter Theatre in Princeton on Saturday night at 8:00. Denis Kozhukhin will be the soloist for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and Stéphane Denève, the orchestra’s principal guest conductor (whose contract has just been extended through the 2019-20 season), will conduct. I know. They don’t need my help. The concert is an automatic sell-out, or should be.

Instead, allow me to direct your attention to The Dryden Ensemble, which will administer “Le Médicin & La Musique,” a program that’s good for what ails you, in two concerts, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, Solebury, PA, and Sunday at 3 p.m. at Miller Chapel on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Central to the program of medical curiosities will be a musical response by Marin Marais to his own gallbladder surgery, “Le tableau de l’opération de la taille” (“A Description of the Removal of a Stone”), rendered on bass viol and continuo.

Marais’ surgery was successful, if painful, in an era before modern anesthesia. “They held you down,” says Dryden’s artistic director Jane McKinley. “They also didn’t use alcohol, because they were afraid that it would affect the blood. Because of the particular nature of the surgery, I’m not posting a picture in the program!”

Not so fortunate was Jean-Baptiste Lully, the most powerful musician at the court of Louis XIV. “Lully had his own issues,” McKinley says. “He was performing his ‘Te Deum’ to celebrate the success of surgery that was performed on Louis XIV and inadvertently hit his foot with the pointed end of the staff that he was conducting with.” It was Lully’s custom to strike the floor with a heavy staff in order to keep time for larger ensembles.

“So that got infected and turned to gangrene, and he refused to have his toe amputated. Then it spread to his leg. He refused to have his leg amputated, because he wanted to be able to be able conduct his own compositions and to dance – he was a very fine dancer – and he died a little over two months later.”

The ensemble will perform a piece written in Lully’s memory, “Le tombeau de Monsieur Lully,” by Jean-Féry Rebel. “A tombeau is almost like a funerary tribute to a mentor or composer or writer, and this one is particularly effective,” McKinley says.

Also on the program will be two works for solo harpsichord, “La convalescente” (“The Convalescent”) by Francois Couperin and ‘L’affligée” (“The Afflicted One”) by his cousin, Armand-Louis Couperin.

Actor Paul Hecht will provide readings from French medical writings of the 17th and 18th century.

I prescribe reading more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2017/02/classical_music_dryden_ensembl.html

Marin Marais’ rolling stone collects no moss in two concerts to be performed by the Dryden Ensemble this weekend

February 10, 2017
Bach Concerts at Princeton Seminary This Weekend

This weekend will be bookended by two concerts of music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Princeton Theological Seminary’s Miller Chapel will resound with the complete Leipzig Chorales, presented by students of Westminster Choir College of Rider University on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Then the Dryden Ensemble will perform a selection of sublime cantatas at the same venue on Sunday at 3 p.m.

The Dryden program is one of many that had to be rescheduled thanks to Winter Storm Jonas, which threw the region into chaos and had the effect of silencing area music-making.

For its annual Bach Cantata Fest, the group will present an assortment of recitatives and arias, including selections from Cantata 36, “Schwingt freudig euch empor” (“Soar joyfully upwards”); Cantata 78, “Jesu, der du meine Seele” (“Jesus, You, who my soul”); and Cantata 159, “Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem” (“Behold, let us go up to Jerusalem”). Also featured will be the complete Cantata 82, “Ich habe genug” (“It is enough), sung by guest baritone William Sharp.

The Dryden ensemble performs on period instruments. The Westminster organ concert will include student singers.

Find out more about both events in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/02/classical_music_westminster_ch.html

February 19, 2016
Dryden Ensemble Celebrates Purcell Anniversary

Ah, the Eternal Questions. Why do I bother to arrange my thoughts into paragraphs, when in the print edition the sentences get thrown together willy-nilly? Even more puzzlingly, why are my last two paragraphs transposed? Clearly some mysteries are not meant to be plumbed.

The Dryden Ensemble will celebrate its 20th anniversary on (or, as the paper would have it, “at”) two concerts this weekend, with music of Henry Purcell. The program, “Purcell: A Theatrical Musick,” will be given at Miller Chapel on the campus of the Princeton Theological Seminary, tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., and at Trinity Episcopal Church in Solebury, Pa., Sunday at 3 p.m.

Dryden will be joined by countertenor Ryland Angel and the Princeton High School Chamber Choir for selections from the semi-opera “King Arthur” and more.

Read more about it in “my” article in today’s Trenton Times. At least the paragraphs are retained online, if not exactly in the sequence I imagined.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2014/11/classic_music_dryden_ensemble.html

PHOTO: Henry Purcell, unimpressed by his coverage in the Times

November 14, 2014

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