work,

I evoke birds lost in the torpor ofa very somber forest, during

the hottest hours ofsummertime.”A repeated B-flat followed by

an arabesque, suggested to Ravel by

a blackbird’s song, gives the

piece its sustaining logic. Ravel’s Tzigane (Gypsy), an exotic and

rhapsodic composition for violin, can trace its influence through

Paganini and Liszt.A bravura adaptation of the Hungarian rhap­

sody, Tzigane presents extraordinary technical challenges for the violinist. The violin part brims with rapid harmonics and pizzicati,

quadruple stops, and brilliant passages in perpetual motion. The

many subtle changes in tempo, the rhythmic figures, the straight­

forward harmony, and the frequent use ofa four-note Gypsy motive

(E, F, G#, A) give Tzigane an authentic folk flavor. However, the

clarity ofRavel’s workmanship raises the work to the sublime level 

of art music.

-Program Notes by Elmer Booze

The use ofcameras or recording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed\

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30pm.

Concerts at The National Gallery of Art

Under the Direction of George Manos

February 1998

22 Talich String Quartet Beethoven: Quartet, Opus 131

Mozart: Quartet inD

Janacek:

Major

String Quartet #1

March 1998 1 National Gallery Orchestra Delius: On Hearing the

George Manos, conductor First Cuckoo in

Dvorak:

Spring

Scherzo

Schumann:

capriccioso

Symphony No.1

8 Christian Tetzlaff, J. S. Bach: Partita No.2

violinist Sonata No.3

15 Paul Badura-Skoda, pianist Mozart:

Partita No.3

CMinor Fantasy

Beethoven:“Waldstein”

Chopin:

Sonata

24 Preludes

22 Mark Kosower, cellist Brahms:

D Minor Sonata

Jee-Won Oh, pianist Francoeur: Sonata in

E Major

Schumann: Fantasy Pieces

29 Jeffrey Multer, violinist Corigliano: Sonatafor Violin

James Tocco, pianist andPiano

Schumann: Sonata inD Minor

Mozart: Sonata, K. 481

April 1998 5 National Gallery Orchestra Chabrier: Suitepastorale

George Manos, conductor Debussy: Trois ballades de

Jason Stearns, baritone Franqois Villon

Saint-Saens: Symphony No.

2

12 No Concert

The Fifty-sixth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

L»

2259th Concert

KOLJA BLACHER, violinist

JESSICA KRASH, pianist

Sunday Evening, February 15, 1998

at SevenO’Clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission Free
PROGRAM

Robert Schumann Sonata for Violin and Piano

(1810-1856) inA Minor, Op. 105

(1851)

Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck

Allegro

Lebhaft

Sergei Prokofiev Sonata No. 1, inF Minor, Op. 80

(1891-1953) (1938-1946)

Andante assai

Allegro brusco

Andante

Allegrissimo

INTERMISSION

Johannes Brahms Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major

(1833-1897) Opus 100 (1886)

Allegro amabile

Andante tranquillo; vivace

Allegretto grazioso (quasi andante)

Maurice Ravel Oiseaux Tristes

(1875-1937) from“Miroirs” (1904-1905)

Ravel Tzigane (1924)

Bom in Berlin in 1963, KOLJABLACHERstudied at the Juilliard

School of Music with Dorothy DeLay, Rami Shevelov, and Sandor

Vegh. Mr. Blacher’s extensive concert tours have taken him to

Europe, Japan, North America, South America, and Israel. He has

performed with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhaus

Orchestra in Leipzig, the Dresden and Munich Philharmonic Or­

chestras, and the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Hamburg, Frank­

furt, Leipzig, and Berlin. He has worked with such renowned con­

ductors as ClaudioAbbado, Lorin Maazel, and Dennis Russel Davies. 

Mr. Blacher’s repertoire includes more than forty concerti witha

strong emphasis on twentieth-century music. He gave the world

premiere of Frank Michael Beyer’s violin concerto, MusikderFruhe,

at the Berliner Festwochen. In addition, he has performed the

violin concertos of Lutoslawski, Hindemith, and Alban Berg. In

1993 Kolja Blacherwas appointed concertmaster ofthe Berlin Phil­

harmonic Orchestra. His recording ofBoris Blacher’s Violin Concerto

was awarded the Diapason d''or in October 1994.

JESSICA KRASH,a native Washingtonian, studied piano with

Patricia Zander, Nadia Reisenberg, and Ylda Novik; composition

with Earl Kim and Lawrence Moss; and chamber music with Joel

Krosnick, Sandor Vegh, and Leon Kirchner. Ms. Krash graduated

with high honors from the University ofMaryland witha doctorate

in composition, and obtaineda master’s degree in piano from the

Juilliard School ofMusic. She has played chamber music with many

string players, including Ian Swensen, Eva Gruesser, and Elizabeth

Anderson. Ms. Krash has received grants from Meet the Composer,

the Maryland State Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Mont­

gomery County, and fellowships from the Center for the Creative

Arts and the University ofMaryland. She isa member ofthe music

faculty at GeorgeWashington University. Mr. Blacher and Ms. Krash 

appear at the National Gallery by arrangement with Impresariat

Sonia Simmenauer of Hamburg, Germany.

Schumann’s first violin sonata is the more popular of the two

sonatas he completed in this genre. Both were written in 1851 and

are elongated fantasies, whose scores include some ofthe most com­

plex and difficult piano writing from Schumann’s pen. The open­

ing movement is constructed in sonata form, but is essentially

monothematic, with the second subject existing ina harmonic rather

than melodic proportion. Ofparticular interest is the fact that the

sharply-honed development section derives its propulsion from the

rhythmic drive of the first subject. This movement is compact,

leaving no room for illusory excursions, which are saved for the later

movements. Its rarefied conciseness, unusual even for Schumann,

qualifies it for consideration asa miniature masterpiece. The sec­

ond movement takes ona more conciliatory spirit, contrasting

sharply with that ofthe first movement, and more akin to the sim­

plistic, childlike spirit ofSchumann’s Kinderszcnen. The finale, uti­

lizing once again the sonata form, incorporates the perpetual mo­

tion technique, with the help ofthe sixteenth-note figure found in

the first movement. The coda, likewise, is ushered in witha cyclic 

reference to the opening movement.

Prokofiev’s first violin sonata was given its first American perfor­

mance in San Francisco in 1948 by the renowned violinist, Joseph

Szigeti. Its key (F Minor) is associated in musical tradition with

sombre hues and pathos, making it apropos to the spirit ofthe first

movement. The eminentNew York Times music critic, Olin Downes,

reviewing the work, stated:“We find this Sonataa beauty, from

beginning to end; original in every movement, fresh and melodic,

approaching at times the folk-style in its invention, full of musical

ideas and imagination, and often uncommon scoring for the two

instruments.”

Brahms composed his second violin sonata in 1886 while on holi­

day in Thun, Switzerland. It is referred to as the“Meistersinger”

Sonata because ofthe similarity ofits first subject to the beginning

of Walther von Stolzing’s prize song in Wagner’s opera, Die

Meistersinger. The subject appears twice in the piano part before it

is picked up by violin. The second subject,a quote by Brahms of

one of his own songs {Wie Melodien ziehtes), also appears first in the

piano, followed by the violin. The second movement {Andante

tranquillo; vivace) fuses togethera lyrical section anda scherzo, which

has slow and animated sections alternating three times. After the

violin ushers in

2l cantabile melody, the piano repeats it and then yields

to the violin fora dancelike vivace inD Minor. The movementsettles

ultimately into the original key ofF Major and ends with the return­

ing cantabile theme and the vivace in abbreviated form.

The finale {Allegrettograzioso, quasiandante) opens with a spacious

and unrestrained melody that is introduced by the violin. The

secondary segments area contemplative violin melody opposing

the piano’s arpeggiated figures, and an episode inF minor that is

brisk and almost delirious. As the movement ends,a muscular coda

rises to an impassioned climax, which closes the work.

Oiseaux tristes is the second part of Miroirs, a set of five impres­

sionistic vituoso pieces for the piano. Ravel comments:“In this