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If you&rsquo;ve been wishing you could visit St. Stephen&rsquo;s Pro-Cathedral in Downtown Wilkes-Barre for a chamber music concert this Saturday, well, sorry, you can&rsquo;t &mdash; not physically.
				But thanks to the efforts of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Chamber Music Society, pianist Rick Hoffenberg and string musicians John Vaida and Amy Iwazumi, will bring you the next best thing &mdash;a virtual concert titled &ldquo;Trios for Piano Violin Viola.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;I know many people are saying how much they miss being able to go to concert halls,&rdquo; Hoffenberg said earlier this week in a telephone interview. &ldquo;This is the best we can do at this point &#8230; and we hope people will recognize the setting, the acoustics. Hopefully, they&rsquo;ll feel like they&rsquo;re there with us.&rdquo;
				The pre-recorded concert will feature music from Joseph Jongen&rsquo;s Opus 30 and Johannes Brahms&rsquo; Opus 40 &mdash; and the musicians predict you will love the work of both composers.
				Jongen&rsquo;s piece is rarely performed, Hoffenberg said and &ldquo;this humble composer from Belgium&rdquo; is not very well known except by organists who appreciate his organ music.
				&ldquo;But he wrote extraordinary choral music, orchestral music and chamber music as well,&rdquo; Hoffenberg said. &ldquo;And this is a gem. I want to urge people to listen. If they have not heard this piece, they will be floored by the distinctiveness of his voice, and his inventiveness.&rdquo;
				Hoffenberg suggested the trio play that piece, and as Vaida and Iwazumi became familiar with it, their enthusiasm grew.
				&ldquo;The first movement is magical,&rdquo; Vaida said. &ldquo;The piano has a flourishing accompaniment line and the violin and viola play the melody together. The effect is kind of glorious.&rdquo;
				Eventually the piece turns poignant and reflective, Iwazumi said. &ldquo;And the last movement is bright and &#8230;. cheerful isn&rsquo;t the right word &#8230;&rdquo;
				&ldquo;Triumphant,&rdquo; Vaida suggested.
				&ldquo;Yes, triumphant,&rdquo; Iwazumi agreed.
				As for the Brahms piece, it is a creation he composed after the death of his mother and dedicated to her memory. But it&rsquo;s not necessarily sad, Hoffenberg said.
				&ldquo;There&rsquo;s an intimacy to it, a very personal nature to his music, and it takes us on a journey that is introspective at times but also shows exhilaration. Parts of the third movement are quite mournful but I think that journey is part of what sustains the four-movement structure. The fourth movement has propulsive energy and ends in an exuberant way.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a surprisingly slow start in the first movement, that leads us in gently. It starts with a single string instrument, then the piano plays a few chords,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then you hear from the other string instrument.&rdquo;
				Just to be clear, Iwazumi and Vaida, who are married to each other, are both adept at the violin and viola. So, who plays which instrument?
				&ldquo;We quite literally flipped a coin,&rdquo; Iwazumi said with a laugh. &ldquo;We both liked both pieces so much and we were like, &lsquo;What do you want to play?&rsquo; &lsquo;Well, what do you want to play?&rsquo; &ldquo;
				The result of the coin toss?
				&ldquo;On the Jongen I play viola and he plays violin and on the Brahms I play violin and he plays viola,&rdquo; Iwazumi said.
				Vaida said the concert wouldn&rsquo;t be possible without the support of the NEPA Chamber Music Society&rsquo;s board members. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been tremendously helpful; they&rsquo;re always willing to brainstorm,&rdquo; he said, thanking Jim Ruck, Mark Laubach, Clair Sever and Hoffenberg.
				Tickets for the concert are $20 general admission and $15 for seniors and students. They may be purchased via credit card or PayPal at www.nepacms.org/. The concert premiers at 7 p.m. Saturday Nov. 21, and will remain online for 24 hours.

‘The effect is kind of glorious’