For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones,

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Please note that late entry or reentry of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

2000b South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,643rd Concert

Jon Manasse, clarinetist

Jon Nakamatsu, pianist

October 28, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Sonata in F Minorfor Clarinet and Piano, op. 120, no. 1 (1894)

Allegro appassionato

Andante un poco adagio

Allegretto grazioso

Vivace

Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

Grand Duo concertante in E-flat Majorfor Clarinet and Piano, J. 204 (1817)

Allegro con fuoco

Andante con moto

Rondo: Allegro

INTERMISSION

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Rondo capriccioso in E Major, op. 14 (1830)

Bela Kovacs (b. 1937)

Elommage a Manuel de Falla (1994)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Piece enforme de habanera (1907)

(Transcribed for clarinet and piano by Gaston Hamelin)

John Novacek (b. 1964)

Four Ragsfor Two Jons

Schenectady

Fourth Street Drag

Recuperation

Full Stride Ahead

The Musicians

JON MANASSE

Clarinetist Jon Manasse is internationally recognized for his inspiring

artistry, unique sound, and charismatic performing style. He has been a

guest soloist with a number of orchestras in the United States and abroad,

including performances with Gerard Schwarz and the Mostly Mozart

Festival Orchestra at New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing

Arts; fourteen tours of Japan and Southeast Asia with the New York Symphonic Ensemble; and debuts in Jerusalem, Osaka, Tel Aviv, and London,

where he played Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with Gerard Schwarz and the

Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields.

An avid chamber musician, Manasse has been featured in programs

with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and at Alice Tully Hall,

Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the Sylvia and

Danny Kaye Playhouse, and the Walter Reade Theater as part of Lincoln

Center’s “Great Performers” series. He has also been the guest soloist with 

many leading chamber ensembles, including the Amadeus Trio and Germany’s Trio Parnassus as well as the American, Borromeo, Colorado, Lark,

Manhattan, Moscow, Orion, Rossetti, Shanghai, and Ying String Quartets. 

Manasse has also collaborated with violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jon

Nakamatsu.

Manasse is a graduate ofthe Juilliard School, where he studied with 

David Weber. Since 1995 he has been associate professor of clarinet at

the Eastman School of Music. In 2007 Manasse joined the faculty of

Juilliard as well.
JON NAKAMATSU

One ofthe most sought-after pianists of his generation, Jon Nakamatsu

appears frequently throughout Europe, Japan, and the United States as a

concerto soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and solo recitalist.

Highlights of Nakamatsu’s current season include return engagements with

the Lexington, Reno, and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras, the Annapolis,

Bozeman, and Greenwich Symphony Orchestras, and Santa Fe Pro Musica.

In 1997 Nakamatsu was named gold medalist ofthe tenth Van Cliburn 

International Piano Competition, and subsequently appeared as soloist with

the Boston Pops at Tanglewood and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the

Hollywood Bowl, which led to performances with many other orchestras in

the United States and abroad. The recipient ofthe Steven De Groote Memorial Award for his chamber music performances at the Cliburn competition, 

he has subsequently collaborated with various chamber ensembles and has 

made three United States tours as the guest soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Woodwind Quintet.

Nakamatsu’s festival appearances include the Bravo! Vail Valley and 

Tanglewood Music Festivals. Named Debut Artist ofthe Year in 1998 by

npr’s Performance Today, Nakamatsu has been profiled by CBS Sunday

Morning and Reader’s Digest magazine and is featured in the pbs documentary Playing with Fire, the story ofthe tenth Van Cliburn International Piano

Competition. A former high school German teacher, Jon Nakamatsu is a

graduate of Stanford University.

Jon Manasse and Jon Nakamatsu appear at the National Gallery by

arrangement with Parker Artists of New York City.

Program Notes

Johannes Brahms’ chamber music is considered by many to represent his

true voice and his most creative output. Written three years before his death,

the opus 120 clarinet sonatas are part ofthe last group of chamber works

Brahms wrote, which also includes a clarinet trio and a clarinet quintet.

He wrote both sonatas for master clarinetist Richard Miihlfeld, who is said

to have renewed the composer’s inspiration for writing chamber music. 

Brahms and Miihlfeld collaborated on the first performances ofthe clarinet 

sonatas, and in 1895 the two embarked on a joint concert tour.

In these late works Brahms began to experiment with tonal and structural boundaries. The opening theme ofthe first movement, both dark 

and lyrical, is tonally ambiguous—it could be in either F minor or D-flat

major—and the movement strays from conventional sonata form by not

repeating the exposition. Every movement of this sonata is built upon

complex thematic groups, from the dreamy second movement (Adagio) to

the folk-influenced Allegretto to the energetic Vivace. Throughout the piece

there is a constantly increasing interplay between the two instruments,

which take turns accompanying each other.

Carl Maria von Weber loved the sound ofthe clarinet, and was inspired by

clarinetist Heinrich Baerman. In 1811 he wrote two concertos for the instrument as well as other works, including the Grand Duo concertante for clarinet

and piano. In contrast to Weber’s earlier compositions, the works for clarinet

give the pianist a much more interesting role than mere accompanist. A fullscale concert work, the Grand Duo concertante requires virtuosic performances 

on the part of both musicians.

Like his contemporaries Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Robert Schumann

(1810-1856), and Franz Liszt (1811-1886), Felix Mendelssohn was a master

pianist. Composed in two parts—an Andante in 4/4 time in E major followed

by a presto in 6/8 time in E minor—Mendelssohn’s Rondo capriccioso

reveals the elegance ofhis writing and the balance he strikes between melodic

directness and a formal sense ofstructure. The first portion is lyrical and 

songlike, bringing to mind another of Mendelssohn’s favorite genres, the song

5
without words. The melody becomes more and more embellished, until the 

texture thins out and the tempo quickens as the piece culminates in a presto,

filled with flashy arpeggios and musical fireworks.

The Hungarian clarinetist and composer Bela Kovacs wrote nine homages

to other composers for clarinet solo, among them the Hommage a Manuel de

Falla, which has the character of a written cadenza based on themes of Falla.

Kovacs became a clarinet virtuoso by default rather than by design. As a boy,

he wanted to play the oboe. When there was no oboe available, he found a

clarinet, and his love affair with that instrument began. Maurice Ravel, having

been born to a Basque mother, had Spanish influence in both his genes and

his upbringing. The Habanera, a Cuban dance and song style, became popular in Europe in the late nineteenth century. Ravel originally wrote Piece en

forme de habanera as a vocalise, in response to a commission from a professor 

of voice at the Paris Conservatory. It has undergone many transcriptions

throughout the years, among them this one for clarinet and piano by Gaston 

Hamelin, completed in 1930.

Although he enjoys a successful career as a classical pianist, John

Novacek—who is also a composer and arranger—holds a special place in

his heart for ragtime, the music that initially brought him to the piano. 

Having written more than thirty rags before he was eighteen, he has continued throughout his career to use this style in his work. Jon Manasse asked 

the composer to write some rags for the Manasse-Nakamatsu duo, and

the four pieces that close this program were the result.

Program notes by Sorab Modi

6

Next Week at the National Gallery of Art

The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra

Kim Allen Kluge, music director

Music by Beethoven and Brahms 

Presented in honor ofJ. M.W. Turner

November 4, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm 

West Building, West Garden Court