Program Olivier Messiaen, Le merle noir for flute and piano Ned Rorem, Trio for flute, cello and piano Elliot Carter, Enchanted Preludes for flute and cello Ryan Brown, New Work, companion to Carter's Enchanted Preludes Maurice Ravel, Chansons Madecasses for soprano, flute, cello and piano
The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble presents Happy Birthdays! Messiaen, Carter, and Rorem, celebrating the winter birthdays of three twentieth century masters. The birthday celebration begins with Olivier Messiaen’s Le merle noir for flute and piano. The composer, born December 10, 1908 in Avignon, France, would have been almost exactly 100 years old, had he lived to hear this performance. New Yorker Elliott Carter will turn 100 on December 11. His Enchanted Preludes for flute and cello follows. Ned Rorem at 85 is the youngster in this venerable group of composers. Rorem will be honored with a performance of his trio for flute, cello and piano, considered one of his finest works of chamber music. Accompanying the works by Messiaen, Carter, and Rorem is Ravel’s Chansons Madècasses. This piece caused an enormous stir when it premiered in 1926. Soprano Susan Rode Morris joins the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble for this set of erotic and political songs. The concert closes with a world premiere of a new composition by Ryan Brown. This work was commissioned for this concert as a companion piece to Carter’s Enchanted Preludes..Brown takes Carter's rhythmic complexity and interlocking counterpoint as his inspiration, but filters it through his own style, which is influenced by contemporary vernacular music.
ABOUT LCCE The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble is a versatile group of twelve musicians that performs in different combinations. In addition to its regular season, the ensemble performs special concerts for other presenters such as the Other Minds Festival, Berkeley Chamber Performances, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Left Coast concerts feature new music by well-known composers such as Andrew Imbrie, Gyorgy Ligeti, Mario Davidovsky, Jennifer Higdon, and John Adams, plus works by emerging composers like Philippe Bodin, Harold Meltzer, Mei Fang Lin, and Laurie San Martin. Left Coast also presents compositions by ensemble members Kurt Rohde (Founding Artistic Director, violist) and Eric Zivian (pianist). Programs include important chamber works from previous centuries by composers including John Dowland, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Aaron Copland, and Igor Stravinsky.
