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.

For the convenience of concertgoers the Garden Cafe

remains open until 6:00 pm for light refreshments.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000b South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-eighth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,773rd Concert

Moscow String Quartet

Eugenia Alikhanova and Galina Kokhanovslcaya, violins

Tatiana Kokhanovslcaya, viola

Olga Ogranovitch, cello

Presented in honor ofWomen’s History Month

March 3, 2010

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Admissionfree
Program

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Die Sieben letzten Worte unseres Erldsers am Kreuze (1785)

(The Seven Last Words ofChrist on the Cross)

Introduzione

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do

Verily I say unto thee: today shalt thou be with me in paradise

Woman, behold thy son! and thou, behold thy mother!

My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?

I thirst

It is finished

Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit

The earthquake

Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931)

String Trio (1988)

Three movements without titles

The Musicians

Described by Alfred Schnittke as “an extraordinary ensemble that distinguishes itselfwith refined musical style, an unusually beautiful sound and

palette of colors, and a tremendous artistic temperament,” the members

ofthe Moscow String Quartet have earned a place among the most distinguished musicians of our times. Graduates ofthe Moscow Conservatory

and Gnessin Musical Institute (Moscow), the members were students of

eminent professors, including Yuri Yankelevich, Genrihk Talalian ofthe

Komitas String Quartet, and Valentin Berlinsky ofthe Borodin Quartet,

with whom the quartet continued to study after graduation.

The Moscow String Quartet gained international acclaim after winning

the 1978 Leo Weiner International Quartet Competition in Budapest, followed

a year later by a triumph at the International Quartet competition in Evian,

France. Since then, the Moscow String Quartet has played to consistent critical

acclaim in the major concert halls of Europe, including regular performances

at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall

in London, the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig,

and the Academy ofArts in Berlin. In addition, the quartet has appeared in

many prestigious festivals, including Berliner Festwochen; the Casals Festivals

in Prades and San Juan, Puerto Rico; the Catalonia Festival in Spain; and

the Cheltenham, City of London, Newport, and Stratford-upon-Avon Festivals

in the United Kingdom. In North America, the quartet has performed in

Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Montreal, New York City (Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie

Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Frick Collection), Ottawa, Philadelphia, Salt Lake

City, San Diego, Seatde, Vancouver, and Washington, DC. In 1996 the ensemble was invited by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to perform

at a White House Christmas Concert. From 1991 to 1996, the quartet was

in residence at the Lamont School of Music in Denver, and in 1997 at the

University ofColorado in Denver. The Moscow String Quartet has recorded

works by Beethoven, Denisov, Glinka, Haydn, Mozart, Schnittke, and Tchaikovsky, for the mca, Fine Arts Records, Russian Disk, Channel Classics, and

Melodiya labels.

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Program Notes

Originally written for orchestra, Haydn’s The Seven Last Words ofChrist on

the Cross was commissioned in 1785 by a Spanish clergyman for the Good 

Friday service of a congregation in Cadiz, Spain. After the introductory

overture, the priest would preach on the seven final utterances ofChrist on

the cross. A musical movement would follow each sermon, during which

time the congregation could reflect and meditate. The work ends with a

finale that evokes the earthquake that is included in the Passion narrative,

making nine movements altogether. Haydn also arranged the Seven Last

Words as an oratorio. In 1787 the composer made an arrangement ofits

original orchestral version for string quartet, so that people could play it 

in their homes and in smaller churches. The Latin text is printed under

the first violin part in each ofthe movements, and the syllables fit the notes

exactly as ifthe words ofChrist were being sung.

Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina was bom in 1931 to a Tartar father and a

Russian mother in Tschistopol, a small town on the Volga River in the Tartar

Republic ofthe former USSR. She graduated from the Kazan Conservatory

in 1954, before transferring to the Moscow Conservatory, where she finished

in 1961 as a post-graduate student ofVissarion Shebalin.

In the Soviet period, Gubaidulina earned her living writing film scores, 

while reserving part of every year for her own compositions. She was attracted

early in her career to the modernist enthusiasms ofher contemporaries

Edison Denisov and Alfred Schnittke, but she emerged with a striking, unique

voice with the chamber-orchestral work Concordanza (1970). She built up a

close circle ofperforming friends, with whom she shared long periods of

improvisation and acoustical experimentation. Out ofthese experiences came

ground-breaking pieces for the accordionist Friedrich Lips, including the

frequently played De Projundis (1978).

4

From the late 1970s onwards, Gubaidulina’s essentially religious temperament became more and more prevalent in her work. Even when the Soviet

government was severely repressing public expression ofreligious themes,

she was writing a violin concerto for Gidon Kremer, Offertorium (1980, re-

\dsed1986), and Seven Words for cello, accordion, and string orchestra (1982,

published in the USSR under the non-religious title Partita). Since the arrival

ofgreater freedom in Russia, religious themes have become Gubaidulina’s

overwhelming preoccupation. Many ofher religious works are on a large scale,

including a cello concerto inspired by a poem about the Last Judgment; an

Alleluia (1990) for chorus and orchestra; a concerto for cello and chorus for

Mstislav Rostropovich; and the colossal Passion according to Saint John (2000),

a German commission to celebrate the Millennium, which was premiered by

the soloists, chorus, and orchestra ofthe Kirov Opera conducted by Valery

Gergiev. Sofia Gubaidulina wrote the String Trio of 1988 for the Moscow String

Quartet. The work was commissioned by Radio France and is dedicated to

the memory of Boris Pasternak.

Gubaidulina biography excerptedfrom Encountering Gubaidulina

by Gerard McBumey; reprinted by kind permission ofBoosey e[ Hawkes

5
Next Week at the National Gallery of Art

National Gallery ofArt New Music Ensemble

Music by Antosca, Reynolds, and other composers

Presented in honor of

The Robert and Jane MeyerhoffCollection:

Selected Works

March 7, 2010

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Atrium

Oni Buchanan, pianist

Music by women composers ofthe twenty-first century

Presented in honor ofWomen’s History Month

March 10, 2010

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall