Nerves don’t stop Norman during an emotional screening at NHdocs

We had a magical — and quite unusual — evening at the New Haven Documentary Film Festival.

The event took place in the historic St. Paul & St. James Episcopal Church, built in 1832. At twilight, rays of light streamed through the stained glass windows above the organ loft — a truly divine sight.

The film went over extraordinarily well. Once again, you could feel the audience hanging on each note and every syllable. They simply would not stop applauding after the film ended, and most people rose to their feet.

Norman and I did a Q-and-A immediately after, and Norman again sounded quite emotional, with a quiver in his voice. When I asked him how it was to watch the film again, he said, “painful.” But he also told the audience that he was glad the film showed his mistakes and nervousness, because it’s always a challenge to play the left-hand repertoire. He said he admired the film’s honesty.

When it came time to play, Norman was tenuous at first. He had a couple of false starts and told the audience how nervous he was, at which point someone in the audience shouted out: “Don’t worry about it!”  Soon you could tell Norman had decided: “Enough of this nonsense,” and he regained his equilibrium.

As we returned to our hotel, I told him: “Norman, if last time was 100, this time was 95.” Said Norman: “No, 90.”

Also: conductor Richard Chiarappa and his wife, Martha, were there. They were practically euphoric about the film. Richard said it’s magnificent and marveled at how much was in it — how much of Norman it revealed.

A local arts reporter covered the event and interviewed Norman. I gave her my business card and asked her to send me a link to whatever she writes.

In the end, an unforgettable event that packed an extra emotional wallop because of Norman’s commentary and performance — regardless of whether he was at 100, 95 or 90 percent.

Read the article by Lucy Gellman from the Greater New Haven Arts Council.