Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) continues its 30th anniversary concert series with Sounds Divine. Mysticism and ecstasy permeate this varied program, which explores a variety of spiritual experiences. Olivier Messiaen's "Poemes pour Mi" and Arvo Part's "Spiegel im Spiegel" complement works of T.J. Anderson, Errollyn Wallen, Eric Nathan and Maurice Ravel.
Andrea Plesnarski and Tom Nugent, Left Coast's oboists, have chosen Eric Nathan's "Just a Moment", a piece that is a conversation between two oboes and creates a sense of trance-like meditation and dancing joy.
T. J. Anderson's "Shouts", an enticing oboe quartet, opens with a hymn-like section marked religioso and unfolds in forty improvisations. Arvo Part's mesmerizing "Spiegel im Spiegel" reflects his fascination with early European polyphony and chant. We present the particularly song-like version for oboe and piano in this program.
Left Coast's artistic co-director Anna Presler describes Errollyn Wallen's Dervish: "It starts with a feeling of suspended animation before giving way to repeating short motives that emerge gradually and accumulate to create a state of rapture. The dervish dance, according to the composer, lasts for hours and the 'whirling' part known in popular culture does not occur until late in the ceremony."
Matilda Hofman, co-director with Anna Presler, describes the songs which frame the program: "Ravel's "Deux Melodies Hebraiques" use sparse and haunting harmonizations of the Kaddish, followed by a Yiddish verse which explores the mystery of the "eternal enigma". The songs are a beautiful meeting of musical and spiritual sensibilities. Finally, Olivier Messiaen's extraordinary "Poemes pour Mi" are a rapturous and surreal take on New Testament writings which culminate in the singer, the pianist and the text almost transforming together into one sonorous, ringing bell-like body."
$10-38.