introduced, along with various fragmented reminiscences of

the two preceding pieces.... Racing chordal figures and maniacal repetitions form the climax of the movement, a striking

cluster intoned by the strings and intruded upon by the piano.

A number of accented notes and a descending flurry of staccato figures drop down into the lowest range ofthe piano. Only

the last note in the piano points to a somewhat higher register

and prepares a pathway for the soft, cautiously ascending

pizzicato notes in the cello. The tones represent a virtual denial of a closing effect....”

The Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Opus 63 is universally accepted as one

ofSchumann’s greatest chamber music compositions. His unique

approach to writing is immediately apparent: a personal compositional style, lush harmonic sense, and the expansive effusion of

melodies. The prominence given to the piano, Schumann’s chosen instrument, gives the trio the character of a diminutive concerto with a most demanding piano part.

-Program notes by The Leonard Trio, 

adapted and edited by Elmer Booze

Concerts at the National Gallery of Art

Under the Direction of George Manos

January 1999

3 Brett Polegato, baritone

Iain Burnside, pianist

10 National Gallery Orchestra

George Manos, conductor

Schumann: Five Songs, Op. 40

Kilpinen: Songs ofDeath

Selected songs by

Beethoven, Finzi,

Ives, and Copland

Gala Viennese New Year Concert

The use ofcameras or recording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

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

The Fifty-seventh Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

E LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2291st Concert

THE LEONARDO TRIO

CAMERON GRANT, piano

ERICA KIESEWETTER, violin JONATHAN SPITZ, cello

Sunday Evening, December 27, 1998

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
PROGRAM

Ludwig van Beethoven Trio in G Major, Opus 1, No.2

(1770-1827) (1794-1795)

Adagio; allegro vivace

Largo con espressione

Scherzo: Allegro

Finale: Presto

Wolfgang Rihm Fremde Szene III

(b. 1952) (1983-1984)

INTERMISSION

Robert Schumann Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Opus 63

(1810-1856) (1847)

Mit Energie und Leidenschaft

Lebhaft, doch nicht zu rasch

Langsam, mit inniger Empfindung

Mit Feuer

The Leonardo Trio, finalist in the 1989 WalterW Naumburg

Chamber Music Competition and prize winner in the Concert

Artists Guild Competition, enters its second decade of active

concertizing. Its recitals often contain masterpieces ofthe standard repertoire, complemented by contemporary or infrequently

performed works that deserve wider recognition. To expand the

existing repertoire, new compositions have been commissioned

from such composers as Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson, Andrew Imbrie,

Barbara Kolb, James Cohn (recorded for XLNT), Morris

Rosenzweig (recorded on CRI) and James Primosch (recorded on New

World Records). The Leonardo Trio’s album of works by Smetana,

Shostakovich, and Martinu is available on the XLNT label.

Pianist Cameron Grant has performed both nationally and

internationally. As a soloist, he has toured Japan with the

Philharmonia Virtuosi, appeared in the Middle East with the

Renaissance Chamber Orchestra, and made his New York concerto debut playing the Ravel GMajor Concerto in Town Hall. As

a member ofthe Grant-Wmn duo-piano team, Grant and his partnerJames Winn earned top honors at the 1980 Munich International Competition. Grant is presently on the staff of the New

York City Ballet as solo and orchestral pianist.

Violinist Erica Kiesewetter studied at the Juilliard School of

Music with Ivan Galamian, Earl Carlyss, and Margaret Pardee,

and privately with Charles Castleman and Emmanuel Vardi. She

is currently concertmaster of several orchestras, including the

Solisti New York Chamber Orchestra, the Opera Orchestra of

New York, and the Stamford (Connecticut) Symphony. She is

also a principal player of the American Symphony Orchestra and

appears regularly with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on their

tours and in recordings.

Cellist Jonathan Spitz, a graduate ofthe Curtis Institute, studied with David Soyer, Felix Galimir, Karen Tuttle, Robert Gardner,

and Raquel Adonaylo. Spitz has performed extensively in New

York, as well as throughout North and South America and Europe, as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader. He

performs and records with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Written toward the end ofthe eighteenth century, during which

the piano trio came into being, Beethoven’s Trio in GMajor, Opus

1, No. 2 breaks away from the established format of the baroque

trio sonata {sonata a tre)from which it is descended. There are

four movements, the first ofwhich begins with an extended slow

introduction that hints at the main theme to follow in the Allegro vivace. The second movement introduces the key of E major

and is one ofBeethoven’s first truly personal and subjective statements. The fourth movement has the joyous and infectious spirit

of a horserace, bringing the work to an exciting close.

Composer Wolfgang Rihm was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, on

March 13, 1952. He studied composition with Eugen Werner

Velte in Karlsruhe, and later with Karlheinz Stockhausen,

Wolfgang Fortner, and Klaus Huber. He has been awarded the

Kranichstein Music Prize of Darmstadt, the Reinhold Schneider

Prize of Freiburg, the Rome Prize, the Beethoven Prize of Bonn,

and the Rolf Liebermann Prize, among others.

Concerning FremdeSzene III(StrangeSceneNo. 3), the composer provides the following information: “In the third and last work of the

Fremde Szene series, excessive intensification and outburst do not

appear until the concluding section of a formal development that

[features] many ‘cross-cut’ sections and textural interruptions....

New figurations, among them a marchlike minor key allusion, are