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-fifth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

“Sixty-five, but not retiring”

National Gallery ofArt

2,590th Concert

Opus 3 Trio

Charles Wetherbee, violin

David Ffardy, cello

Lisa Emenheiser, piano

October 29, 2006

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)

Piano Trio in G Major, Hob xv:25 (1795)

Andante

Poco adagio 

Finale: Rondo

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Piano Trio no. 2 in E Minor, op. 67 (1944)

Andante

Allegro con brio

Largo

Allegretto

INTERMISSION

Jonathan Leshnoff (b. 1971)

Cosmic Variations on a Haunted Theme (2002

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Piano Trio in C Minor, op. 101 (1886)

Allegro energico

Andante grazioso

Allegro molto
The Musicians

Opus 3 Trio was founded in 1990 by violinist Charles Wetherbee, cellist

David Hardy, and pianist Lisa Emenheiser after their collaboration at the

Hidden Valley Music Festival in Carmel Valley, California. They present a

varied program, with special emphasis on modern and newly commissioned

works. To that end, they have commissioned additions to the piano trio repertoire from such composers as William Averitt, Maiko Chiba, David Froom,

Jonathan Leshnoff, Lawrence Moss, Jeffrey Mumford, and others. The

ensemble’s recordings include one ofthe works presented in this concert:

Leshnoffs Cosmic Variations on a Haunted Theme.

Based in Washington, DC, Opus 3 has produced chamber music series

at Meridian International House and Hearst Hall at the National Cathedral

School. They have made multiple guest appearances at the National Gallery 

and performed in many ofWashington’s other established concert venues,

including the embassies of France and Germany, the Kennedy Center, The

Phillips Collection, and Strathmore. Outside Washington, the ensemble has

appeared in Baltimore, Maryland; Buffalo, New York; Carmel Valley, California; Columbus, Ohio; and Keystone, Colorado.

Violinist Charles Wetherbee, a native of Buffalo, New York, is a graduate

ofThe Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Aaron Rosand. He

gave his first performances at age six and made his debut with the Buffalo 

Philharmonic Orchestra under Symon Bychkov. Since then he has performed

with the National Symphony Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich as well 

as the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra,

the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the

Minnesota Symphonia, the National Orchestra of Mexico, and the National

Repertory Orchestra. He has also appeared in concert in Canada, Europe,

Japan, Korea, and the Middle East, as well as at the Aspen Music Festival 

and the Olympic Music Festival. Wetherbee has been the concertmaster of

the Columbus Symphony Orchestra since 1994 and was recently appointed

professor ofviolin at Capital University. A devoted chamber musician, he

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is the artistic director ofThe Marble CliffChamber Players and the Snake

River Music Festival. He plays a violin by Kurt Widenhouse.

David Hardy, principal cellist ofthe National Symphony Orchestra,

achieved international recognition in 1982 as the top American prizewinner at the Seventh International Tchaikovsky Cello Competition in Moscow.

The Washington Post has praised his “virtuoso technique” and “deep musical

sensitivity.” A native of Baltimore, Hardy began his cello studies there at age

eight. He was sixteen when he made his debut as soloist with the Baltimore

Symphony Orchestra and played his solo debut with the National Symphony

Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich. In addition to his previous appearances at the National Gallery (with Opus 3 in 1994 and in recital with Lisa

Emenheiser in 1995), he has performed at the British Embassy, the Dumbarton Avenue Concert Series, the Library ofCongress (with pianist Lambert

Orkis), The Phillips Collection, and the WolfTrap Center for the Performing

Arts. Hardy is the cellist ofthe 21st Century Consort, with which he has premiered works by Stephen Albert, Nicholas Maw, and Joseph Schwantner.

Lisa Emenheiser is widely recognized as a leading keyboard artist and is

one ofthe Washington area’s most active chamber musicians. A graduate of

The Juilliard School, where she earned both bachelor and master ofmusic

degrees, she is a winner ofthe Young Artists in Recital and National Arts 

Club competitions. She was a grantee ofthe Helena Rubinstein Foundation

and the Lilly Folles Fund, and received the William Petschek Award. Emenheiser has performed in recitals at Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and

Weill Recital Hall, and this is her fourth appearance at the National Gallery.

She has appeared on numerous occasions at the Kennedy Center, The Phillips Collection, and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as at the embassies

of France, Austria, Germany, Britain, and Spain. She has also performed

internationally in chamber ensembles with Julius Baker, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Ransom Wilson, and Eugenia Zukerman,

as well as with principal members ofThe Cleveland Orchestra, the National

Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. In addition to her

work with Opus 3, she is an adjunct pianist for the National Symphony

Orchestra and the 21st Century Consort.

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Program Notes

Haydn’s piano trios, composed during his late period, reflect the prevailing

practice ofthe late eighteenth century, in which the piano takes the main

role in the ensemble. In these works, which he published as Sonates pour

le pianoforte avec I’accompagnement du violon et violoncelle, the ideas, themes,

and harmonies are rich and forward-looking, despite the limitations ofthe

conservative form. The Trio in G Major exhibits Haydn’s fondness for folk 

music, and specifically for Hungarian themes. The first movement is a set of

variations, and the slow middle movement gives the violin a chance to shine

after the opening theme is played by the piano. The last movement, commonly known as the “Gypsy Rondo,” has become a familiar favorite among

chamber music lovers.

Written during World War n, Shostakovich’s Piano Trio no. 2 in E Minor

displays the range of his moods, from the sardonic and hysterical drum

rhythms in the scherzo, to the lean, monochromatic third movement. The

first movement begins with strikingly high notes from the muted cello—harmonics that cause it to sound considerably higher than the violin. The combination ofthe cello playing in its uppermost range and the violin and piano

playing in the bottom oftheir ranges'creates a compelling and haunting

effect. The work is a powerful interpretation of Shostakovich’s intense feelings about the Nazi death camps and the devastation of his beloved Russia.

Hailed by the Baltimore Sun as one ofthe “artists to watch for in 2006,”

composer Jonathan Leshnoff continues to make headlines. Ensembles that

have recently performed his works or have plans to do so include the 21st Century Consort, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony,

the National Orchestra of Mexico, the National Repertory Orchestra, the

Oakland Symphony, and “The President's Own” United States Marine Band.

Leshnoffis an associate professor at Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

Leshnoff’s Cosmic Variations on a Haunted Theme opens with nineteen

measures of a sustained major second in the violin and violoncello. This

passage frames the opening and presages the subsequent nine variations,

presenting the primary thematic material and juxtaposing the two contrasting

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moods ofthe composition—timeless/heavenly and fast/furious. The variations unfold in groups ofthree with variations three, six, and nine subtitled

“Music ofthe Heavens.” The theme is presented by the piano in the first variation, given over to the violin in the second, and fragmented among all three

instruments in the third. Variation two is significant because it contains a

secondary theme in the piano, introduced over a D-sharp pedal point. Of

hypnotic beauty, this melody is reminiscent ofthemes in works by composers

as diverse as Bach, George Crumb, and Paganini. Accumulated momentum

culminates predominantly in the fourth variation (in marked 6/s meter).

Variation five concerns the primary thematic motifin dialogue between the

strings and the piano, and this idea is revisited in the eighth variation, in

which the motifis accompanied by vigorous chords reminiscent ofthose in

the fifth. Cosmic Variations ends as it began, with a sense oftimelessness in

which the opening motifis but a distant memory as the secondary theme

fades into the eternity “ofthe heavens.”

The summer of 1886 was the first ofthree that Brahms spent at Hofstetten on Lake Thun in Switzerland, a setting that inspired him to write

much beautiful chamber music, including the Piano Trio in C Minor, opus

101. The first movement, Allegro energico, begins powerfully and vigorously

with a stormy opening theme contrasted with a similarly rhythmic, but more

restrained second theme. Brahms placed the fleeting and exciting scherzo

in the second position, before the slow Andante grazioso movement. The last

movement, Allegro molto, closes just as stormily as the opening movement,

though a shift into the major key turns the distress into gusto.

Notes on Haydn, Shostakovich, and Brahms by Danielle DeSwert

Notes on Leshnoffs Cosmic Variations on a Haunted Theme

© Carl B. Schmidt, used by permission