The first free concert of the Santa Barbara Music Club’s 2014-15 season will take place at the familiar time of 3 p.m. Saturday and in the familiar venue of the Faulkner Gallery in the downtown Santa Barbara Central Library, but with an unusual program that concentrates on a single composer — a composer, moreover, who is, gratefully, still alive and working: I mean the marvelous musician, Emma Lou Diemer.
The program, which features Dr. Diemer on piano in collaboration with violinist Philip Ficsor, confines itself to an exploration of her works for violin and piano, including Sonata for Violin and Piano (2014), consisting of “Prelude,” “Scherzo,” “Pastorale” and “Finale”; the emotionally charged “Going Away” (2013); and her Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (2012), with Diemer playing her piano transcription of the orchestral part.
Like the Sonata, the Concerto, dedicated to Dr. Ficsor, is in four movements: “A Little Parlour Music (After Poulenc),” “Remembrance of Things Past,” “Santa Barbara Rag” and “John Adams Light.”
There will be much to admire in this program, and a considerable amount to love. Come and celebrate our world-class composer — all you need to bring is a smile, and they won’t even insist upon that.
You might think of it as an Emma Lou Diemer Festival — and isn’t it about time?
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.