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 ofthe 

West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

For the convenience of concertgoers, 

the Garden Cafe remains open for light refreshments

until 6:00 pm on Sundays.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

www.nga.gov

The Seventieth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,860th Concert

The Pacifica Quartet

Simin Ganatra, violin

Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin

Masumi Per Rostad, viola

Brandon Vamos, cello

December 4, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Music by Ludwig van Beethoven

Quartet in B-jlat Major, op. 18, no. 6, “La Malinconia” (1798-1800)

Allegro con brio

Adagio, ma non troppo

Scherzo: Allegro

La Malinconia: Adagio; allegretto quasi allegro

Quartet in F Minor, op. 95, “Serioso” (1810)

Allegro con brio

Allegretto ma non troppo

Allegro assai vivace ma serioso

Larghetto; allegretto agitato

INTERMISSION

Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 130, “Liebquartett” (1825)

Adagio ma non troppo; Allegro 

Presto

Andante con moto, ma non troppo

Alla danza tedesca: Allegro assai

Cavatina: Adagio molto espressivo

Grosse Fuge: Allegro (op. 133)

The Musicians

Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and bold repertory

choices, the Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet tours extensively

throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Named Musical

America’s 2009 Ensemble ofthe Year, the Quartet has gained international

stature as one ofthe finest chamber ensembles performing today. Shortly after 

its 1994 formation in California, the Pacifica Quartet won top prizes in prestigious competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Prize. The Quartet has

since received many honors, including being appointed quartet-in-residence

at the Metropolitan Museum ofArt, a position held for forty-three years by the

Guarneri String Quartet.

In 2002 and 2003 the Pacifica Quartet won wide acclaim for the first

single-concert performances of Elliott Carter’s complete five-quartet cycle.

The New York Times called the accomplishment “brilliant” and “astounding,”

and the Chicago Tribune praised the Quartet’s “astonishing talent, energy, 

and dedication.” In 2006 the Pacifica was awarded an Avery Fisher Career

Grant, becoming only the second chamber ensemble so honored in the

granting agency’s long history. That same year the Quartet was featured

on the cover of Gramophone and heralded as one of “five new quartets you 

should know about,” the only American quartet to make the list. More 

recently, the Pacifica’s recording of Carter’s Quartets nos. 1 and 5 won the

2009 Grammy Award for best chamber music performance.

Resident performing artists at the University ofChicago and visiting 

artists in chamber music at the Longy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts,

the members ofthe Pacifica Quartet were appointed to the faculty ofthe

University ofIllinois in 2003 and serve as its quartet-in-residence. Maintaining

a website at www.pacijicaquartet.com, the ensemble appears at the National 

Gallery by arrangement with Melvin Kaplan, Inc., www.melkap.com.

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Program Notes

Although it was not the last quartet that Beethoven completed in his opus 18,

he chose to place the Quartet in B-flat Major last in the set ofsix quartets, 

probably due to the lengthy, slow introduction to the last movement (La

Malinconia). From the viewpoint ofmusical development, this introduction

is decades ahead ofthe rest of opus 18. In some ways it presages Beethoven’s

late quartets ofthe 1820s, with its moving evocation of grief and despair,

providing an insight into the depths ofthe composer’s emotional state.

The first movement opens with a vigorous, vaulting theme in the first

violin that eventually becomes a duet with the cello. The far less agile

subsidiary theme stays rooted on one note and then another, all within

a rather narrow range. The development section ends with a held note,

anticipating the return ofthe theme. Introduced by the first violin over a

bare-bones accompaniment, a refined, dignified melody is the main theme

ofthe Adagio. For the second violin reiteration ofthe melody, the importance ofthe accompanying voices is considerably higher. The entire quartet

joins for a brief episode together before the violin states the theme for a

third time, now in a highly ornamental style. The contrasting section arrives

with a thin, tenuous line played in octaves by the first violin and cello. A

short bridge passage and rising chromatic scale in the first violin lead to the 

return ofthe opening material, this time even more highly decorated than

in its first hearing.

The Adagio’s stately mood is unceremoniously shattered by the eccentric 

and very original Scherzo that follows. Full ofrhythmic verve, it is constantly 

being tripped up and sabotaged by misplaced accents and cross rhythms.

One can only marvel at Beethoven’s ability to squeeze such intricate and 

complex rhythmic patterns into straightforward triple meter. The final

movement, the climax ofthe entire composition, begins with the astounding La Malinconia, which Beethoven directs “must be played with the 

greatest delicacy.” The introduction falls into two parts, the first characterized by repeated tones and the second by a fugal texture. The main body of

the movement is fast, in the style of a danza alia tedesca, or dance in German

4

style, which was very popular at the time. The tedesca never succeeds in

raising the somber pall cast by La Malinconia, and, as ifto underscore the 

point, Beethoven twice interrupts the festive dance with short reminders of

the slow introduction before ending the movement in a furious dash to the 

powerful last chords.

The only Beethoven quartet that bears a subtitle supplied by the composer,

the Quartet in F Minor, op. 95, “Serioso,” is characterized by its somber mood.

The composer’s growing deafness, precarious health, frustration in love,

financial insecurity, and unhappy family life no doubt combined to make him

angry, bitter, and deeply despondent. Usually classified as one ofthe final

works ofBeethoven’s middle period, the quartet anticipates the exalted third 

period quartets that were to follow some fourteen years later. The title page

dedication to Nikolaus von Zmeskall is significant, because it is the first

quartet inscribed to a friend from the middle class rather than a noble patron.

The work received its premiere in Vienna in May 1814, played by the Schuppanzigh Quartet.

The first movement—the shortest Beethoven ever composed—lashes 

out with an angry, laconic phrase, played in unison by the entire quartet. A

suspenseful silence follows, after which the first violin whips up and down

in forceful octave jumps. After briefly expanding the opening fragment,

the quieter, rolling second theme is introduced by the viola and then picked

up by the others. The short development, which opens in a fury based on

the first theme, leads to a truncated recapitulation. Beethoven relates the

second movement to the first by starting at the same soft dynamic level and

by giving the introductory cello phrase the same falling-rising shape as the 

quartet opening.

The third movement continues without pause, starting with a figure drawn

from both the rhythm ofthe octaves and the sudden, dramatic silences ofthe

first movement. The roughness and strong propulsive energy provide a sharp

contrast to the contemplative mood ofthe second movement. The middle

section is at once a solemn chorale and a grim march. The finale is related to

the third movement by a slow introduction based on that movement’s opening

rhythmic figure. Unremitting restlessness and nervous anxiety pervade the

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movement until nearly the very end. Then, in an abrupt change ofmood, 

Beethoven speeds up the tempo, changing mode from minor to major, and

ending with an affirmative conclusion that attests to the indomitability ofthe

human spirit, no matter how sorely tried by bad fortune.

Beethoven produced few major works from 1811 until the early 1820s,

but in 1822 he was able to write a publisher, “I have long known what I want

to do, but I can’t get it down on paper. I feel I am on the threshold of great

things.” Not long thereafter, he composed the crowning achievements of

his life’s work—the Missa Solemnis, the Ninth Symphony, and the five “late”

string quartets. Composed between May 1824 and November 1826, these

quartets confused audiences, due to the frequent presence ofsupposedly

outdated techniques such as fugues, recitative, and simple dance tunes.

Opus 130 follows the classical order ofmovements—fast, scherzo, slow,

and finale—except that Beethoven adds an extra scherzo and slow movement just before the finale. The latter ofthese “extra” movements (Cavatina:

Adagio molto espressivo), is darkly expressive and intensely emotional. Massive, complex, and often frenzied, the Grosse Fuge (Great Fugue) is a particular shock coming moments after the quiet eloquence ofthe lovely Cavatina.

Symphonic in its grand proportions and at times brutal, the Grosse Fuge

recalls the rigorous polyphony ofJohann Sebastian Bach while at the same

time ahead ofits time in many ways. The Grosse Fuge was removed from

the quartet at the publisher’s request and published separately as opus 133.

The publisher artfully told Beethoven that the public demanded the fugue

as a separate piece and offered him additional money to replace it with a

less challenging finale. The Pacifica Quartet plays the work as Beethoven

originally composed it, with the Grosse Fuge as the final movement.

Program notes adaptedfrom Guide to Chamber Music, by Melvin Berger,

used with permission

6

Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Thomas Hrynkiw, pianist

Music by Kevich, Revutsky, and other Ukrainian composers

Presented in conjunction with the film series

“Yuri Ilyenko: Ballad of Ukraine”

December 7, 2011

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

East Building Auditorium

(Films shown December 10, 2011, at 2:00 and 4:00 pm;

December 17 at 2:00 pm in the East Building Auditorium)

The Rose Ensemble

Arab, Christian, and Sephardic music from the Middle Ages

December 11, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Preceded at 6:00 pm by a preconcert talk 

on Sephardic music by Jerome Barry