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 ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,689th Concert

Vienna Piano Trio

Wolfgang Redik, violin

Matthias Gredler, violoncello

Stefan Mendl, piano

October 26, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Piano Trio in E Minor, Hob. xv:i2

Allegro moderato

Andante

Rondo-Presto

Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884)

Piano Trio in G Minor, op. 15 (1855)

Moderato assai 

Allegro ma non agitato

Presto-Grave, quasi Marcia-Presto

INTERMISSION

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Piano Trio in E-flat Major, op. 100, D. 929

Allegro

Andante con moto

Scherzo: Allegro moderato

Allegro moderato

The Musicians

For almost twenty years, the Vienna Piano Trio has been performing regularly in the major music centers in the Americas, Australia, Europe, and the 

Far East. Founded in 1988, the Trio undertook extensive studies with highly

renowned ensembles and musicians, including the Beaux Arts Trio, the 

Haydn Trio Wien, and Isaac Stern, paving the way to an international career.

Described by the Washington Post as “one ofthe world’s leading ensembles

of violin, cello, and piano,” the Vienna Piano Trio has been praised for its

silken, homogenous sound.

The Trio has performed at many ofthe leading music festivals, including the Aix-en-Provence, Bratislava, Carinthischer Sommer, Casals, Domaine 

Forget, Flanders, Kuhmo, Lanaudiere, and Schleswig-Holstein festivals as

well as the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the Salzburg

Mozartwoche, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Wiener Festwochen,

and the Woodstock Mozart Festival. For a number of years, the ensemble

has performed in Vienna in the Jeunesse series at the Wiener Musikverein 

and, as ofthe 2006-2007 season, the Trio has its own series at the Wiener 

Konzerthaus’ Mozartsaal.

The Vienna Piano Trio appears annually at the Concertgebouw in 

Amsterdam and Wigmore Hall in London. Other cities that have welcomed

the Trio include Berlin, Budapest, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles,

Montreal, New York City, Paris, Philadelphia, Quebec City, Rotterdam,

Seattle, Vancouver, and Washington, DC. The Trio’s National Gallery debut 

took place in February 2004.

Recordings by the Vienna Piano Trio have won numerous awards,

including the British magazine Classic CD’s “Top ofthe Class” award in 1999

and the London Times’ “Classical Album ofthe Year” in 2000. Since 2003

the ensemble has been recording exclusively for the German mdg label. A

recording ofthe Eduard Steuermann arrangement of Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht was released in October 2005 and won Pizzicato magazine’s

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“Supersonic Award.” Concerts ofthe ensemble have been repeatedly broadcast on National Public Radio stations, and the Trio has appeared live on

wgbh Boston and Saint Paul Sunday.

The members ofthe ensemble teach on a regular basis and have given 

master classes at London’s Wigmore Hall and Royal College of Music, 

at Sydney’s Conservatory of Music, at tire University ofWellington (New

Zealand) as well as in Finland, France, and the United States.

The Vienna Piano Trio appears at tire National Gallery by arrangement

with Shupp Artists Management of Port Jefferson, New York.

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Program Notes

Haydn’s piano trios, composed during his late period, reflect tire prevailing

practice ofthe late eighteenth century, in which the piano takes the main

role in the ensemble. In these works, which he published as Sonates pour

le pianoforte avec I’accompagnement du violon et violoncelle, Haydn restricted

himselfto the conservative and old-fashioned form, not giving tire cello and

violin equal roles in the ensemble, despite the fact that in all other aspects he

was constantly moving forward. The first movement ofthe Trio in E Minoris

a strong statement, which remains determinedly minor, eschewing tire typical

shift to major at the end oftire movement. In tire second movement, Haydn

gives the cello and violin a pizzicato coloring, offering a different course from

the typical doubling ofpiano lines. Tire last movement, Presto, is a perfectly 

symmetrical rondo.

Bedrich Smetana, born in the northeastern part of Bohemia, was the

first major nationalist composer ofthe country. Born to a father who was a

master brewer and amateur violinist, he showed a gift for music at an early 

age. Though he was given the chance to play the piano and violin, he was 

sent to regular school, rather than a music academy, as his father did not

intend for him to have a career in music. Nevertheless, the son’s desire and

talent won out and eventually he pursued opportunities in teaching, composing, and performing music.

A series of personal tragedies surrounds the composition ofthe Piano

Trio in G Minor: in the first six years of his marriage, Smetana lost three

daughters to illness. In 1855, his eldest daughter, less than five years old and

already blessed with promising musical talent, died ofscarlet fever. The trio

is dedicated to her memory. A somber work from beginning to end, it stays 

in the key of G minor throughout, with only occasional slips into the major

key, though even at those times it remains doleful. In the first movement

there are several solo recitative passages, reflective of personal tragedy. The

second movement, Allegro ma non agitato, is rhythmically more active, yet is
in the same key and general mood as the first movement. The final Presto

contains incessant funereal bell-like tones and a relentless rhythmic drive 

that carry it to a dark end.

Franz Schubert enjoyed little commercial or financial success during his

short lifetime, despite the prolific number ofsongs, works for solo piano,

and chamber music that he composed. Had he been more proactive about

promoting himself and his compositions, he might have been surprised by

success. Eight months before his death, he took the advice of a friend—who

knew how popular Schubert was, and how many would come to a performance featuring only his works—and organized a concert in which, among

other things, his recently composed Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major was performed.

The audience demanded a complete encore ofthe piece.

Schubert’s capacity for melodic writing is fully reached in all four

movements ofthis late work. The first movement begins with a dramatic

unison, which is followed by a contrasting lyrical second theme. The melody

ofthe second movement is supposedly taken from a Swedish folk tune that

Schubert had heard in concert. In the third movement the Trio and Scherzo

both provide rhythmic interest, but are contrasting; the Scherzo is reminiscent ofthe Landler, an Austrian folk dance, while the Trio is heavier in

character. With a reappearance ofthe folk tune from the second movement,

along with another theme, the final Allegro moderato switches back and forth

between a duple and a triple meter.

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Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Musica ad Rhenum

Music by Sweelinck and other composers

ofthe “Golden Age” in The Netherlands

Presented in honor ofJan Elevens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered

October 29, 2008

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture hall

CX3

National Gallery Vocal Arts Ensemble

Music by Huygens, Sweelinck, and other composers

ofthe “Golden Age” in The Netherlands

Presented in honor ofJan Elevens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered

November 2, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court