Program Notes
Eulogy
Susan Kagan writes:
I met Richard at Lehman College around 1969; we clicked on, and never clicked off. Music held us together. He was my best friend and confidant for 45 years.
He composed Eulogy in 2012, for a recital played by Eric Grossman and myself, as a memorial to my husband, cellist Gerald Kagan, who died earlier that year.
Eulogy contains a hidden program relating to Gerry. The musical notes in his name (G-E-A-D-A-G-A) form a theme, heard at the end; and an ostinato bass theme in the piano part is made up of the notes of the four open strings of the cello (C-G-D-A).
Susan Kagan is a performer, author, and critic. She has concertized in Europe and in the U.S., with recitals at Merkin Hall, Town Hall, and the Kaye Playhouse. Among her recordings are three CDs for Koch International in partnership with the eminent violinist Josef Suk, two sets of Mozart piano concertos with the Suk Chamber Orchestra (Vox and Koch Discover), solo piano music by Beethoven and his Pupils (Koch), and most recently, the complete piano sonatas of Ferdinand Ries (Naxos). She is the author of Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven's Patron, Pupil, and Friend (Pendragon Press, 1988), and a critic for Fanfare magazine. Susan Kagan recently retired from the music faculty of Hunter College, where she was founder and President of the New York Chapter of the American Beethoven Society.
Eric Grossman is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he studied with Dorothy Delay. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the U.S., Europe, Korea, Japan, and Cuba under renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Stanislaw Skrowaczewki, and Michael Gielen. Mr. Grossman has performed and recorded Lowell Liebermann's Violin Sonata with the composer. In 2006 he played the world premiere of Jorge Lopez Marin's First Violin Concerto, written for and dedicated to him, in Town Hall with the Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Rubenstein. In the 2008-2009 season Mr. Grossman played and recorded the world premiere of Jorge Lopez Marin's Second Violin Concerto with the Cuban National Symphony in Havana, composed for and dedicated to him. In 2012, he performed Beethoven's Violin Concerto and a solo recital in Korea.
