Hailed as one of the finest American pianists of his generation,

Stephen Prutsman is active as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber

musician, composer, and conductor. An Avery Fisher Career Grant

recipient and medalist at the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elisabeth of

Belgium International Competitions, Prutsman has performed with many

of the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Los Angeles

Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the Dallas Symphony

Orchestra, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Franz Liszt Chamber

Orchestra, and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is the cofounder and director of the International Chamber Music Festival in El

Paso, Texas.

As Barber was composing his Souvenirsfor Piano, Four Hands, Op. 28,

with the duo piano team of Gold and Fizdale in mind, he was invited by

Lincoln Kirstein to orchestrate the work for a ballet. The invitation resulted

in a commission, but the version for piano, four hands was performed

several times in public before the ballet reached the stage in 1955. About

the Souvenirs, Barber wrote: “One might imagine a divertissement in a 

setting reminiscent of the Palm Court of the Hotel Plaza in New York, the

year about 1914, [the] epoch of the first tangos; Souvenirs remembered

with affection, not in irony or with the tongue in cheek, but in amused

tenderness.”

Brahms was inspired to compose his Trio in A Minor, Op. 114, after

being enamored with the playing of the virtuoso clarinetist Richard

Miihlfeld (1856-1907), whom he heard performing concertos of Carl Maria

von Weber and Mozart. There is an unusual feature found in this particular

trio: the use of a dark tonal color that can best be described as mahoganycolored. It is heard in the first movement of the trio and is seldom

encountered in Brahms’ chamber works, with the exception of a tinge of

darkness in his Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115.

Stravinsky arranged the Petite Suite for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano

from his Histoire du soldat (A Soldier's Tale), a ballet score for narrator

and seven instruments written in 1918. In its original setting, the work is

to be read, played, and danced. It is a tribute to Stravinsky’s genius that

the work remains interesting even when stripped of the narrative, the

dancing, and the sound of the bassoon, comet, trombone, double bass,

and percussion.

Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 66, represents his

final effort in this genre. It is a work of enormous ardency. The first

movement {Allegro energico e con fuoco), set in sonata-allegro form,

opens with its first theme placed in the dark harmony of C minor. This

tempestuous and enigmatic melody gives way to a more lyrical second

theme, offering a balmy relief that is destined not to last. The return of

the first theme in the recapitulation becomes fractured through its

harmonic breakdown and produces one of Mendelssohn’s most mournful

musical expressions. The second movement {Andante espressivo), in the

key of E-flat major, is full of heartfelt passion. Enclosed in a tripartite

(ABA) song form, its scaling passion, as expressed by writer David W.

Moore, “...is not unworthy of Brahms. The effect of the melody is that

of timeless beauty.” The third movement (Scherzo) is a bejeweled

fairytale of crackling brilliance that is not unlike the mood and spirit of

the Scherzo movement from Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A MidSummer's Night Dream. Returning to the key of C minor, the last

movement (Finale) has an opening theme that enters on the vaulted

ninth. This animated first theme gives way to a more sedate second

theme that is summery, but ephemeral. The main theme returns with the

vaulted ninth, followed by the chorale tune, Vor deinen Thron tret ich

(Before Thy Throne I Come), used by Bach in his cantata, Herr Gott,

dich loben alle xvir (Lord God, We Praise Thee). The coda, with a

restatement of the chorale and previously used material, closes the trio in 

a thunderous fashion of orchestral proportion.

Program notes by Elmer Booze

The use ofcameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed.

For the convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30 p.m.

Selectionsfrom concerts at the Gallery

can be heard on the second Sunday ofeach month

at 9:00 p.m. on WGMS, 103.5 FM.

The Fifty-ninth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2361st Concert

SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA CHAMBER MUSIC

Charles Wadsworth, artistic director, piano

Chee-Yun, violin Andres Diaz, cello

Todd Palmer, clarinet Stephen Prutsman, piano

Sunday Evening, 12 November 2000

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
PROGRAM

Samuel Barber 

(1910-1981)

1. Waltz

2. Schottische

3. Pas de deux

Souvenirs for Piano, Four Hands

Op.28 (1952)

4. Two -Step

5. Hesitation-Tango

6. Galop

Prutsman, Wadsworth

Johannes Brahms Trio in A Minor for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano

(1833-1897) Op. 114 (1891)

1. Allegro 3. Andante grazioso

2. Adagio 4. Allegro

Palmer, Diaz, Prutsman

INTERMISSION

Igor Stravinsky Petite Suite for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano

(1882-1971) arr. by the composerfrom Histoire du soldat

(1919)

1. Introduction: The Soldier’s March

2. The Soldier’s Violin 4. Tango - Waltz - Ragtime

3. A Little Concert 5. The Devil’s Dance

Chee-Yun, Palmer, Wadsworth

Felix Mendelssohn Trio No. 2 in C Minor for Violin, Cello and Piano

(1809-1847) Op. 66 (1845)

Allegro energico e con fuoco 

Andante espressivo 

Molto allegro, quasi presto

Allegro appassionato

Chee-Yun, Diaz, Prutsman

Spoleto Festival USA Chamber Music, an ensemble launched in 1977

in Charleston, South Carolina, under the leadership of Charles 

Wadsworth, is committed to presenting great chamber music performed 

by virtuoso musicians. In 1997 the ensemble made its inaugural tour of

the United States, which met with resounding success and has been

duplicated by equally successful tours each season since then. Spoleto 

Festival USA Chamber Music appears at the National Gallery by

arrangement with ICM Artists, Ltd., of New York City.

Charles Wadsworth enjoys a distinguished international career as a

pianist and producer of chamber music programs. In 1969 he created the

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, where for 

twenty years his outstanding leadership as artistic director brought 

unprecedented popularity and prominence to chamber music. He has

been appointed to a number of distinguished posts, among them artistic

director of chamber music for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, 

artistic director of a special program for “Live from Lincoln Center,” and

host for a feature on the Spoleto Festival USA on the Arts &

Entertainment Network. Among the many honors he has received are

France’s Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters, Italy’s Cavaliere

Officiate, and performances at the White House for Presidents Kennedy,

Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan.

Violinist Chee-Yun’s combination of flawless technique, beautiful 

tone, and compelling musical temperament has quickly captured the

attention of the music world. She is an Avery Fisher Career Grant 

recipient and Young Concert Artists International Auditions winner. In

1993, Chee-Yun returned to her native Korea to receive that country’s

highest musical honor, the Nan Pa award. She was honored again in the

United States when she was invited to perform at the White House in

honor of the recipients of the National Medal for the Arts. This season

marks her fourth Spoleto Festival USA Chamber Music tour.

Since winning first prize at the 1986 Naumburg International Cello

Competition, cellist Andres Diaz has exhilarated both critics and

audiences with his intense and charismatic performances. A recipient of

the prestigious 1998 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a generous

grant from the Susan W. Rose Fund for Music, Diaz collaborated 

frequently with the late pianist Samuel Sanders in performances at

Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, the Philadelphia

Museum of Art, and Atlanta’s Spivey Hall. Diaz is associate professor of

cello at Boston University and co-director of the Boston University 

Tanglewood Institute’s quartet program.

Born in Hagerstown, Maryland, Todd Palmer began playing the

clarinet at age sixteen, after having studied the trumpet for seven years.

He majored in clarinet performance at the Mannes College of Music

under Gervase de Peyer and received the Outstanding Performance and

Academic Excellence Awards. As a 1990 Young Concert Artists

International recitalist, Palmer appeared in concert and as a teacher at

major performing arts centers and universities throughout the United 

States. His acclaimed recording debut, Hermit Songs, was released in

1995 by Koch International Classics.