For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

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

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-ninth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,796th Concert

Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio

Yael Weiss, pianist

Mark Kaplan, violinist

Clancy Newman, cellist

October 3, 2010

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Trio in G Major, op. 1, no. 2 (1794)

Adagio: Allegro vivace

Largo con espressione

Scherzo: allegro

Finale: presto

Clancy Newman (b. 1977)

Juxt-opposition (2010)

Washington Premiere Performance

INTERMISSION

Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

Piano Trio no. j in F Minor, B. 130 (1883)

Allegro ma non troppo

Allegretto grazioso; meno mosso

Poco adagio

Finale: allegro con brio
The Musicians

Founded in 2001, the Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio is comprised ofthree

highly-acclaimed musicians who embrace the music ofthe future while

offering fresh insights into three centuries ofmasterworks. The Trio has

given concerts throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the United States,

including recent appearances at The Kennedy Center, Princeton University,

the University ofCalifornia at Los Angeles, Oxford University, and Wigmore 

Hall, as well as at the Chamber Music Societies of Edinburgh, Pasadena,

Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Santander, and Tucson, among others. A performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto at the Prague Festival was praised for

its “rare timbral refinement, nobility, and virtuosic brilliance... among the 

brightest moments ofthis year’s Festival” (Lidove noviny, Prague). Other

international festival performances have included appearances at the Jeju

Island Music Festival in Korea and the Festival ofthe Sound in Canada. In

2008 the Trio released a new recording ofAin’t No Sunshine by Paul Chihara

on Bridge Records, which they had previously commissioned. The Trio will

shortly issue a new recording featuring music of Smetana and Brahms. Well

known to American radio audiences through nationwide broadcasts and syndicated programs such as wnyc’s SoundCheck, The Weiss-Kaplan-Newman

Trio’s appearance on St. Paul Sunday has been broadcast nationally several

times, and was included in St. Paul Sunday’s “Best ofthe Year” cd.

4

MARK KAPLAN

One ofthe leading violinists of his generation, Mark Kaplan has appeared

with nearly every major American and European orchestra, including the 

Los Angeles and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the Cleveland and 

Philadelphia Orchestras, the Chicago and National Symphony Orchestras,

the Berlin Philharmonic, The London Symphony Orchestra, and The Royal

Philharmonic Orchestra. He has collaborated with many ofthe world’s

foremost conductors, including Eugene Ormandy, Klaus Tennstedt, Loren

Maazel, Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, and

David Zinman. Recent concerts have included the Elgar Violin Concerto with 

Leonard Slatkin at London’s Royal Festival Hall and appearances with the 

Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.

Highlights of Kaplan’s career include a series of performances with

three major orchestras ofthe Beethoven Violin Concerto, conducted by Klaus

Tennstedt, the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony orchestra, and

the New York Philharmonic; appearances as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; and numerous projects involving the solo works ofJohann

Sebastian Bach. Kaplan’s extensive discography includes solo and chamber

works ranging from Bach, Brahms, and Sarasate to Bartolc, Berg, and Nono.

Recent releases feature concertos of Berg and Stravinsky, the Symphonie

espagnole of Lalo, and works for violin and orchestra by Joan Manen, Max

d’Ollone, and Lewis Spratlan. Kaplan currently serves as Professor ofViolin

at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

5
CLANCY NEWMAN

In 2001 cellist Clancy Newman won the coveted first prize ofthe Walter W.

Naumburg International Competition. His subsequent prizewinner recital

at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall garnered extensive critical acclaim. He

was also named the recipient of a 2004 Avery Fisher Career Grant, which

led to an appearance on A & E’s “Breakfast with the Arts.” Upon receiving a

master of music degree from The Juilliard School, he became one ofthe few

students to complete the five-year exchange program between Juilliard and

Columbia University, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in English

literature. Newman has performed as soloist in most ofthe country’s major

cities, and can often be heard on American Public Radio’s “Performance

Today.” He has been a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society

Two and Musicians from Marlboro, and is a current member ofThe Chicago

Chamber Musicians as well as the Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio.

An active composer, Newman has been featured on the Chamber Music 

Society of Lincoln Center’s “Double Exposure” series and the Chicago Chamber Musicians’ “Freshly Scored” series. He premiered his Four Piecesfor Solo

Cello (2003) at the Violoncello Society in New York City. He has received commissions from Astral Artists, the Barnett Foundation, the Carpe Diem String

Quartet, and the United Bank of Switzerland’s Chamber Music Festival in

Lexington, Kentucky.

YAEL WEISS

Hailed by musicians and critics for her powerful interpretations, pianist Yael

Weiss is a captivating presence on the concert scene. Her busy schedule has

included performances in major venues across Europe, Japan, South America,

and the United States. Following a recent recital, the Washington Post portrayed

her as “a pianist who delves deeply and tellingly into that cloudy area where

fantasy morphs into improvisation, inventiveness being common to both.”

Recent performances have included engagements as guest soloist with the

Augusta, Bridgeport, Chautauqua, and Seattle Symphony Orchestras and the

Prague Chamber Orchestra. She participates regularly at international music

festivals including the Banff, Caramoor, City of London, Marlboro, Ravinia,

and Seattle Chamber Music festivals. This season Weiss will give several

world premiere performances, including Joel Feigin’s Piano Concerto,

dedicated to her. She will also appear in recitals in Chicago, New York, and

Omaha, and offer master classes at several universities. Her discography

encompasses piano works by over a dozen composers, with the recent releases 

Robert Schumann: Piano Works and 88 Keys to Joy, both on the Koch International Classics label. Weiss has been honored with distinguished prizes

and awards from the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition

and the Naumburg International Piano Competition. A student of Richard

Goode and Leon Fleisher, she maintains a website at www.yaelweiss.com.

7
Program Notes

Though Mozart and Haydn each composed a number oftrios for keyboard,

violin, and cello, it wasn’t until Beethoven began composing piano trios that

the combination ofthe three instruments achieved a mature, “modern”

rendering. No longer was the cello simply a continuo instrument, doubling

the bass line ofthe keyboard. The string instruments were given complete 

voices within the pieces, while the piano maintained its sonorous power and

contrasting timbre. Beethoven’s first numerically designated works, opus 1,

were three piano trios. Published in 1795, they were dedicated to Prince Karl

von Lichnowsky, in whose home the three pieces were originally performed.

Prince Lichnowsky held weekly soirees in his home, and these previews

served to popularize new pieces through performance and ensure increased

sales when they were later published.

About his new work for piano trio, Juxt-opposition, Clancy Newman 

writes: “Several years ago, I discovered a jazzy rock n’ roll riff circling

around in my head, and it seemed suited for a piano trio. I jotted it down

and then didn’t give it much thought. Years later, I developed a new method

of composition involving the golden ratio and irrational numbers. And

earlier this year, as I considered various ideas for a piano trio, I remembered

the old riff, and I experimented on it using this method. What I discovered

was extraordinary. With a minimal number of alterations, the riff could be

turned into a very simple chorale; the chorale, in turn, could form the basis

for a rustic fiddle tune. And so, the challenge was set before me: would it be

possible to write a piece that would exploit this bizarre relationship between 

two seemingly different ideas?”

An epic work in a number of ways, Dvorak’s Piano Trio no. 3 in F Minor

is considered a milestone composition for the composer. At forty-two years

old, Dvorak had reached a new level ofmaturity as a composer, partly due 

to his natural development (it had been seven years since he composed his

second piano trio), but also because of events and influences in his life up to

that point. It has been supposed that the uncharacteristic seriousness and

tragic nature ofthe work was derived from Dvorak’s grief over his mother’s

recent passing. He had received continual pressure from friends and colleagues to write in a more cosmopolitan European fashion, as they felt that

he concentrated too much on folk-influenced Slavic nationalism. Heavily

influenced by Brahms, who was a mentor and great supporter ofthe younger 

composer, this work is probably the most “Brahmsian” of Dvorak’s chamber

music works. Though he had already achieved international success with his 

Slavonic Dances published a few years before, this trio would help to catapult 

him into a new realm of prominence.

Program notes by Danielle DeSwert Hahn
Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Hakon Austbo, pianist

Music by Egge, Mortensen,

Valen, and Wallin

Presented in honor of Edvard Munch: Master Prints

and in connection with “Norway Comes to Washington”

October 6, 2010

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Nordic Voices

Music by Lasse Thoresen

and other Norwegian composers

Presented in honor of Edvard Munch: Master Prints

and in connection with “Norway Comes to Washington”

October 10, 2010

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court