For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

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.

Please note that late entry or reentry of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,673rd Concert

Zuill Bailey, cellist

Simone Dinnerstein, pianist

April 27, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

The Complete Sonatasfor Piano and Cello

Sonata no. 1 in F Major, op. 5, no. 1 (1796)

Adagio sostenuto; allegro

Rondo: Allegro vivace

Sonata no. 2 in G Minor, op. 5, no. 2 (1796)

Adagio sostenuto e espressive; allegro molto piu tosto presto

Rondo: Allegro

Sonata no. j in A Major, op. 69 (1807-1808)

Allegro, ma non tanto

Scherzo

Adagio cantabile; allegro vivace

INTERMISSION

Sonata no. 4 in C Major, op. 102, no. 1 (1815)

Andante; allegro vivace

Adagio; tempo d’andante

Allegro vivace

Sonata no. 5 in D Major, op. 102, no. 2 (1815)

Allegro con brio

Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto

Allegro fugato
The Musicians

ZUILL BAILEY

A multi-faceted musician of consummate virtuosity, Zuill Bailey is one ofthe

most sought-after and active cellists ofthe current generation. In addition to

this recital, he has presented concerts at Alice Tully Hall, the John F. Kennedy 

Center for the Performing Arts, and the 92nd St. Y. Bailey and pianist Simone

Dinnerstein have also performed recently at the La Jolla Music Society and the

Metropolitan Museum ofArt. This season, Bailey performs with the Buffalo

and Long Island Philharmonics, the Canton, Edmonton, Honolulu, Puerto

Rico and Virginia Symphony orchestras, and regional orchestras in California, 

Illinois, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas. He has played concerts

abroad in China, Israel, Jordan, and Mexico; at the Manchester International

Cello Festival; and with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Bailey’s Carnegie

Hall debut featured the United States premiere of Miklos Theodorakis’

Rhapsodyfor Cello and Orchestra.

Bailey performs with the Perlman/Schmidt/Bailey trio and with pianist

Awadagin Pratt. He has appeared in concert with Lynn Harrell, Itzhak Perlman, Janos Starker, and the Juilliard String Quartet. Festival appearances

include the Bard Music Festival, the Santa Fe and Montreal Chamber Music 

festivals, Maverick Concerts, and performances at the Chautauqua, Ravinia,

Vail Valley, and Wintergreen festivals.

Bailey’s television appearances include a nationally broadcast recital for 

nhk-tv in Japan; a performance ofBeethoven’s Triple Concerto broadcast live

nationally from Mexico City; a televised appearance in Havana with the

National Orchestra ofCuba; an interview and recital on a&e’s Breakfast with

the Arts; and appearances as actor and musician on the hbo series Oz. In

addition to the complete Beethoven cello sonatas, Bailey’s recordings include

a 2003 debut recital disc for Delos; Komgold’s Cello Concerto with Caspar

Richter and the Bruckner Orchester Linz for asv Records; and a musical

tribute to the legendary cellist Janos Starker, featuring Bailey and Starker.

4

A graduate ofthe Peabody Conservatory and The Juilliard School, Bailey

plays a 1693 Matteo Goffriller cello, formerly owned by Mischa Schneider

ofthe Budapest Quartet. In addition to his touring engagements, Bailey

serves as professor of cello at the University ofTexas-El Paso, and as the

artistic director of El Paso Pro Musica. He appears at the National Gallery 

by arrangement with Colbert Artists Management of New York City.

SIMONE DINNERSTEIN

American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has fast been gaining international

attention since making a triumphant New York recital debut at Carnegie

Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2005, performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

Recent and upcoming performances include a debut recital at the John F.

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and recitals at Town Hall and on

Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series. She has been heard at the Aspen,

Ravinia, and Stuttgart festivals and in Bremen, Copenhagen, London, Paris, 

San Francisco, and Vilnius. As a concerto soloist, she has appeared with the

Czech Philharmonic, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony

Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s,

the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Kristjan Jarvi’s Absolute

Ensemble. In November 2007, Dinnerstein made her recital debut at the

Berlin Philharmonie, performing Bach’s French Suite No. 5, Philip Lasser’s

Variations on a Bach Chorale, and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32, op. 111. The

concert was recorded live, for release by Telarc in August 2008.

5
In August 2007 Dinnerstein released her debut solo CD on Telarc, a

recording of the Goldberg Variations which earned the top spot on the

Billboard Traditional Classical Chart during its first week ofsales and has

remained highly ranked since then. The disc appeared on multiple “Best 

of 2007” lists, including that of The New York Times, which reported, “An 

utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation, Ms. Dinnerstein

brings her own pianistic expressivity to the Goldberg Variations, probing

each variation as ifit were something completely new.”

Dinnerstein graduated from The Juilliard School and lives in Brooklyn, 

New York, with her husband and son. She is represented worldwide by Tanja 

Dorn at IMG Artists. More information on Simone Dinnerstein is available 

at www.simonedinnerstein.com.

6

The Program

Ludwig van Beethoven was the first composer to utilize the cello as more than

an ensemble instrument. Though the cello had undisputed importance in the

string quartets and other chamber works of Mozart and Haydn, Beethoven 

was the first composer to isolate it as a solo instrument. Beethoven, in effect,

“emancipated” the cello from its status as an accompanimental instrument,

and gave it an equal voice in the duo repertoire, composing five sonatas and

three sets ofvariations.

The five sonatas cover Beethoven’s early, middle, and late stylistic periods.

On an individual basis, each sonata is a perfectly whole concert piece, and

provides a glimpse into the style and convention ofits respective period.

When performed or heard as a complete cycle, the sonatas provide a lesson in

the complete development of a composer from his earliest compositions to a

fully mature artist with years of experience. The first two, opus 5, nos. 1 and 2,

were dedicated to King Frederick William 11 of Prussia, who was an accomplished cellist in addition to being a great patron ofmusic. Written in 1796,

and therefore deeply rooted in Beethoven’s early period, they exhibit clear 

classical forms. Similar in style, each ofthe two sonatas has two movements;

the first movement opens with an adagio introduction that precedes the

allegro, and the second movement is in classical rondo form. Even though

just two movements are indicated, the two-part structure ofthe first movement can give the listener a sense of a more complete, three-movement work.

At this time (the waning years ofthe eighteenth century), Beethoven was

still experimenting with the cello as a solo instrument, as well as trying to

establish himself as a piano virtuoso; therefore in these early sonatas the cello

remains secondary to the piano in range and technical difficulty (as is the case

in many ofhis early sonatas for piano and violin). Beethoven gave the premiere

performance ofthe op. 5 sonatas with the first cellist of King Frederick’s

orchestra, Jean-Louis Duport (for whom the sonatas are rumored to have been

written), on a visit to Berlin and the royal palace.

7
It would be more than a decade before Beethoven would revisit the idiom; 

in 1807 sketches appear for his Third Sonatafor Piano and Cello, opus 69.

Despite the fact that by this time his deafness was becoming acute, the years

1806-1808 were particularly fruitful for Beethoven, not only in the number

ofworks he completed, but also in the scale ofthose works. The third cello

sonata differs from the first two in many significant ways. Formally, it 

contains three movements—bordering on four—with the last movement

including a slow introduction. Stylistically, it contains elements of composition that were based on creative experiences that occurred after he wrote the

opus 5 sonatas, and his technique had developed greatly since the early period.

Still rooted in the classical style, with some foreshadowing ofwhat was to

come, the A Major Sonata holds true to the established classical form. It is

considered to be one ofthe greatest works in the cello repertoire, as Beethoven 

fully exploited the full range ofthe instrument, capitalizing on the lyrical sound

with sweeping melodies. The first movement, opening with a solo by the cello,

is concise, with one main theme and a pair ofsecondary themes. The scherzo, 

a genre in which Beethoven was a master, is in the tonic minor, followed by the

final triumphant movement, anchoring the piece back in A major. The first 

record of a performance appears in 1812, with Beethoven’s student Carl Czemy

at the piano and Joseph Linke on the cello.

Beethoven’s final two cello sonatas, written in 1815, came after the

struggles ofhis “heroic” middle period, at a time when the composer was by

and large completely deaf. They were the last pieces he wrote for a solo

instrument with piano. Here, Beethoven was truly looking toward the future

and making his mark as a classicist and a romanticist. The order and clarity 

ofhis classical writing fused with complete ideas that he had earlier used

only as decorative elements, allowing him to break from routine without

entirely breaking the mold.

The musical progressions within these pieces were hard for people at

the time to comprehend within the current confines ofmusical style, and

Beethoven began to be perceived as a mad genius. In opus 102, no. 1, for 

instance, while introducing secondary subjects, he removes the transitions,

breaking suddenly into new sections. He also plays with movement and

section length, often surprising the listener with briefperiods ofdeeply 

contrasting music. In his final cello sonata, opus 102, no. 2, Beethoven fully

incorporates the cello and piano in equal counterpoint, concluding with a

three-voice fugue in the final movement. With a baroque technique, yet

a completely new language, Beethoven victoriously finishes his vast and

groundbreaking contribution to the cello and piano repertoire.

Program notes by Danielle DeSwert

9
Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Poulenc Trio

Music by Beethoven, Glinka, Poulenc, and Previn

May 4, 2008

Sunday evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court