Please Elaborate

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble’s season of virtual concerts continues with Please Elaborate, with works from modern composers offering news ways of looking at music from other times. The concert includes Benjamin Britten’s Nocturnal for guitar and Lachrymae for viola and piano - both elaborations of earlier works by John Dowland, along with Oh Chaconne! and No Man’s Land Lullaby, Eleanor Alberga’s take on the monumental Bach Chaconne and Brahms’ tender Lullaby. In this concert the Ensemble will explore music in which composers expand upon and interpret works from previous centuries. “Eleanor Alberga and Benjamin Britten each wrote exceptional works retooling melodies from Bach, Brahms, and John Dowland,” explained Anna Presler, LCCE artistic director. “Though the sounds and timbres are transformed, the essence of the original works is preserved.” Alberga's No Man's Land Lullaby, based on the Brahms Lullaby, travels through contrasting moods and lands finally in a dream world. “Her Oh Chaconne caught the attention of our pianist, Eric Zivian, right away,” said Presler. “Since his partner, Left Coast cellist Tanya Tomkins, has spent many hours practicing Bach's Chaconne, he has that special deep familiarity with the work that inspired Alberga.” John Dowland, English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer, is best known for his melancholy songs and his instrumental music has undergone a major revival. 20th Century English composer Benjamin Britten used Dowland’s melancholy as the basis for the solo guitar piece, Nocturnal, and the viola piano duo, Lachrymae. “Both partake of Dowland's sorrow and yet manage to also lighten its load,” added Presler. “It is fascinating and beautiful music.”