On St. Cecilia’s Day, November 22, 2014, TENET honors the patroness of music with a program devoted to Henry Purcell, the preëminent 17th-century English composer who was one of her most ardent aficionados. The concert, at the Church of St. Luke’s in the Fields on Hudson Street in Manhattan, celebrates the occasion with odes, secular cantatas and songs, as well as vocal and instrumental numbers from Purcell’s theater music. The program will be repeated on November 23 at St. Barnabas Church in Greenwich, Connecticut.

In late 17th century England, St. Cecilia’s Day was commemorated by the literati and musical establishment of the day, with enthusiastic celebrations, feasts and competitions. Among these was an annually commissioned ode, the most popular and enduring being Purcell’s Hail! Bright Cecilia. TENET honors the occasion with a selection of the composer’s lesser-known, but equally outstanding, vocal and instrumental works. Nuptials are at the heart of three of the works: a pageant from the semi-opera The Fairy Queen, performed by the characters representing the Four Seasons, which celebrated the 15th wedding anniversary of King William and Queen Mary; the ode “From hardy climes and dangerous Toils of War,” written in 1683 for the occasion of the wedding of Prince George of Denmark to the future Queen Anne; and a combination of overtures, dances, and ayres from the theatrical comedy The Married Beau, or The Curious Impertinent, based on an episode from Cervantes’ novel “Don Quixote.”

Instrumental numbers are represented by the concert-opening Suite in G, and selections from the tragedy Distress’d Innocence, or The Princess of Persia. The program also includes two of Purcell’s numerous but seldom performed “symphony songs,” or secular cantatas: the eloquent See where she sits ‘Weeping’, and the heroic Let Hector, Achilles, and each brave commander; and selections from the posthumously set of collected songs, Orpheus Britannicus.

ODES: In honor of St. Cecilia, the second presentation in TENET’s 2014-15 season, follows September’s “resplendent performances of four Bach motets” (The New York Times), which opened the ensemble’s season. In January, TENET will stage its annual Green Mountain Project, performing Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 alongside a new program developed by the project’s music director Scott Metcalfe, of Vespers by Charpentier.

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For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International, 917 907 2785, melanne@musiccointernational.com

For further information about TENET, please visit http://www.tenet.nyc

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION?
ODES: In Honor of St. Cecilia
Saturday, November 22, 2014 – 7:00 pm
Church of St. Luke in the Fields?
487 Hudson Street?
New York, NY 10014
Sunday, November 23, 2014 – 5:00 pm
St. Barnabas Episcopal Church
954 Lake Avenue
Greenwich, CT 06831

Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695)
Suite in G, Z 770
Songs from Orpheus Britannicus, Book II
     Crown the Altar
     May the God of wit inspire
     Hark how all things in one sound rejoyce
Selections from Distress’d Innocence, or The Princess of Persia
     Air
     Minuett
Selections from The Married Beau, or The Curious Impertinent
     Overture
     Aire
     See where repenting Celia lyes
     Hornpipe
See where she sits ‘Weeping’
Let Hector, Achilles, and each brave commander
A Pageant of the Four Seasons from The Fairy Queen
From hardy climes and dangerous Toils of War