numbers four, six, and eight represent Florestan; both are represented in

numbers one and nine. In dances ten to eighteen, numbers ten, twelve,

and sixteen represent Florestan while numbers eleven, fourteen,

seventeen, and eighteen represent Eusebius; both appear in number 

thirteen.

The celebrated German pianist Wilhelm Kempff (1895-1991), in

describing this work, said: “Fully conscious of his dual personality,

Schumann here combined melancholy with enthusiasm, brooding

seriousness with wild and exuberant humor. In no other piano work of

[his] are the two aspects of his nature so sharply differentiated as they are

in these pieces: reflections in sound of a creative mind divided, a

threatened existence—self-portraits of telling exactitude.

Schumann sometimes wrote words above the music, as above the

Postlude [No. 18]: ‘Eusebius went on as follows, with great exuberance,

while his eyes shone with blissfulness.’ Inner radiance, this ‘blissfulness’

in the ebb and flow of feelings, is the real basis of the 

Davidsbiindlertanze, of which Schumann said: ‘If I [were] ever happy at

the piano, it was while I was composing them.’”

Freely translated, Davidsbiindler means the Band of David. This

was an imaginary ad hoc assembly of friends, half of whom existing in

real life and the other half feigned. Schumann placed them in situations

in which they were combating the Philistines, who presumably

symbolized those who opposed his musical and literary ideas. Fie often

wrote about the Davidsbiindler in the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, a

journal he founded in 1834.

Program notes by Elmer Booze

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.

For the convenience of concertgoers

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

The Sixty-first Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2460th Concert

KLAUS HELLWIG, pianist

Sunday Evening, 25 May 2003

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Program

Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata No. 10 in G Major

(1770-1827) Op. 14, No. 2 (1799)

Allegro

Andante

Scherzo: Allegro assai

Beethoven Sonata No. 21 in C Major (Waldstein)

Op. 53 (1803-1804)

Allegro con brio

Introduzione: Adagio molto

Rondo: Allegretto ben moderato

Intermission

Robert Schumann

(1810-1856)

Davidsbiindlertanze

(Eighteen Characteristic Pieces)

Op. 6 (1837)

Book I:

1. Lebhaft (Lively)

2. Innig (Intimate)

5. Einfach (Simply)

6. Sehr rasch (Very fast)

7. Nicht schnell (Not fast)

3. Mit Humor (With humor) 8. Frisch (Fresh)

4. Ungeduldig (Impatient) 9. Lebhaft (Lively)

Book II:

10. Balladenmassig; sehr rasch (In the manner of a ballad; very fast)

11. Einfach

12. Mit Humor

13. Wild und lustig (Wild and merry)

14. Zart und singend (Tenderly and songlike)

15. Frisch

16. Mit gutem Humor (With good humor)

17. Wie aus der Feme (As if from afar)

18. Nicht schnell

The Musician

Born in Essen, Germany, pianist Klaus Hellwig is one of the best-known

German pianists of his generation. He grew up in Munster and graduated

from the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. He studied with Wilhelm

Kempff, Detlef Kraus, Guido Agosti, and Pierre Sancan. Klaus Hellwig

started his career after winning prizes at the Marguerite Long-Jacques

Thibaud Competition in Paris, the G. B. Viotti International Music

Competition in Vercelli, Italy, and the Bundesauswahl Konzert Junger 

Kunstler in Germany. Hellwig has played concerts in most European

countries, the United States, Canada, and Brazil. He made his first

American tour in 1973, gave his New York recital debut in 1982, and

performed at the National Gallery in 1978, 1988, 1991, and 1993. He has

been the featured soloist with the symphony orchestras of San Francisco,

Baltimore, Richmond, and Charlotte, as well as the Dayton 

Philharmonic.

Klaus Hellwig has performed with the Deutsches Sintonie

Orchester in Berlin (formally the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Berlin),

the West German Radio Orchestra in Cologne, the Bavarian Radio

Orchestra in Munich, and the symphony orchestras of Budapest,

Bucharest, and Cracow. In addition, he has performed throughout the

Middle East, the former Soviet Union, India, Thailand, Japan, Korea, and

Indonesia.
Among Klaus Hellwig’s recordings are highly praised discs of

Liszt transcriptions of Schubert songs and the two concertos of Franz

Xaver Mozart on the Koch label. He has also recorded concertos of

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Haydn, Milhaud’s rarely performed 

Carnaval d’Aix, solo works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Xaver

Mozart, and Hummel, and the complete concerti of Carl Reinecke on the

CPO label. Kaus Hellwig appears at the National Gallery by arrangement 

with Raymond Weiss Artist Management, Inc., of New York City.

Program Notes

Among Beethoven’s early piano sonatas, Op. 14, Nos. 1 and 2, were

fashioned in three movements rather than four. Beethoven scholar Eric

Bloom conjectures that “Beethoven originally contemplated a sonata in

four movements and actually began to write this one [Op. 14, No. 2] with

the intention of making a [scherzo a part] of it....Somehow or other, his

first theme, though a very good one on the face of it...would not assume

the right shape for a scherzo tune, refusing to turn into a dominant 

cadence at the given moment.” To “punish” it, continues Bloom, “the

composer [cut out the intended] scherzo movement altogether,

[shortening the sonata] and, instead, making it [the scherzo] do much

harder work by dragging it into a rondo, where it would not only have to

come round more often in its original form, but be made to perform all

sorts of structural labors.”

The first movement (Allegro) is bound in sonata-allegro format 

with melodious first and second themes that take characteristics from

Italian opera, particularly with the harmonization of the florid thirds in

the second subject. The second movement (Andante) appears to pay

tribute to the influence of Haydn in its presentation of a theme with a set

of three variations. The first is nimble and airy, displaying a radiant

disposition with a descant placed above the melody. The second variation

is syncopated, using staccato chords with harmonic embellishments. The

third has a flowing melody of sixteenth notes. Its ending, consisting of

three very soft chords and one loud one, simulates the joke found in

Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony. The last movement (Scherzo: Allegro

assai) is a rondo in combination with the rhythm and tempo of a scherzo.

There are two episodes, one succinct and the other an elongated 

melodious tune of Viennese flavor; they are followed by an extended

coda, which, at its end, reiterates the opening rondo theme.

Published in 1805, Beethoven’s Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op.

53, was dedicated to Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, an amateur 

musician who was one of the composer’s benefactors. Count von

Waldstein’s friendship and veneration for Beethoven were such that he

made a gift to the composer of a new pianoforte, on which the two

played duets. A remarkable work, Sonata No. 21 boasts a completely

new language, starting with a long strummed chordal introduction 

(Allegro con brio) that magically appears from nowhere and actually

contains the first theme. Sudden shifts in mood occur when passages of

obvious agitation and fitfulness are suddenly interrupted by moments of

respite. The final Rondo is preceded by a long and somber slow

introduction (Introduzione: Adagio molto) that is actually a substitute for

the originally planned slow movement. Beethoven withdrew that

movement, Andante favori, from this sonata and published it separately.

After the introduction, the rondo develops out of a lyrical opening theme

to bring the sonata to a rapturous conclusion.

Florestan and Eusebius are two characters Schumann invented to

represent himself and what he imagined to be his alter ego. The

extroverted, energetic, and impulsive Florestan is the direct opposite of

Eusebius, who is introverted, romantic, and contemplative. They are the

protagonists in Schumann’s Davidsbiindlertanze, Op. 6, published in

1837. Schumann added the subtitle Achtzehn charakteristische Stiicke

(Eighteen Characteristic Pieces) to make it clear that this music had

reference to the dialogue between the two characters. Although

Schumann called the pieces Tcinze (Dances), they could more

appropriately have been be called dialogues or colloquies, since each

piece represents one or the other or both of the imaginary characters.

The introduction borrows a two-measure motif from a Mazurka

(Soiree musicale, Op. 6, No. 5) by Clara Wieck, whom Schumann deeply

loved but was unable to marry at that time. Among the first nine dances,

numbers one, two, three, five, and seven represent Eusebius while