The Sonatafor Violin and Piano, Opus 94a is a transcription by

Prokofiev of his Sonatafor Flute andPiano, Opus 94 (1943). The

second version was suggested by the Russian violinist David

Oistrakh (1908-1974), to whom Prokofiev had promised a “new

sonata.” Oistrakh played its premiere performance in 1944 in

Moscow. Later that year, Joseph Szigeti, the eminent Hungarian-born American violinist who was also a close friend of

Prokofiev, gave the first United States performance in Boston.

Music critic Donald Fuller, reviewing that concert for Modern

Music, remarked: “The new Sonata in D Majorfor Violin, introduced by Szigeti, is the finest abstract Prokofiev since the Second Violin Concerto. The Scherzo avoids the trite, danse macabrelike lilt of [many] of his recent three-quarter time movements.

Throughout are fine tunes, and the fanciful and expressive figuration which the violin seems to inspire in [Prokofiev].”

-Program notes by Elmer Booze

Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Under the Direction of George Manos

November 1998

15 Kirill Gliadkovsky, pianist Clementi: Sonata in B-flat

Major, Op. 2412

Beethoven: “Moonlight” Sonata

Prokofiev: Sonata No. 3

Schumann: Bunte Blatter

Symphonic Etudes

22 National Gallery Orchestra Mozart: “Don Giovanni”

George Manos, conductor Overture

Claudia Chudacoff, violinist Symphony No. 35

Marcio Botelho, cellist Brahms: Concertofor

Violin, Cello,

and Orchestra

The use ofcameras orrecording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30p.m.

The Fifty-seventh Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

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2284th Concert

THE RUSH-GIBSON DUO

MARK RUSH, violinist

TANNIS GIBSON, pianist

Sunday Evening, November 8, 1998 

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Ludwig van Beethoven

(1770-1827)

PROGRAM

Sonata No. 8 in G Major

for Violin and Piano

Opus 30, No. 3 (1801-1802)

Allegro assai

Tempo di minuetto

Allegro vivace

Nicholas Maw

(b.1935)

Sonata for Solo Violin

(1997)

1. Scena

2. March-Burlesque

3. Tombeau

4. Flight

Sergei Prokofiev

(1891-1953)

INTERMISSION

Sonata No.2 in D Major

Opus 94a (1944)

Moderato

Scherzo: Presto

Andante

Allegro con brio

The Rush-Gibson Duo was formed in 1981, when Mark Rush

and Tannis Gibson met at the BanffCentre for the Arts Winter

Cycle. Founding members of the Monticello Trio, they served

as artist-faculty at the University ofVirginia from 1984 to 1994.

In addition to a 1994 concert with the Trio at the National Gallery, their extensive concert appearances have included the

Kennedy Center, Weill Recital Hall in New York, the Phillips

Collection, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The duo has recorded for CRI and ASV Records and in 1994 was nominated for

a Gramophone Award. Mark Rush and Tannis Gibson are husband and wife and reside in Tucson, Arizona with their children,

Sophie and Lucas.

Mark Rush has received critical acclaim for his performances

in the United States and abroad. A Yale graduate, he includes

among his mentors some of the world’s most honored performers and teachers: Ivan Galamian, Dorothy DeLay, Itzhak Perlman,

Szymon Goldberg, Nathan Milstein, and Arthur Grumiaux.

Rush’s honors and awards include a Fulbright Scholarship for

study in Brussels. He is currently professor of violin at the University ofArizona in Tucson.

Canadian-born pianistTannis Gibson earned the bachelor ofmusic degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Regina,

Saskatchewan, and the master of music degree from the Juilliard

School ofMusic. Much in demand as a chamber musician, she has 

appeared in concert with many fine artists, including Michael Tree,

Peter Zazovsky, and Zara Nelsova. She has performed with the

Shanghai, Muir, American, Lark, and New World String Quartets.

Beethoven’s Sonatas, Opus 30 are known as the “Heiligenstadt”

sonatas and are dedicated to Alexander I, Emperor ofRussia. While

staying in the woods at Heiligenstadt, Germany during the summer of 1802, Beethoven experienced increasing deafness, although

he reported that his bad hearing did not trouble him so much in

the quiet countryside. During the same sojourn, he produced an 

inspiring statement of his personal world view, known as the

Heiligenstadt Testament. The third sonata in Opus 30 communicates

overwhelmingly the joyful state ofbeing that permeates the Testament. There is no tension in this sonata, and each movement has

a sense of happiness. The second movement is a graceful minuet

with trio instead of the usual Adagio or Andante. The melody presented by the violin in this movement is not new; it can be found

in a number of Beethoven’s compositions, including the String

Quartet, Opus 18, No. 5, and the Piano Sonata, Opus 110. The last

movement, with its imitation of a bagpipe, calls to mind a rustic

scene, such as the mill at Heiligenstadt.

Composer Nicholas Maw was born in England and studied at

the Royal Academy of Music in London with Paul Steinitz and

Lennox Berkeley. Maw also studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger

and Schoenberg’s pupil, Max Deutsch. Maw’s career as a teacher

has included positions at Trinity College, Cambridge, Exeter

University in Devonshire, and Yale University. The winner of

numerous awards, including the 1993 Stoeger Prize from the

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he is currently professor of composition at the Milton Avery Graduate School of

the Arts at Bard College in New York.