The Sixty-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,502d Concert

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

National Gallery Chamber Players Piano Trio

Claudia Chudacoff, violin

Diana Fish, cello

Kathryn Brake, piano

2Tj June 2004

Sunday Evening, 7:00 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

www.nga.gov Admission free
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 pm.

2,5<D2d Concert

27 June 2004, 7:00 pm

Joaquin Turina (1882-1949)

Circulo (Circle): Fantasia for Violin, Cello, and Piano 

Op. 91 (1942)

Amanecer (Dawn)

Mediodia (Noon)

Crepusculo (Twilight)

Leon Kirchner (b. 1919)

Piano Trio (1954)

I. }= circa 92

II. Largo

Intermission

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Piano Trio in B Major

Op. 8 (1854, rewritten completely in 1891)

Allegro con brio 

Scherzo: Allegro molto

Adagio

Allegro
The Musicians

THE NATIONAL GALLERY CHAMBER PLAYERS PIANO TRIO

Making its debut in this concert, the National Gallery Chamber Players

Piano Trio is composed of members ofthe National Gallery Orchestra. In

addition to performing the standard trio literature, the National Gallery

Chamber Players Piano Trio looks forward to surveying and performing

rarely heard masterpieces of chamber music.

CLAUDIA CHUDACOFF

A graduate ofthe Eastman School of Music, violinist Claudia Chudacoff

has among her credits several solo appearances with the National Gallery

Orchestra under former Gallery music director George Manos, including a

recent performance of Brahms’ Concertofor Violin, Cello, and Orchestra.

She has also been a soloist with the Toledo Symphony, the Louisville Ballet,

and the Ann Arbor Symphony. She has been first violinist ofthe National

Gallery Chamber Players String Quartet since its inception.

DIANA FISH

Cellist Diana Fish came to Washington, D.C., in 1994 as a member ofthe 

Marine Band’s White House Chamber Orchestra. A graduate ofthe Curtis 

Institute of Music, where she studied with Orlando Cole, she also studied at

Indiana University under Janos Starker. She is a founding member ofthe 

Whitney Trio, with which she has performed throughout the United States.

KATHRYN BRAKE

Washington, D.C., native Kathryn Brake studied piano at the Juilliard

School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory of Music, from which she 

received a master of music degree. Her teachers included Julian Martin,

Gyorgy Sebok, and Leon Fleisher. Characterized as a “compelling and

imaginative performer” by the Washington Post, Brake has performed solo

recitals throughout the United States and Canada as well as in Italy, France,

Switzerland, and Spain. Equally at ease with a wide range of musical styles,

Kathryn Brake has worked with numerous contemporary composers to

help expose new music to a wider audience.

Program Notes

Joaquin Turina's Circulo (Circle): Fantasyfor Violin, Cello, and Piano, Op. gi,

was written in 1936 but not published until 1942. It is one ofTurina’s most

harmonically colorful chamber works. Its three movements represent three

time periods ofthe day: Amanecer (dawn or early morn), Mediodxa (midday

or noon), and Crepusculo (dusk or twilight). The first movement, Amanecer,

begins with the reverberant bass sounds that emanate from the low, dark 

registers ofthe cello and the piano, followed by the entrance ofthe violin as

dawn breaks and day begins. As the music becomes more animated and 

expansive, the volume increases, filling the air with vibrant expressionistic 

elements and giving evidence ofthe influence ofTurina’s years ofstudy

in Paris with Vincent d’Indy (1851-1031) and Cesar Franck (1822-1890).

Lasting a little less than two-and-a-halfminutes, the second movement,

with its strong rhythmic drive and guitarlike strumming sounds that

imply a festive atmosphere complete with singers, castanets, and dancers,

is more Spanish in character than the two outer movements. The activity

of Mediodia continues with a momentary release of tension, after which 

the initial momentum resumes, leading directly to the third movement

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(Crepusculo). This movement enters without a break and begins forcefully 

with its own unique rhythmic drive. As twilight advances, however, peace

and calm settle over the movement, and the music comes to a restful stop, 

ending the composition in a state of blissful serenity.

Leon Kirchner’s Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano was commissioned by

the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in the Library of Congress to

commemorate the fiftieth anniversary ofthe Coleman Chamber Music

Associates of Pasadena, California. Its premiere was given in the fall of

1954. An apt description ofthe work’s unusual construction can be found

among the writings of Klaus George Roy, who was at the initial recording

session ofthis trio: “One cannot speak ofsonata form, of a set of distinct

themes, [or] of an easily classifiable structure. The idiom ofthe trio has

its roots in the music of Schoenberg and Sessions, and is accordingly

complex....The design appears to be one of perpetual variation on certain

motivic and harmonic fragments, in a sort of ‘stream of consciousness’

unfolding. Yet it must be stressed [that] the composer...always shapes his

momentary inspirations with great care for balance and logic of development. Ifthe sense ofimprovisation is strong, one can be sure that it is

willed, and at its result stands approved by its highly critical creator.” Born

in Brooklyn, Leon Kirchner was raised in California, where he received his

musical training. His teaching career began in 1950 at the University of

Southern California and continued in 1961 at Harvard University, where he

succeeded Walter Piston as Walter Bigelow Professor of Music.

Brahms had just turned twenty when he wrote the first version of his

Piano Trio in B Minor, Op. 8. Almost forty years later, at age fifty-eight, he

published a revision, which the National Gallery Piano Trio plays on this

program. According to the distinguished English music scholar, pianist,

and composer Sir Donald Francis Tovey (1874-1940), the latter version

is essentially a new piece ofmusic. The first movement (Allegro con brio)

unfolds in the sonata-allegro form. The protracted and euphonious opening

melody indulges in meter changes and contains turbulent triplet figures.

4

The contrasting second subject is shorter and more relaxed. Upon revisiting

this theme, Brahms evidently found it to be more suitable for development

than he had the first time around. In the later version ofthe trio, the development section incorporates the second subject and reconciles it and the first 

subject amicably. The recapitulation, which is also new in the revised version,

is freer than the original and includes a radiant, ingenious, and focused coda.

The second movement (Scherzo: Allegro molto) remains almost identical

to the original version. The third movement (Adagio), on the other hand,

is completely rewritten. The entrance of an ardent melody for the cello

follows a melancholy dialogue between the piano and the strings. The dialogue resumes in a sublime modulation with a charismatic piano part. The

opening dialogue is repeated once more, with even greater effect, in the

recapitulation. Brahms also saw fit to revise the final Allegro and did so more

drastically than in any other movement. The original elongated opening subject is retained, but the second subject is new. Its violent octaves continue

the tension that builds up during the performance ofthe musical bridge

that connects the two subjects. Brahms foregoes a development section, preferring to elaborate on the first theme and the bridge passages. A radically 

new recapitulation and a powerful and brilliant coda close the work.

Program notes by Elmer Booze