11.4.23 Emma Norris, Cello

Student Recital Series Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall

2023 – 2024 Season Saturday, November 4th at 4:20pm

Emma Norris, Cello Eliana Barth, piano Suite für Violoncello (1926) I. Preludio-Fantasia II. Sardana (Danza) III. Intermezzo E Danza Finale

Gaspar Cassadó (1897 – 1966)

Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 40 (1934) IV. Allegro Be Thou My Vision

Dimitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975) Traditional Irish Melody arr. Brent Edstrom (b. 1964) adapt. Emma Norris

Emma Norris is from the studio of Dr. Marie-Élaine Gagnon

Suite für Violoncello Gaspar Cassadó was a Spanish cellist who studied under Pablo Casals. It is fitting then, that one of his most well-known compositions is a solo suite based off of Spanish folk dances (Casals took great interest in the Bach cello suites and helped rekindle a public interest in these pieces). Written in his 20s, Cassadó’s solo suite is filled with flashy, technical passages. Each movement revolves around a different folk dance from three major cultural areas of Spain.

The first movement is a zarabanda, the Spanish relative of the baroque Sarabande.

Listen for quotations of Kodaly’s Sonata for Solo Cello and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe.

The second movement, the Sardana, is a traditional Catalonian circle dance accompanied by wind band including a flaviol (wooden flute), and accordion. The opening lines of this movement directly imitate the flaviol through the use of harmonics. Listen also to where the cello mimics the accordion in the middle of the movement.

The final movement begins with an intermezzo that leads into a Jota, a folk-dance from Northern Spain. The Jota (literally “jump”) is characterized by bouncing steps and castanets accompanied with fiery guitar-strumming patterns. Listen to how the cello embodies both the castanets and guitar with contrasting strokes throughout the movement.

Cello Sonata in D Minor The fourth movement of Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata is a rather unusual Allegro, featuring a piano cadenza in the middle of the movement and abruptly ending.

However, when its visual is paired with the music, the movement makes complete sense. The last three movements of this Sonata directly connect to mini films created during the Soviet Union. The last film portrays a drunken man stumbling home trying to avoid his wife’s condemnation. The piano and cello frequently switch between the stumbling man and cross wife throughout the piece as the music moves between the opening theme and frenzied passages. At the end of the night the man, believing he has finally escaped his wife’s fury, creeps into their bedroom to fall asleep. But just as he enters the room, his wife appears and slams the door shut.

We can only imagine the scolding he is about to endure. Listen to how the piano and cello bring this final scene to life in the last moments of the Sonata.

Be Thou My Vision Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art Thou my best thought, by day or by night Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light High King of heaven, my victory won May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's sun Heart of my own heart, whatever befall Still be my vision, O ruler of all Heart of my own heart, whatever befall Still be my vision, O ruler of all