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Friedrich Edelmann, Bassoon and Rebecca Rust, Cello
February 20, 2024
Friedrich Edelmann, Bassoon and Rebecca Rust, Cello

Willem de Fesch: Sonata in C Major op. 8 No. 10 for cello & bassoon

Johann Sebastian Bach: From Suite No. 3 in C Major for cello solo BWV 1009

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: From Duo B-flat Major K.V. 292 for bassoon & cello

Ludwig van Beethoven: Seven Variations in G Major on a theme of Handel’s oratory “Judas Maccabäus” arr. for cello & bassoon

Max Stern: “Songs of Ascents” for bassoon and cello (2007) dedicated to Rebecca Rust & Friedrich Edelmann

Program notes by Max Stern:

“Songs of Ascents” was composed by Max Stern in Beer Sheva, Israel, City of the Patriarchs during the summer of 2007 for the virtuoso cello and bassoon duo Rebecca Rust and Friedrich Edelmann. The title “Songs of Ascents” or “Shir Hamaalot” refers to a group of 15 Psalms 120-134. They were sung by the pilgrims going up to the Temple in Jerusalem on the Three Festivals (Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot) – more than 2000 years ago. As the pilgrims ascended Mount Zion, these songs were on their lips. These compositions are imagined excerpts from the pilgrimage. Perhaps, in a way like manuscript illustrations, images from Ancient Israel draw inspiration from the Psalms. The musical materials are based upon Oriental – Jewish Traditional music. The first and third pieces use Kurdish motifs and songs. The second is after a Sephardic melody played at Lag BaOmer celebrations. The last is from a Sephardic prayer nigun chanted at Selicot services.

REBECCA RUST, an American cellist, and FRIEDRICH EDELMANN, a German bassoonist, have been performing together for many years in chamber music, as soloists, and as soloists with orchestra.

Rebecca Rust is playing the cello of King Charles 3rd of England (made by the British Luthier William Forster, also called “Royal Forster”; he made this cello in 1791 for George Frederick, Prince of Wales, who was crowned King George 4th in 1820). Performances in Europe, North Africa, America, China, Israel, and Japan were partly supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Germany as well as by Volkswagen and Mercedes of Japan. Some of the most memorable Japanese experiences were private invitations to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo where they visited the then Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan and played together with Empress Michiko on the piano.

In 2021 and 2023 they performed as soloists with the orchestra AudiMus in Udine, Italy, under conductor Francesco Gioia the cello-concertos by Boccherini-Gruetzmacher in B-flat Major and by Haydn C Major cello concerto as well as  Mozart’s bassoon concerto and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante.

Rebecca Rust, a native of California, studied with Cello Professor Margaret Rowell before going to New York to study with Bernard Greenhouse, cellist of the Beaux-Arts-Trio, and then on to Cologne, Germany, where she received her Soloist’s Diploma, studying with Paul Szabo, cellist of the Vegh-Quartet. She finished her studies in master classes with Mstislav Rostropovich.

2020 Invitation to perform at FILOLI Ballroom (Silicon Valley), on Jan. 27th, 2020, performance at LAMOTH Los Angeles (Los Angeles Holocaust Museum) at the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on the invitation of the German General Consul Los Angeles, Stefan Schneider.

Friedrich Edelmann, who grew up in Germany, studied with Alfred Rinderspacher, Klaus Thunemann, and Milan Turkovic. After receiving his diploma in mathematics at the University of Heidelberg, he joined the theatre orchestra of his home town Kaiserslautern. His next activity was to become principal bassoonist of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under the principal conductors Maestro Sergiu Celibidache (who was the patron of Rebecca’s and Friedrich’s Tokyo Suntory Hall debut)  and James Levine. During these 27 years, he also played under many famous guest conductors, Karl Böhm, Günther Wand, Kurt Masur, Herbert Blomstedt, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Carlo Maria Giulini, and Carlos Kleiber, among others.

His book “Memories of 17 Years as Principal Bassoonist under Maestro Sergiu Celibidache” was published in Japan in 2009 (only in Japanese). English manuscript and Spanish translation available from edelmann@edelmann-rust.com