Update 5/4/2022: Recording of the concert:

Over 100 attendees enjoyed the concert,  including 4 from the Class of ’69: Cleveland Morris, Rob Riehle, Eliot Norman and Harry Wise.    (Eliot observes that Scott Herstin had planned to watch the concert from Naples on LiveStream but they never got a chance to say goodbye or share that “Joy of Music” event.)

Eliot will play solo favorites from Bach/Marcello to Chopin and Brahms — 4/30 @ 2:00 pm EDT in Richmond VA, but livestreamed on the library’s YouTube channel.  Details at  rvalibrary.org/events/gellman-concerts.

Interview – Eliot Norman re: The Joy of Music Concert

Program

“Joy of Music” — Eliot Norman and Friends

A Gellman Room Concert
Richmond Main Public Library
April 30, 2022, 2:00 pm

Eliot Norman, Piano

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Intermezzo Op. 119 No. 3 in C Major
Grazioso e giacoso (graceful and playful)

Johann Sebastian Bach ( 1685-1750) Arrangement for Keyboard BVW 974 of the Oboe Concerto in D Minor S D935 by by Alessandro Marcello (1673-1747)

Eliot Norman and Russell Wilson, Two Pianos

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488

First Movement: Allegro

Eliot Norman, Piano

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Etude No. 19 in C# Minor (“cello etude) Op. 25 No. 7: Lento

Prelude in D Minor, Op. 28 No. 24: Allegro Appassionato (‘‘of blood, of earthly pleasure, of death”)

The Richmond String Ensemble:

Ayça Kartari, double bass, Christina Jennings, cello, Greg Bowen, viola, Arden Clark and Andrew Certner, violins, with Harry Wise, trumpet, Eliot Norman, piano, Russell Wilson, Conducting

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921 ) Septet in E Flat Major, Op. 65 for Trumpet, Strings & Piano

Préambule: Allegro Moderato
Menuet: Tempo di Menuetto Moderato
Intermède: Andante
Gavotte et Final: Allegro non troppo

Program Notes

for  “Joy of Music” — Eliot Norman and Friends

A Gellman Room Concert
Richmond Main Public Library
April 30, 2022, 2:00 pm

By Eliot Norman

Brahms Intermezzo in C Major:   Brahms asks us to play it in a merry, playful and graceful  manner (Grazioso e giacoso). The music harkens back to his early days at age 17 or 18  when he played in dance halls, although  Brahms published this  Intermezzo (“a short musical piece”) only two years prior to his death at age 65. My piano coach, Sharon Stewart,  says this is maybe the happiest piece of music that Brahms ever wrote; and we believe it’s a good opening number for a “Joy Of Music” concert.

Bach’s Adaptation of Alessandro Marcello’s Oboe Concerto:  Johann Sebastian Bach admired Italian Baroque music, and transcribed or arranged numerous compositions of Antonio Vivaldi and other Italian composers for keyboard and as concertos.  Bach published this keyboard version of Marcello’s oboe concerto, adding his own ornamentation in 1715 after seeing a manuscript.  For hundreds of years, it was thought that the original composer was Vivaldi.  It was not until 1923 that musicologists determined that Alessandro Marcello wrote the original. The  Adagio has an elegant hypnotic state about it; and one can imagine that such a work could have inspired a fellow Italian, Ennio Morricone, to write his haunting “Gabriel’s Oboe” solo for the movie The Mission.

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23:  Mozart composed the concerto in 1786, just three weeks before the premiere of his Marriage of Figaro. It is full of the zest and spirit found in the overture to the Opera It also contains lyrical melodies that one finds among the best of Mozart’s arias.

This is the first time at The Gellman Room that a piano concerto transcribed for two pianos, has been performed.  Yet performances of concertos or symphonies transcribed for two pianos by the composers themselves or other musicians were common in the 18^th or 19th centuries as a way to make the music more accessible. We would hope to play more two piano works in the years to come at the Library and other venues.

Frédéric Chopin.  Chopin never gave any description or titles to his works, unlike Schumann or Liszt. However, over time, publishers and performers of Chopin’s music, such as his Etudes, have given them titles. Thus, we have the  “Revolutionary Etude” or the “Harp Etude” or “La Tristesse”,  etc.  These titles may or may not accurately convey what a piece is about:  and we are all free to disregard them or use them as we wish.

Chopin’s  “cello etude” (Op. 25 No. 7)  is more than an Etude with a solo for the left hand. It offers a contrasting and poignant duet between a  cello in the left hand and a wind instrument in the right hand, maybe a flute or oboe. Of equal importance, the  Etude is about Touch, how the pianist touches the keys to create a variety of sounds, tones and expressions, perhaps   Chopin’s most complicated study of Touch.

Prelude 24 in D Minor:  Chopin likely wrote this prelude during the winter of 1838-1839 on the island of Majorca in Sprain. He went there with George Sand and her children, to escape the bad weather in Paris and the scandal of his love affair with the famous, avant-garde, cross-dressing Aurore Amantine Dupin Dudevant,  whose novels were published under her male pen name, George Sand. Chopin was only 28, Sand, 34, and he was already ill from tuberculosis.  The couple lived in a monastery on Majorca,  unable to find a functioning hotel, In addition to his piano, Chopin brought with him to the island  Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. Like Bach’s 48  preludes in two books of 24, Chopin wrote his 24 preludes in every major and minor key;  and the D minor is the last in his cycle. Chopin had them published as a set and received a commission from Pleyel of 2000 francs, worth about $30,000 today.

Alfred Cortot, a French virtuoso,  was the first pianist to record all 24 preludes, which he did in 1926. Of Prelude No. 24, Cortot gave it this description: “of blood, of earthly pleasure, of death.”  Excerpts of  Prelude No. 24 are played throughout the classic 1945 movie The Picture of Dorian Gray. And the Prelude is heard at the conclusion of a  film on the 1944 Warsaw Uprising during World War II.

Camille Saint Saens: Septet in E Flat Major:  A Chamber Music Society in Paris known as “La Trompette” commissioned Saint-Saens to write this piece. Saint-Saens reportedly promised a work for guitar and 13 trombones but fortunately for us, he settled on this joyful combination of one trumpet, string quintet and piano. The Intermede has a dance rhythm not far from a salsa or tango beat. The Septet was written in 1880,  close in time to “Danse Macabre” and “Carnival of the  Animals” and you can hear in the scales and harmonies a little of both in the Septet. We especially want to thank Harry Wise for finding and proposing the Septet for us to perform in Richmond.

About The Richmond String Ensemble. The group hopes to play and perform a number of compositions for larger string ensembles, including those involving other instruments such as brass, winds and piano.

Acknowledgements:  We wish to thank Lynn Vandenesse for her advice, expertise and devotion to making this concert a success for the Richmond Main Public Library, Gellman Concert Series.  We also wish to thank St. Mary’s Woods for its support in providing practice and rehearsal space for me and The Richmond String Ensemble, and for loaning us the beautiful Yamaha Baby Grand for today’s performance. Thanks as well to Mike Goldberg,  Coordinator of Classical Music Initiatives, Host & Producer,  at VPM for helping us to get the word out with a special interview on his afternoon  radio program on FM 107.3,  which you can find online at  https://vpm.org/listen/articles/31694/the-joy-of-music-concert-in-the-gellman-room-at-richmond-public-library .

Of course, we thank you, our audience for turning out today or watching online. Finally, I want to thank my family members, especially my spouse, Annette, for putting up with the many, repetitive? practice hours. And  on a personal note, I would like to thank my coaches, Sharon Stewart and Russell Wilson for making all this possible and for their patience.

Biographies of Performers

for  “Joy of Music” — Eliot Norman and Friends

A Gellman Room Concert
Richmond Main Public Library
April 30, 2022, 2:00 pm

Eliot Norman; piano.  After retiring from his law firm in 2019, Eliot found that he had just swapped one type of practicing (law) for another (piano). In the Richmond area he has regularly given recitals or concerts, as a soloist or with singers or other instrumentalists. From 1984 to 2008 Eliot accompanied the choir at the First Unitarian Universalist Church where he also performed solo works –from Bach to Beethoven to Gershwin. While an undergraduate at Yale,  Eliot was a student of Professor Donald Currier at the Yale School of Music. At Yale he also met his classmate, Harry Wise, who plays trumpet today on the Saint-Saens Septet and proposed that Eliot find a group to play it.  In Richmond Eliot studies piano with Russell Wilson and Sharon Stewart.

Russell Wilson:  piano and conducting. Russell Wilson, a native of Memphis, Tenn., is renowned in the Richmond area as a classical and jazz pianist. Russell received his bachelor’s and Master of Music degrees in performance from Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis. Mr. Wilson enjoys a distinguished career as a solo and chamber music performer and is the principal pianist of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, where he has performed as a soloist, as a member of the orchestra, and as the accompanist to world class artists appearing as soloists with the Symphony. Russell toured nationally and internationally as a member of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra under the direction of its founder, Gunther Schuller. For his complete bio please click on https://www.richmondsymphony.com/profile/russell-wilson.

Harry Wise trumpet. Trading the violin for the trumpet in fourth grade, Harry played through college at Yale, where he studied with Robert Nagel and Horace Little. Giving up the trumpet upon graduation, he returned to it many years later when his beloved high-school band director retired, and band alumni got together for a farewell concert.  He served as principal trumpet in several New York City amateur orchestras, including the Lawyers’ Orchestra, the Doctors’ Orchestra, and Centre Symphony, and played often in the pit of Amato Opera.  Since relocating to Washington, D.C. in 2019 he has played in the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and Trinity Chamber Orchestra and is principal trumpet in the American University Orchestra and Concert Band. Other teachers included Joseph Greco and Tim Ouimette.

The Richmond String Ensemble

Ayca Kartari: double bass. Ayça Kartari was born in Bilecik, Turkey, and began studying the double bass at the Anadolu University State Conservatory in Eskişehir when she was 11 years old. In 2016, she moved to Richmond, Virginia, and joined the Opera in Williamsburg and Richmond-based indie Turkish pop band, Yeni Nostalji. She frequently performs with the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble, and is currently with the Greater Richmond School of Music, organizing chamber ensembles and assisting students in achieving their musical goals in string instruments.

Christina Jennings: cello. Christina incorporates a unique blend of professionalism serving the Richmond community at the Virginia Department of Health and as a versatile musician performing on contemporary and baroque period instruments. Christina is an active member of multiple chamber ensembles including RVA Baroque, Classical Encounters, and solo cello performances. She has performed across the United States and performed locally with Capital Area Opera in Dido & Aeneas and small venues in Petersburg’s historic district. She has shared in the introduction of a modern debut performing Dietrich Buxtehude’s Nembra Jesu Nostri on baroque cello. She has performed with a multitude of pit orchestras including Sound of Music, Carousel, South Pacific, Music Man, and Into The Woods.

As Director and founder of Brahms Workshop, she bridges music to the underserved locally and internationally through scholarship programs and hosts a variety of rehearsal opportunities for local musical venues. Internationally, she expanded Brahms Workshop to an underserved village in India where she opened a music studio for orphans in Kottayam.

Greg Bowen: viola. Greg is a native Virginian who first began his string studies in Henrico County schools and developed a love of music through participating in Richmond area youth and community ensembles.  After attending workshops/camps in the Eastern U.S. and Canada, Greg headed to the University of Iowa to study with Professor Christine Rutledge-Russell.  There, he gained valuable performance experience working with renowned violists such as Michael Kimber and Marcin Murawski before receiving his Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance in 2017.

Greg continued his studies with Dr. Ames Asbell at Texas State University where he served as the principal violist for the Texas State Symphony Orchestra.  He also performed with the Aquareena Strings graduate trio. After focusing exclusively on performance in his undergraduate studies, Greg also honed his teaching skills by providing private lessons and leading group lessons for the Texas State String Project.

Greg returned to Virginia after earning his Master of Music in Performance and Pedagogy in May 2019 and now looks forward to helping cultivate a love for music in students of all ages.  In his spare time, Greg enjoys traveling, reading science fiction and fantasy novels, and transcribing/orchestrating pieces from various game and theatrical soundtracks.

Arden Clark: violin. Though her professional career has taken her in other directions, her first love is music.  Arden is heavily involved in local music organizations ranging from bluegrass and old-time Americana to Classical and Baroque.  If you have ever traveled to destinations within Virginia’s Historic Triangle you may have seen her in period costume playing the fiddle or banjo in taverns, museums, and theaters.

Andrew Certner: violin.

Music Experience

• Formerly instructor of violin, viola and music theory at Music and Arts & Greenspring Harp Academy.
• Freelance musician, violin & viola, Atlantic City, N.J.  Performed for 7 years in star shows with numerous vocalists such as Frank Sinatra & Tony Bennett.
• Performed with local orchestras, opera companies & recording studios in the Philadelphia area.

Music Education:

• BA in Music Performance from New School of Music.
• Private viola studies with Max Aronoff, Curtis String Quartet.
• Post graduate studies with Karen Tuttle, viola soloist.
• Post graduate studies with David Booth, violinist, Philadelphia Orchestra

Graduate Education

MBA, Drexel University, statistics and operations research.

Non-Music Career

• Sr. Programmer Analyst, Information Technology Dominion Virginia Power, retired 2010 after 23  years   of service