The Sixty-second season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2487th Concert

VIENNA PIANO TRIO

WOLFGANG REDIK, violin

MATTHIAS GREDLER, cello

STEFAN MENDL,piano

Sunday Evening, 29 February 2004

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Joseph Haydn

(1732-1809)

Arnold Schoenberg

(1874-1951)

Franz Schubert

(1797-1828)

Piano Trio in A Major

Hob. XV/18 (1794)

Allegro moderato

Andante

Allegro

Verklarte Nacht

Op. 4(1899)

Arranged for piano trio by Edward Steuermann

Allegro

Adagio

Molto presto

Intermission

Piano Trio in B-flat Major

Op. 99, D. 898 (c. 1828)

Allegro

Andante un poco mosso

Scherzo: Allegro

Rondo: Allegro vivace

The use ofcameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell

phones, pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

The Musicians

Founded in 1988, the Vienna Piano Trio has achieved a “meteoric rise

to fame” (The Strad) and has been hailed as one of the “world’s leading

ensembles of piano, violin, and cello” (The Washington Post). The trio

has won numerous prizes at international competitions, and its members

have studied with the Trio di Trieste, the Haydn Trio Wien, members of

the La Salle and Guarneri Quartets and the Beaux Arts Trio, Isaac Stem,

Jaime Laredo, and Ralph Kirshbaum. At the famed Vienna Musikverein,

the Vienna Piano Trio played the world premiere of a triple concerto

written for the ensemble by the Austrian composer Christoph Cech. The

same venue is the setting for the trio’s current four-concert series. Recent

touring has taken the group to England’s BBC Manchester and Wigmore

Halls, Germany’s Beethoventage Bonn, and important venues in Japan,

France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand.

After two Brahms recordings on the Naxos label, the Vienna

Piano Trio went on to record exclusively under the Nimbus label. The

recordings (trios by Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Schnittke,

Shostakovich, and Mozart) have won many awards, including the Top of

the Class award in 1999 from the British magazine Classic CDs and the

London Times' Classical Album of the Year Award in 2000. In addition

to its concert activities, the Vienna Piano Trio gives master classes at

many well-known music institutions, including the Royal College of

Music in London, the Sydney Conservatory of Music, and the Helsinki

Music Conservatory. Violinist Wolfgang Redik plays a J. B. Guadagnini

violin from 1772, on loan from the Austrian National Bank. The Vienna

Piano Trio appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Shupp

Artists of Port Jefferson, New York.

Program Notes

One of the most delightful chamber works of Joseph Haydn is his Piano

Trio No. 18 in A Major, Hoboken XV/18. The first movement {Allegro

moderato) reveals Haydn’s innate gift for colorful modulatory sequences.

The second movement {Andante), with its robust contrast between the
tonic major and tonic minor, provides the listener with melodic

colorations. The finale {Allegro) is a rambunctious rondo that captivates

listeners at every performance. The Haydnesque chirps and animation

make it a favorite encore, particularly in programs performed by the

Beaux Arts Trio.

In its original 1899 version, Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht

(Transfigured Night) is scored for string sextet. Written when the

composer was age twenty-five, Schoenberg’s sextet is considered his first

true masterpiece. It was given its world premiere on 18 March 1902 in

Vienna by the Rose Quartet with selected members of the Vienna

Philharmonic Orchestra. Initially, the work was viewed with suspicion

and apprehension, due in no small measure to its unfamiliar sound in the

ears of listeners accustomed to hearing works for the same

instrumentation from Brahms and Dvorak. In the 102 years since its

introduction to the public, Verk/arte Nacht has consistently been

Schoenberg’s most beloved composition and has evolved out of the

category of “modern” music. Its genesis was a poem ofthe same name by

Richard Dehmel (1863-1920). In one continuous movement, the work

mirrors the peculiar form dictated by the layout of the poem. In the

preface to the 1979 edition of the score, this form is analyzed as “an

introduction, two distinct and contrasting movements, a coda, and an

apotheosis.”

Schoenberg completed Verklarte Nacht in only three weeks. In

1917 he expanded the original scoring (two violins, two violas, and two

cellos) to full string orchestra, and in 1943 he revised it once again. The

version for piano trio is the work of Edward Steuermann, a close friend

and associate of Schoenberg, who was entrusted with the premiere

performances of all of Schoenberg’s works that involve the piano. The

1979 edition includes an account of the impetus for this arrangement:

“The present setting of Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht was made by

Steuermann in 1932 as a birthday gift for Mrs. Alice Moller, a wealthy 

Viennese lady who studied with Schoenberg and Steuermann and made

her home a haven for musicians ofthat circle.”

Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, op. 99, was first

recognized as a masterwork by Robert Schumann and has taken its place

as one of the former composer’s most admired chamber music

compositions. The first movement {Allegro moderato) is sunny and

spirited, expressing the state of self-confidence, albeit ephemeral, that

Schubert experienced during the last two years of his life. After the initial

announcement of the opening theme, several key changes occur before

the entrance of the second theme, and a number of other key changes are

undertaken before the end of the movement. Each key change can be

seen to bring about an elevated degree of happiness. The GermanAmerican musicologist Alfred Einstein (1880-1952), a cousin of the

famous physicist Albert Einstein, hears in the first movement of the trio

Schubert’s song, Des Sangers Habe, D. 832. In it the poet cries out,

“Take from me all my worldly wealth and shatter all my happiness, yet

leave me my zither and still I shall be happy and rich.” After a two-bar 

piano introduction, the second movement {Andante un poco mosso) is

ushered in by a lyrical theme played on the cello, followed a few bars

later by the violin over a counter theme by the cello. Schumann likened

this movement to “a happy dream, a throbbing flow of exquisitely human

emotion.” The third movement {Scherzo: Allegro) relates to but does not

overtly imitate an Austrian contra dance. The fourth movement (Rondo:

Allegro vivace) paraphrases another song of Schubert, according to

Einstein. The song is entitled Skolie (1815). Its words urge the listener to

enjoy the short life of a flower before its sweet fragrance vanishes. The

coda {Presto) presages the style of Rossini and evokes a joyful 

conclusion.

Program notes by Elmer Booze