Willem de Fesch: Duet Sonata Op. 4, No. 7 in A Minor for Cello & Bassoon
Ernest Bloch: Méditation Hébraique for Cello & Piano
Laurence Sherr: “From Another Realm” for Bassoon & Cello, U.S. Premiere
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata in G Minor Op. 19 for Cello & Piano
Program-Notes about the composition “From Another Realm” by Laurence Sherr:
From Another Realm draws on a song and a sung prayer that reflect the Holocaust experiences of their creators. These sources are integrated with newly composed material. The first source is Kel (El) mole rachamim, a Jewish prayer for the souls of the deceased as sung by Cantor Sholom Katz. Katz recounted that his life was spared when he sang this prayer just before he was to be part of a mass execution during the Holocaust. He continued singing the prayer after the war with newly added words that lament the murder of European Jews and name the extermination camps of Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Treblinka. The cello ‘intones’ transcribed excerpts from Katz’s singing as the movement unfolds. The second source is the lullaby Wiegala that Czeck poet and writer Ilse Weber created while a prisoner at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The lullaby provided solace and comfort in lieu of the medicine that was not available in the children’s infirmary where she worked. Her song melody gradually emerges during the latter part of this composition. The composition title signifies the performers reaching across the divide to bring the melodies of Sholom Katz and Ilse Weber to the audience.
Katz and Weber both have compelling stories. Their music provides illumination into their lives and circumstances and helps us to understand the unprecedented tragedy of the Holocaust. It is my hope that listeners will connect with their stories, and that the legacy of their cultural contributions will be strengthened and remembered.
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 in 1791, also called “Royal Forster”, since he made several celli for George Frederick, Prince of Wales, who has 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 Italy, they frequently performed a children’s theatre production of Wolf Erlbruch’s “Duck, Death and Tulip” for two dancers, cello & bassoon, a production which received First prize in 2015 in Italy for “Best theatre production for Children and Young People”. (A Video of the Premiere Performance in Torino, Italy, English Version, is available from us).
They have 15 CDs to their credit. (available from us). Available are their three music films produced in 2020, 2021, and 2022, now on DVD, see “Links” below.
Rebecca Rust, 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, 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 in 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 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). Upon request an English version of the manuscript is available.
One of our latest music-film production finished in August 2022: (not on public YouTube)
This film has a lot of talking (so far only) in German about Hans Gál, Robert Kahn (Jewish composers), and Gerhard Raab, a German (not Jewish) who was killed by the Gestapo because he did not go along with the Nazi requirements. The film wants to describe these tragedies and try to bring their lives and achievements back to life.
This film was finished in 2021: (Spoken text also in English), on public YouTube
MUSIKEN JÜDISCHER KOMPONISTEN
MUSICALE OF JEWISH COMPOSERS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2P2_usRE2c
Dmitriy Cogan, pianist
Born in Moscow in 1963, pianist Dmitriy Cogan began music studies at the age of six at the Central Music School in Moscow. In 1974, he immigrated with his family to the United States and settled in San Francisco. He studied conducting at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and continued his piano studies with Vladimir Pleshakov and Maria Cysic. In 1979, he moved to New York to study with Martin Canin at the Juilliard School, where he received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees.
He has performed publicly since age nine in Moscow. His American debut was in 1975 with the Peninsula Symphony in San Mateo, California. In 1976, he won the Junior Bach Festival in Berkeley. His recitals in the San Francisco Bay Area have been favorably reviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. Since 1980, he has appeared in numerous solo and chamber music concerts in the New York area. In 1981, he was a prizewinner at the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition in New York; in 1982 won first prize at the American Music Scholarship Association International Piano Competition in Cincinnati; in 1983 he was a laureate of the Robert Casadeus International Piano Competition in Cleveland.
Dmitriy Cogan gave his New York recital debut in October 1988 at Carnegie Hall to favorable reviews and has appeared in recitals throughout the Northeast and California. He has also toured in France twice, performing in Paris, Nice, and other cities to enthusiastic reviews, and was laureate of the Jose Iturbi International Piano Competition in Valencia, Spain. He toured Russia in 1993 and again in 1997, giving a series of concerts in Moscow, including the Rachmaninov Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and in other cities, playing to capacity audiences.
Since 1985, he has also performed throughout North America and Asia with violinist Alexander Markov; their first compact disc was released worldwide on the Erato label.
Dmitriy Cogan currently lives near San Francisco. His recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento and with clarinetist Patricia Shands have been released recently. He also teaches piano privately in the Bay Area.
