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

cover: Autograph score of Mozart’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra

in A Major, K. 219, in the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Foundation Collection,

Music Division, Library of Congress. Used by permission.

The Sixty-fourth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,558th Concert

The Mozart Piano Quartet

Paul Rivinius, piano

Mark Gothoni, violin

Hartmut Rohde, viola

Peter Hoerr, violoncello

February 5, 2006

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Program

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478 (1785)

Allegro

Andante 

Rondo: Allegro

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Piano Quartet in E-Jlat Major, op. 16 (1796)

Grave; allegro ma non troppo 

Andante cantabile

Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

INTERMISSION

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Piano Quartet in E-Jlat Major, op. 47 (1842)

Sostenuto assai; allegro ma non troppo 

Scherzo: Molto vivace

Andante cantabile

Finale: Vivace

The Musicians

The Mozart Piano Quartet brings together musicians who share a common

dedication to exploring the rhetorical nature ofmusic and discovering

the magical sounds and colors ofthe romantic chamber music repertoire.

Founded in 1994, the quartet has appeared at the Bach Festival in Bern, 

Switzerland; the Barossa Music Festival in Angaston, Australia; the Mahler

Festival in Tirol, Austria; the Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau, Germany;

and the Melbourne Festival. The Mozart Piano Quartet has also been the

ensemble-in-residence at the Festival for Romantic Chamber Music in

Leipzig and Halle, Germany. A Sydney Herald critic, who attended their

concert at the Sydney Opera House, noted the ensemble’s “utter clarity”

and the “unanimity oftheir approach to music-making.” The group has

played in numerous concert series and renowned venues across the United

States, including that ofthe Chamber Music Society of Chicago, the Da

Camera Society of Los Angeles, the Pro Musica Society of Montreal, the

Frick Collection in New York, and Shriver Hall in Baltimore.

The Mozart Piano Quartet records frequently for major German radio

stations and in 2000 made the first-ever recording ofthe complete chamber

music of Gustav Uwe fenner (1865-1920), a pupil ofJohannes Brahms. The

quartet’s archive ofrecordings includes works by Brahms, Dvorak, Mozart,

Schumann, and Strauss for the CPO, Arte Nova, and mdg labels.

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Program Notes

Music lovers all over the world are celebrating the 250th anniversary ofthe 

birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756-December 5, 1791),

baptized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus but always known 

by the shorter name. Son ofthe famous violinist and composer Leopold

Mozart (1719-1787), Wolfgang Amadeus produced an extraordinary number

of glorious pieces of music in his short life. Although he died at only thirty -

five, he had been a child prodigy who composed his first piano work at age

five, a choral setting of a psalm at age nine, and an opera (La finta semplice,

K. 51) at age twelve.

Mozart’s reputation as a composer and pianist was at its peak by 1785,

the year in which he composed his Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478. He

typically poured himselfinto his work, as this letter to his sister Maria Anna 

(1751-1829) attests: “At six o’clock in the morning, I am already done with

myfriseur, and at seven I am fully dressed. At that point, I compose until 

nine o’clock. From nine to one, I give lessons; then I eat.... 1 cannot work

before five or six o’clock in the evening and am often even then prevented 

by a concert; if not, I write until nine. Then I go to my dear Constanze, 

where the delight of our meeting is generally embittered by the words of

her mother.... At half after ten or eleven, I am again at home. Since I cannot depend on having time for composition in the evening, I am in the 

habit of writing something before I go to bed. Frequently I forget myself

and write ‘hi one o’clock—then, up again at six.” In the course ofthat one

year, 1785, all this feverish activity resulted in the creation of not only the 

piano quartet, but also a cantata, a funeral piece, several songs and choruses, 

a piano concerto, and the opera The Marriage ofFigaro.

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Beethoven’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 16, dates from 1796, by

which time he was well acquainted with Mozart’s chamber music, particularly the Piano Quartet K. 478, which appears to have inspired several

aspects of Beethoven’s piano quartet. Beethoven originally wrote his opus 

16 as a quintet for piano and four wind instruments but revised it almost 

immediately for piano and strings, recognizing the increased sales potential 

of music for string players, who were much more numerous than wind

players in eighteenth-century Vienna. Throughout the quartet Beethoven

utilizes concertante style, in which the piano and the strings are usually juxtaposed and only occasionally blended. In the opening Grave section, piano

solos alternate with the string chorus, after which the two colors are mingled briefly. The remainder ofthe first movement (allegro ma non troppo) is

a spirited waltz. Beethoven frequently acknowledged his deep musical debt

to Mozart; here the adagio ofthe slow movement can be seen as a revival

of the earlier composer’s practice. (Beethoven was wont to mark his slow

movements andante, with the expectation of a slower tempo.) Another nod 

in the direction of Mozart’s piano quartets is the use of the rondo form in

the finale. Here, as in the first movement, Beethoven shines the spotlight 

on the piano as a solo instrument and reserves the combination of piano

and strings for the recurring rondo.

The Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 47, is universally acknowledged 

as one of Schumann’s masterworks, ranking in importance with the best

piano quartets of Mozart, Brahms, and Faure. It was the last in a series of

five remarkable chamber works that Schumann produced in a period ofjust

five months. The quartet is unified by a device known as thematic transference, whereby an entire theme or a generous portion of it reappears in a

later movement. The first and second movements are linked in this way.

The third movement (Andante cantabile) has a number of unique and fascinating details, including syncopation and arabesques. Schumann provides

additional interest by requiring the cellist to retune the lowest string ofthe

instrument for this movement, so that he or she can sustain a low B-flat

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for twelve measures. As the third movement draws to a close, Schumann

employs another unifying device: foreshadowing. Descending fifths and 

running scales point ahead to the salient features ofthe fugal passage that

begins the finale (Vivace). The exciting melange ofshort fugues and lush

melodies in this final movement appears to be an exercise in romantic disorder, but it is in fact tightly knit. This work can be said to take up where 

Mozart and Beethoven left off, and it provides a fitting climax to an evening 

of chamber music ofthe first order.

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