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The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,957th Concert

Mendelssohn Piano Trio

Peter Sirotin, violin

Fiona Thompson, cello

Ya-Ting Chang, piano

June 30, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)

Piano Trio in C Minor, op. 66, no. 2 (1845)

Allegro energico e con fuoco

Andante espressivo 

Scherzo: Molto allegro; quasi presto 

Finale: Allegro appassionato

INTERMISSION

Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Triofor Piano, Violin, and Cello in A Minor, op. 50 (1881-1882)

Pezzo elegiaco: Moderato assai; allegro giusto

Theme and Variations

Theme: Andante con moto 

Variation 1

Variation 11: Piu mosso

Variation 111: Allegro moderato

Variation iv: L’istesso tempo

Variation v: L’istesso tempo

Variation vi: Tempo di valse

Variation vi 1: Allegro moderato

Variation vm: Fugue: Allegro moderato

Variation ix: Andante flebile, ma non tanto

Variation x: Tempo di Mazurka

Variation xi: Moderato

Finale and Coda: Allegro risoluto e con fuoco

The Musicians

MENDELSSOHN PIANO TRIO

Now celebrating its fifteenth year, the Mendelssohn Piano Trio has made

its mark as an exceptional chamber music ensemble, thanks to its combination of powerful individual talents and tight-knit collaboration. The Trio’s

extensive repertoire embraces works from all periods ofthe genre’s history,

which dates back to the mid-eighteenth century. Currently an ensemble-inresidence for Washington’s Embassy Series and Messiah College as well as

Pennsylvania’s “Chamber Music in Grantham” summer festival, the Trio

has earned such accolades as “unfathomably beautiful,” “transcendent,”

and “electrifying” (Washington Post). The group has presented the complete 

Beethoven piano trios in Portugal and Washington, DC, and is currently

recording the complete Haydn piano trios for Centaur Records. Its performance at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, was recorded for the 

Taiwanese classical music tv channel, and its 2005 concert at the National

Gallery of Art was broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today.

An international ensemble, the Mendelssohn Piano Trio consists ofviolinist

Peter Sirotin from Ukraine, cellist Fiona Thompson from England, and

pianist Ya-Ting Chang from Taiwan.

PETER SIROTIN

Since his concert debut at age fourteen, performing Paganini’s Concerto

no. 1 with the Kharkiv Philharmonic Orchestra in his native Ukraine,

violinist Peter Sirotin has performed hundreds of concerts as a chamber

musician, soloist, and concertmaster in Asia, Europe, and North America. 

After graduating with honors from Moscow's Central Music School, he 

became the youngest member ofthe Moscow Soloists chamber ensemble,

with which he toured extensively, performing in the major European

music centers. Sirotin continued his studies at the Peabody Institute at

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Johns Hopkins University, where he received the first graduate performance diploma in chamber music awarded in the history ofthat school.

Currently an acting concertmaster ofthe Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra,

he is an artist-in-residence at Messiah College, where he cofounded a

summer chamber music and composition program for young musicians,

and an artistic director ofthe Harrisburg’s Market Square Concerts. 

Together with his wife, pianist Ya-Ting Chang, he founded the Mendelssohn Piano Trio in 1997.

FIONA THOMPSON

Cellist Fiona Thompson has performed throughout Asia, Europe, and

the United States, drawing praise for her “eloquent,” “radiant,” and

“unfailingly handsome” sound (Washington Post). In addition to her work 

with the Mendelssohn Piano Trio, Thompson has performed with the

Melos Ensemble, the Cygnus Chamber Ensemble, and the Rasumovsky 

Quartet. A 1994 graduate ofthe Royal Northern College of Music in

Manchester, England, she was subsequently accepted by the University 

of Southern California Thornton School of Music on a full scholarship.

Currently a teacher and artist-in-residence at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, she plays a cello made by Paolo Testore circa 1750.

YA-TING CHANG

A member ofthe piano faculty at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, Ya-Ting Chang won first prize in the 1987 Taiwan National Piano 

Competition. Upon coming to the United States in 1988 as part ofthe

Taiwanese government’s Gifted Children Program, she studied piano with 

Enrique Graf and later entered the Peabody Institute ofthe Johns Hopkins

University as a scholarship student ofAnn Schein. Together with her

husband, Peter Sirotin, she has appeared as a soloist in the world premiere

of Ching-Ju Shih’s Double Concertofor Violin, Piano, and Orchestra at the 

National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. She is the executive director of

Market Square Concerts.

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Program Notes

Composed in 1845, Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in C Minor was the last

of his chamber works published during his lifetime. In the middle of

the 1844-1845 concert season, he was granted a briefsabbatical from

his duties as music director, administrator, and conductor of the Leipzig

Gewandhaus, giving him an opportunity to concentrate on his writing.

In addition to some substantial work on his oratorio Elijah, he completed

the String Quintet in B-flat Major and the C Minor Piano Trio. Responding

to urgent pleas from the management ofthe Gewandhaus, he returned

to his demanding position the following fall. The resumption of a frantic

pace of life was deemed to be a factor in his untimely death in 1847.

One of Mendelssohn’s strongest sonata movements, the opening

movement ofthe C Minor Trio features a first theme with dramatic rising

and falling figures, followed by a sweeping second theme. The second 

movement, marked Andante, is an extended three-part song without

words— one of Mendelssohn’s favorite genres. The swift, light, and nimble

third movement is a prime example of his characteristic scherzo writing, 

as the elfin perpetual motion evokes visions ofwoodland creatures. The

impassioned Finale presents a principal subject with a great leap in the cello,

balanced by a second theme based on a chorale that has been traced to the 

Genevan Psalter of 1551.

In October 1880, Tchaikovsky’s patroness, Nadezhda von Meek (1831 —

1894), asked him to compose a piano trio for the household trio that regularly gave concerts in her home. Not having written much chamber music, 

the composer demurred, insisting that he did not find the piano to be

compatible in tone with string instruments, and that he generally favored

orchestral writing. When Nikolai Rubinstein, one of Russia’s most prominent pianists died the following spring, Tchaikovsky composed the piano

trio in memory ofhis dear friend and mentor. The work was completed

in February 1882, and three colleagues from the Moscow Conservatory

gave a private performance ofit on the first anniversary of Rubinstein’s

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death, March 23,1882. After a number ofrevisions and adjustments, the

trio received its first public performance in October ofthat year, and subsequently became very popular during Tchaikovsky's lifetime, receiving

numerous performances throughout Europe and the United States.

A large-scale work set in two sections, the trio is marked by a tragic tone.

The mournful first movement (Pezzo elegiaco) is an elegy to Rubenstein and

a moving testimony to the loss Tchaikovsky felt. In expanded sonata-allegro

form, it is warm and passionate, presenting a number oflyrical melodies. 

The second movement is a theme and set ofvariations followed by a finale

and coda. The simple folk-like theme and the eleven variations are said to

have been inspired by a day Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein spent picnicking 

in the country, when a group of peasants appeared and provided music for

the afternoon in exchange for food and wine. The grand finale begins as

ifit were a twelfth variation, but the mood abruptly changes as the opening

theme from the first movement returns. Of greater length and difficulty

than most piano trios, this work stands out in the chamber music repertoire

as a touchstone of grandeur and brilliance.

Program notes by Danielle DeSwert Hahn, music program specialist,

National Gallery ofArt

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Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt resume in September 2013

Forough-Kim-Janpoladyan Trio

Music by Schubert and Vali

September 22, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

National Gallery ofArt New Music Ensemble

Music by Antosca, Cage, and other composers 

In honor of Yes, No, Maybe: Artists Working at Crown Point Press

September 29, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court