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The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,956th Concert

Carpe Diem String Quartet

Charles Wetherbee and Amy Galluzzo, violins

Korine Fujiwara, viola

Carol Ou, cello

June 23, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Paul Desmond

Take Five (1959)

Arranged for string quartet by Korine Fujiwara*

Erberk Eryilmaz (b. 1989)

Miniatures Set no. 4 (2013)*

Sirto

Saz Semaisi

Bolu Oyun Havasi

Taksim

Siksara Horon Havasi

Bela Bartolc (1881-1945)

Fifth String Quartet (1934)

Allegro 

Adagio molto

Scherzo

Andante

Finale

INTERMISSION

Korine Fujiwara 

Hands (2010)*

Open Hands

Intermezzo: Play Your Hands

Epilogue: Closed Hands

Jonathan Leshnoff

String Quartet no. 4 (2013)**

Movement 1: Largo, rubato

Movement 2: Fast

Movement 3: Slow and pure

Movement 4: Fast

Movement 5: Largo, rubato

Dave Brubeck

“Blue Rondo a la Turk,” from Time Out (1959)

Arranged for string quartet by Korine Fujiwara*

* Washington, DC, premiere

**World premiere
The Musicians

One ofthe most sought-after chamber groups on the concert stage today, the

Carpe Diem String Quartet is a boundary-breaking ensemble that has earned

widespread critical and audience acclaim for its electrifying performances.

Defying easy classification, its innovative programming reflects its passion

for Gypsy, tango, folk, pop, rock, and jazz-inspired music without sacrificing 

its commitment to the traditional quartet repertoire. Reviewing a recent Carpe 

Diem concert at Dumbarton Church, the Washington Post wrote, “Among

these contemporary quartets who speak in different tongues, the Carpe Diem

is the best one out there.” Tire quartet was the only quartet in America chosen

to receive an ArtsAlive Award from the pnc Foundation.

Carpe Diem collaborates with artists from many different genres. Its 

diverse musical partnerships include Dixieland trumpeter Tom Battenberg;

Latin Grammy winner and bandoneon player Raul Juarena; klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer; American singer, songwriter, and guitarist Willy

Porter; world master ofthe Persian santoor Dariush Saghafi; banjo virtuoso

Jayme Stone; Chinese pipa player Yihan Chen; and cellist Yo Yo Ma. The

quartet is the resident ensemble for Columbus Dance Theatre, and their

joint Emmy-nominated project The String Machine was aired by pbs. A

champion of contemporary music, the quartet has commissioned, premiered, and performed works from a stylistically diverse range of composers including Frank Bennett, Lawrence Dillon, Danny Elfman, Ken Fuchs,

Osvaldo Golijov, Andre Hajdu, Donald Harris, Jennifer Higdon, Nicholas

Maw, William Thomas McKinley, Clancy Newman, Carter Pann, Kevin Putts,

Eric Sawyer, Gunther Schuller, Richard Smoot, Bradley Sowash, Reza Vali,

and Bruce Wolosoff.

Represented by Lisa SapinkopfArtists and Great Lakes Performing

Artist Associates, Carpe Diem maintains a website at www.carpediemstring

quartet.com, which includes information about the individual players.

4

Program Notes

While in Turkey in the late 1950s on a State Department tour ofAsia and

Europe, Dave Brubeck listened to street musicians performing traditional

songs in a 9/8 meter, divided not into even groups ofthree, as is usual in

western music, but in (to his ears) the more lopsided division of 2 + 24-2 + 3.

Inspired by this, he decided to create Time Out, an album that deviated from

the traditional jazz meters of4/4 and 3/4 and experimented with other, 

more exotic time signatures. One ofthe best-known works from that album

is the song “Take Five,” written for Brubeck by his saxophonist, Paul Desmond. In 5/4 meter, the song features a haunting saxophone solo and

multiple drum breaks. While “Take Five” was not the first jazz composition

to use quintuple meter, it was one ofthe first in the United States to achieve 

mainstream significance, reaching number twenty-five on the Billboard 

“Plot 100” and number five on Billboard’s “Easy Listening” chart in 1961, two

years after its initial release. Over the years many different artists have made

arrangements or covers ofthe song, including a version with lyrics, a scat 

version, and most recently, Korine Fujiwara’s arrangement for string quartet.

Born in Samsun, Turkey, Erberk Eryilmaz started his music education

when he was three years old at the Samsun Conservatory. Fie studied piano

and composition at Hacettepe University/Ankara State Conservatory from

2000 to 2006, and at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut

from 2006 to 2012. A composer, pianist, and conductor, he has collaborated

with the Gazi Chamber Orchestra, Hacettepe Chamber Orchestra, Hartt

Symphony and Wind Ensemble, and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra

ofTurkey. His music has been broadcast on National Public Radio and

Turkish State Radio and Television. The pianist ofthe Anatolian Trio and the

co-artistic director arid conductor ofthe Hartford Independent Chamber

Orchestra, Eryilmaz studies at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh

with composer Reza Vali and conductor Robert Page.

5
About Miniatures Set no. 4, Eryilmaz writes: “The miniature, a visual art 

form popular during the Ottoman Empire, was used to represen t important

events in compact paintings. As a tribute, as well as a study, I have chosen 

to interpret this art form in music. Miniatures Set no. 4 is a five-movement 

suite based on Turkish folk dances and instrumental song styles. Although 

all ofthe material is original, these movements are highly influenced by the 

playing styles ofmaster performers of previous centuries. Sirto is a fast 2/4

dance, which is also shared with Greeks and very common in the European 

side ofTurkey. Saz Semaisi is an instrumental section that is used in religious rituals and in Ottoman court music. This movement later turns to a

(fiftetelli, which is a type of belly dance. Bolu Oyun Havasi is a 2/4 medium

tempo dance from northern Turkey. Taksim, a common improvisational 

movement, is a modal preparation to a song or an instrumental piece in

traditional Turkish music. Siksaray Horon Havasi is a very fast dance in 7/16

meter from northwest Turkey. This dance is commonly played by a small 

stringed instrument called a kemenpe. With extended techniques ofstring 

playing, the whole ensemble imitates the sound that is produced by this 

instrument. Although in folk and traditional music the meters would stay

the same throughout each movement, in this set ofminiatures the meters

change freely, for fun as well as aesthetic purposes.”

Commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and dedicated to her,

Bela Bartok’s String Quartet no. 5 was premiered by the Kolisch Quartet in

Washington, DC, on April 8,1935 and published the following year by

Universal Edition. As is the case with Bartok’s Fourth String Quartet, the

work is in an arch form— around the central, or third movement, there

is symmetry ofform such that the latter two movements mirror the first

two in reverse order. The first movement is in itself archlike, in that each

section ofthe exposition is given in reverse order during the recapitulation. Bartok pointed out that the keys used in this movement ascend in

the steps ofthe whole tone scale: the exposition is in B-flat, C and D; the

development is in E; and the recapitulation is in F-sharp, A-flat and B-flat.

6

The three middle movements are all in ternary form, and the third

(Scherzo) employs time signatures typical ofBulgarian folk music: nine

eighth notes in each bar in uneven groups of4 + 2 + 3 for the main scherzo, 

and ten eighths in groups of 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 in the trio. The last movement is

again archlike: Bartok described it as being in the form abcb’a’ with a coda.

The two slow movements, the Adagio molto and the Andante, are examples 

ofBartok’s night music style: eerie dissonances, imitations of natural

sounds, and lonely melodies.

A founding member ofthe Carpe Diem String Quartet, Korine Fujiwara

is a devoted and sought-after chamber musician, composer, and arranger.

She has received multiple commissions including works for chamber

ensembles, chorus, concerti, and music for contemporary dance. Her work

has been heard throughout Europe, the Far East, and the United States,

including performances at Musikfest in Pennsylvania, the Snake River

Music Festival in Colorado, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the University of

Leeds in the United Kingdom, as well as in numerous collaborations with

the cutting-edge dance company Columbus Dance Theatre. Her musical

language encompasses a wide range ofinfluences, including classical, folk,

jazz, and rock and roll. Fujiwara grew up in a family oftraditional folk

artists; at family gatherings, relatives played and improvised music together.

Her works often contain fragments, melodies, and sounds reminiscent of

this family tradition, combined with the classical language she has absorbed 

through subsequent studies.

Concerning Flands, Fujiwara writes: “The human hand lends itselfto

many interpretations. Hands are tools ofwork, tools of communication,

tools of expression, and tools of artistry. We can show a gesture of obscenity,

love, or peace with our hands. We lend a helping hand, we give performers a

hand, we close important transactions with a handshake, and, as friends, 

lovers, or parents, we hold each other’s hands.
"Open Hands: My study ofthe hand paintings of[Ohio-based composer

and artist] Tony Rio inspired in me feelings ofjoy, fear, sadness, moroseness,

depression, mania, confusion, action, passion, collaboration, hope, and

ultimately, victory; musical soundscapes, all ofwhich are reflected in the

first movement. The five fingers of each hand are paralleled in open fifths,

pentatonic scales, five-bar phrases, and rhythmic motifs.

“Intermezzo: Play Your Hands: we use our hands as musical instruments to keep time, clapping, snapping, in every culture, on every continent.

“Epilogue: Closed Hands: is symbolic of how a hand can be closed in a

fist in anger or in violence, clenched in sadness, and yet, the hand can be

closed and thrust in the air in victory, or closed around another hand in a

human gesture of affection.”

I nternationally recognized as one of America’s most gifted young

composers, Jonathan Leshnoffholds the post of professor ofmusic at 

Towson University. In addition to a 2011 performance by the National Gallery

ofArt Orchestra ofhis Double Concertofor Violin, Viola, and Orchestra,

featuring violinist Charles Wetherbee and violist Victoria Chiang, LeshnofFs

works have been heard in concerts by the Atlanta, Baltimore, and Philadelphia symphony orchestras. Other recent successes include a Carnegie Hall

co-commission, regular radio broadcast of his Naxos cds, and worldwide

performances of his chamber music.

About his Fourth String Quartet, Leshnoff'writes: “[It] was inspired

by a recorder recital at my daughter’s school, where she and her friends

played a single melody on their recorders. I found the sound and spirit

to be so pure and uplifting that the experience made its way into the

third movement ofthe quartet. The quartet is cast in a five-movement

arch form, with resemblance between movements 1 and 5 and 2 and 4

and a central climactic movement. The first movement is brief and rhapsodic; the second movement has a tremendous drive and crescendos and

ends abruptly without resolution. Following the slow third movement,

inspired by the aforementioned event, the fourth movement drives

forward relentlessly and unites all themes ofthe quartet. The fifth movement, also brief, brings the quartet to a contemplative and ethereal close.

The dramatic moments were written with Carpe Diem’s flair for dynamic

energy and verve in mind.”

One of the first songs Dave Brubeck wrote for Time Out was “Blue

Rondo a la Turk,” which his quartet recorded on July 1,1959. In 9/8 time

with a pair of blues solos in a classical rondo form, the piece was inspired

by a folk tune the group had heard in Istanbul. After the opening section

builds to a bombastic climax punctuated by heavy chords, the second

section introduces a traditional 12-bar blues pattern that is sporadically

interrupted by statements ofthe Turkish theme. The first section then

repeats, again climaxing with the heavy chords. “Blue Rondo a la Turk”

was issued as the B-side of the quartet’s “Take Five” single in i960 and

became the best-selling single that summer. It has since been performed

by Emerson, Lake, & Palmer; Al Jarreau; harpsichordist Alexander Kipnis;

and Bette Midler, among others, but the Brubeck Quartet’s original

recording is still definitive.

Program Notes on Bartok and Brubeck by Charles Wetherbee

Program notes on Eryiimaz, Fujiwara, and Leshnoffby the composers

9
Final Concert ofthe 2012-2013 Season

Mendelssohn Piano Trio

Music by Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky

June 30, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Concerts resume in September 2013