Saturday
September 30, 2023 
Lenape Chamber Ensemble’s series of Summer Gala Concerts in Doylestown continues July 20 with music by Haydn, Milhaud and Dvorak, performed by noted artists including Nancy Bean and Lloyd Smith from the Wister Quartet.
It is the second of three Saturday programs held at 8 p.m. in Delaware Valley University’s air-conditioned Life Sciences Building auditorium, 700 E. Butler Ave. (Route 202 business), Doylestown.
The program begins with Haydn’s “String Quartet in B flat Major, Opus 76, No. 4,” known as the “Sunrise” because of its opening measures that create a feeling of growth and expansion. The six works in this “Opus 76” were written in Vienna while the city was being besieged by Napoleon’s armies, and this “Quartet No. 4” was considered one of Haydn’s finest.
Violinists Emily Daggett-Smith and Bean perform with violist Catherine Beeson and cellist Alberto Parrini.
Darius Milhaud was one of “Les Six,” a group of rebellious composers reacting against the heavy German romanticism of Wagner and Strauss and the lush orchestration of Debussy. While in Brazil in May 1917, he wrote his “Sonata for violin and piano No. 2, Op. 40,” a work full of Latin-American flavor and the extensive use of polytonality and jazz.
Violinist Cyrus Beroukhim joins pianist Marcantonio Barone to perform this work.
The entire company of musicians gather onstage to perform the concert’s final selection: Anton Dvorak’s “String Sextet in A Major,” written in 1878. The sextet reflects many folk elements of his earlier “Slavonic Dances,” which brought him so much fame, and formed the beginning of his successful career.
Outdoor tables in the Delaware Valley University courtyard are available for pre-concert picnics, and a champagne punch reception following each concert will enable the audience to meet the performers.
There is free parking at the entrance to the campus from New Britain Road.
Tickets, at $18 for adults and $15 for students and seniors, are available at the door, or by calling 610-294-9361.
