LCCE to Conclude Season in Cyberspace

Poster for the planned LCCE concert showing violinist Anna Presler socially distanced from her colleagues (based on the image from the Web page for the concert)

It has been some time since I have written an actual preview article. To the contrary, from the beginning of March, when I reported on the first wave of closures and cancellations, I realized that I had shifted attention from announcing what would happen to announcing what would not happen. I gradually withdrew from keeping these reports up to date, simply because they amounted to writing more-of-the-same reports. I assumed that anyone that had found this site would also know enough to consult Web sites with the latest word on which events were being cancelled.

However, next month the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) has decided to present a scheduled concert in cyberspace. The final concert of the season will still be presented on its scheduled date, Monday, June 1, at 7:30 p.m. If conditions allow, the performance will take place, as scheduled, in the Recital Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). However, the program has been changed to accommodate the possibility that the performers will play from their homes, meaning that all selections will involve either solo or duo performances.

This means that the originally scheduled program, Living in Color, will be replaced by one entitled Sheltering Music. Pianist Eric Zivian will give two solo performances: Ludwig van Beethoven’s two-movement Opus 78 sonata in F-sharp major (yes, the key of six sharps) and “Vogel als Prophet” (bird as prophet), the seventh of the nine pieces that Robert Schumann collected for his Opus 82 Waldszenen (forest scenes). Flutist Stacey Pelinka will present another “avian” solo selection, “Ainava ar putniem” (landscape with birds) by Pēteris Vasks. She will also play selections from Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Diaphonic Suite and Michel Blavet’s gigue in rondeau form. Bassist Michel Taddei will provide solo accompaniment for a 1913 silent documentary about cloisonné ware composed by Veronika Krausas. The other scheduled solo performance will be of Elliot Carter’s “Steep Steps,” scored for bass clarinet and played by Jerome Simas. Finally, the duo performance will join violinist Anna Presler and pianist Leighton Fong in selections from the 24 duos composed by Jörg Widmann.

A special Web page has been created on the LCCE Web site for this concert. Shortly before the concert gets under way, this Web page will provide a hyperlink to the streaming source. If the concert is held at SFCM, provisions will be made to insure appropriate social distancing among those in the audience. Any information about this alternative will also be posed on the event Web page, probably during the last few days on this month.