17 Beverly Benso, contralto

George Manos, pianist

24 New Zealand String

Quartet

December 1, 8, and 15: The 60th

1 Philip Quint, violinist

David Riley, pianist

8 Washington Men’s

Camerata

Frank Albinder, music

director

15 The American Chamber

Ensemble

Webern: Eight Early Songs

Poulenc: Eight Early Songs

Mark Fax: Five Black Songs

Britten: A Charm ofLullabies

Manos: Kykleion Asma

Borodin: Quartet No. 2

Szekely: Quartet (1937)

Beethoven: Quartet, Op. 5912

merican Music Festival

Foss: Three American Pieces

Gershwin/Heifetz: Excerpts from

Porgy and Bess

Corigliano: Sonata (1963)

Songs for the Floliday season by

Conrad Susa and other American 

composers

Muczynski: Fantasy Trio

Moore: Quintetfor Clarinet and

Strings

Schickele: Serenadefor Three

For the convenience ofconcertgoers,

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

The use ofcameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell

phones, pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

The Sixty-first Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2431st Concert

ORPHEUS STRING QUARTET

CHARLES-ANDRE LINALE, violin EMILE CANTOR, viola

EMILIAN PIEDICUTA, violin LAURENTIU SBARCEA, cello

Sunday Evening, 27 October 2002

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
PROGRAM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart String Quartet in F Major, K. 590

(1756-1791) (1790)

Allegro moderato

Allegretto

Minuet

Allegro

Hugo Wolf

(1860-1903)

Italian Serenade

(1887)

INTERMISSION

Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2

(1770-1827) (1824)

Allegro

Molto adagio

Allegretto

Finale: Presto

A truly international quartet, with members from France, Romania, and

the Netherlands, the Orpheus String Quartet celebrates its fifteenth

anniversary in the 2002-2003 season. Winner of every competition it has

entered, the quartet is recognized as one of Europe’s most important 

chamber ensembles. It was awarded first prizes in the Valentino Bucchi

International Chamber Music Contest in Rome (1988), the Karl Klinger

Competition in Munich (1990), and the International Chamber Music

Competition in Osaka, Japan (1993). These triumphs have resulted in an

outpouring of concert invitations that have taken the quartet to the major 

cities of Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, England, Denmark,

Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, and Japan. The quartet has given concerts 

in such renowned venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam,

Wigmore Hall in London, Salle Gaveau in Paris, and Suntory Hall in

Tokyo, in addition to major radio and television broadcasts in both

Europe and Japan. On its North American debut tour in March 1999, the

quartet appeared in concert halls from Maine to California. That tour 

included a concert in the Sanibel Music Festival, which prompted this

review in the Florida Islander: “There is no doubt that the marvelous

instrument each musician plays has a great deal to do with the heavenly 

sound we hear....” (The quartet members perform on violins by Joseph

Guamerius Filius Andreas (c. 1706), and Pietro Paolo de Vitor (1748), a

viola by Giovanni Tononi (c. 1700), and a cello by Giovanni Grancino

(1685).) Continuing from the review, “There is little or no question that

these magnificent instruments in less talented hands would not bring

forth the same sounds, but when placed in the hands of magnificent 

musical masters, such as the four that make up the Orpheus Quartet, they

produce music that helps [one] to soar out of the commonplace into the

rare.... The playing was impeccable and the complete ensemble feeling

almost defied definition. [One is] immediately aware that not only do the

musicians enjoy playing for an audience, but they [also] enjoy playing

for themselves and each other.”

Over the past two seasons, the quartet has performed cycles of the

complete string quartets of Brahms and Bartok and the Mozart string

quartets that were dedicated to Haydn. Its recording, The Three String

Quartets and Clarinet Quintet of Brahms, was released in 1999 to great

acclaim. Other recording highlights include The Complete Bartok String

Quartets, released in 1996, the Schubert Cello Quintet with Peter

Wispelwey, which won a Diapason d’Or award, and the complete string

quartets of Gian-Francesco Malipiero, which garnered the Grand Prix du

Disque in 1992.
The Quartet No. 23 in F Major, K. 590, is one of the three that are

known as Mozart’s Prussian Quartets (K. 575, 589, and 590). Written on

a commission from King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, an amateur 

cellist, the quartets were dedicated to him. K. 590, at first unappreciated 

by both players and audiences, came eventually to receive great

admiration, as did many of Mozart’s lesser-known works. The opening

movement (Allegro moderato), which begins with all four instruments in

unison, is laid out in ABA form with an added coda, rather than the

expected sonata-allegro form. The first violin opens and closes the first

subject, and the cello brings on the second subject immediately. Mozart

does not conclude the movement in a dramatic manner. Instead, he

allows the music to drift off serenely. The B section (the development) 

returns to the original key of F major with the first violin and cello in

canonic mimicry. The second movement {Allegretto) begins with a

chordal introduction that evolves into an ostinato figure, over which

Mozart carries out a theme with variations. The third movement 

{Minuet), with its capricious chromatic harmonies, has been said to

suggest the dancing of peasants, rather than that of the aristocrats 

traditionally associated with that dance form. The finale {Allegro) is a

rondo, its sparkle and ebullience enhanced by piquant harmonies. Unlike 

most rondos, it ends by drifting off in a fashion similar to the opening 

movement.

First performed in Vienna in 1904, Hugo Wolfs Italian Serenade in

G Major was composed in 1887 and arranged for chamber orchestra in

1903. It is the only movement of a suite for string quartet that Wolf

began but never completed. Although he is best known for his songs that

perpetuate the spirit of Franz Schubert, Wolf left for posterity two of his

best efforts in instrumental writing, the Italian Serenade and the String

Quartet in D Minor. Wolf, who suffered a great deal of mental anguish,

succumbed to its tragic hold in 1898 and was placed in an asylum, where

his difficult life ended at the early age offorty-three.

Beethoven learned the craft of string quartet writing from Haydn and

expanded the medium throughout his career, culminating in works that 

defy comparison. The quartets of Opus 59 belong to Beethoven’s middle

period, which was ushered in by the great “Waldstein” Sonata, Op. 53.

This was the period in which he expanded and transformed virtually

every musical form he had inherited, earning him a reputation among his

contemporaries as a restless iconoclast. Examples of this iconoclasm in

the Quartet, Opus 59, No. 2, include the early occurrence of changes in

tonality in its first movement (Allegro); the inclusion of explosive

climaxes in the second movement (Molto adagio), which normally 

functions as a movement of quiet repose; the five-part structure of the

Allegretto, which Beethoven’s audience would have anticipated as a

three-part scherzo; and the surprise created by beginning the final

movement in the “wrong” key (C major), requiring some subtle

modulation to get back to the “home” key (E minor).

Program notes by Elmer Booze

Concerts at the National Gallery of Art

Under the direction ofGeorge Manos

November and December 2002

November

3 Carol Wincenc, flutist Works for solo flute by Lukas

Foss, J. S. Bach, Debussy, Enesco,

and other composers

10 Jeffrey Kahane, pianist Faure: Nocturne in D-flat Major

Albeniz: Iberia, Book I

Hersch: 24 Variations