MILL VALLEY 142 Throckmorton Theatre • Sunday 9/15/2013 at 7:00pm buy tickets
SAN FRANCISCO SF Conservatory of Music • Monday  9/16/2013 at 8:00pm buy tickets

John Dowland • Forlorn Hope Fancy for Guitar
Albert Roussel • Deux Poèmes de Ronsard, Opus 26
John Dowland • Sorrow, stay and In darkness let me dwell for Guitar and Voice
Erik Ulman • this until for Flute
John Dowland • Farewell for Guitar
Johann Sebastian Bach • Bete aber auch dabei from Cantata BWV 115
Elliott Carter • Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord
Johann Sebastian Bach • Sich üben im Lieben from Cantata BWV 202

Flutist Stacey Pelinka curated the first concert of Left Coast's 2013-14 season, Point Counter Point, a program exploring extremes of simplicity and complexity.  First we’ll hear Bach arias in which a vocal melody is set against wind obbligato parts, then, one of Elliott Carter's best-loved works, the Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord. Carter’s sonata looks back to Bach's time. Bach wrote exquisite melodies and was a master of polyphonic complexity; Carter fused simple gestures and ornate rhythmic interplay, incorporating the sonority of the harpsichord and old dance forms into a modern idiom.  Erik Ulman, an emerging “New Complexity” composer wrote this until specifically for Pelinka. This until complements the Bach and the Carter; Ulman uses such intricate rhythms and melodies his music sounds improvised. Finally, Roussel’s Deux Poèmes de Ronsard looks backward over the centuries to songs and fantasies by John Dowland, a wizard of melody who lived more than 100 years before Bach.

The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and Board of Directors wish to acknowledge the generosity of Martin Cohn for sponsoring the San Francisco concert, and Judith Flynn for sponsoring the Mill Valley concert.