For the convenience of concertgoers

the Cafe Provencal 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 of Art 

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

cover: Autograph score of Mozart’s Concertofor Violin and Orchestra

in A Major, K. 219, in the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Foundation Collection,

Music Division, Library of Congress. Used by permission.

The Sixty-fourth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,560th Concert

The Kuijken String Quartet

Sigiswald Kuijken, violin

Franqois Fernandez, violin

Marleen Thiers, viola

Wieland Kuijken, violoncello

February 19, 2006

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Program

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

String Quartet in B-Jlat Major, K. 458 (“The Hunt") (1783)

Allegro vivace assai

Menuetto: Moderato

Adagio

Allegro assai

String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421 (1783)

Allegro

Andante

Menuetto: Allegretto 

Allegretto ma non troppo

INTERMISSION

String Quartet in G Major, K. 387 (1782)

Allegro vivace assai

Menuetto: Allegro

Andante cantabile

Molto allegro

The Musicians

Founded in 1986, the Kuijken String Quartet has gained recognition for its

historical approach to music, performing on period instruments and emphasizing the quartets of Mozart and Haydn. Its members also play in La Petite

Bande, one of Europe’s premiere early-instrument orchestras, which was

founded by Sigiswald Kuijken. The string quartet’s recordings for the Denon

label include the six quartets Mozart wrote in 1782 and 1783 and dedicated

to his friend and mentor Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). The Kuijken Quartet

plays three ofthe “Haydn” quartets this evening and will complete its

Washington, DC, performance ofthe set on Tuesday, February 21, at 8:00

pm, at the Library of Congress. The ensemble appears at the National Gallery

by arrangement with Latitude 45 Arts Promotion, Inc., of Montreal.

A prize-winning graduate of the Brussels Royal Conservatory, violinist

Sigiswald Kuijken reestablished the early technique of violin playing without the use of a chin or shoulder rest and without holding the instrument

with the chin. He taught this technique at the Royal Conservatory of The

Hague from 1971 to 1996; since then many other players have adopted it.

He also appears as guest conductor with many baroque ensembles, including the Orchestra ofthe Age of Enlightenment, which he conducted in its 

inaugural concert in June 1986, at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Born in Rouen, France, Francois Fernandez began playing the baroque

violin at age twelve. He studied with Sigiswald Kuijken and subsequently

assisted with La Petite Bande. A member ofthe Orchestra ofthe Eighteenth

Century, the Ricercar Consort, and other notable early-music ensembles,

Fernandez also plays the baroque viola, viola d’amore, and viola da gamba.

Marleen Thiers studied violin and viola with Arthur Grumiaux and

Maurice Raskin at the Brussels Royal Conservatory. As a student she showed

a special affinity for historical instruments and performing practices, which

she chose as her area of expertise. Marleen is the principal violist of La

Petite Bande and is married to Sigiswald Kuijken.

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Cellist Wieland Kuijken also studied at the Brussels Royal Conservatory

and has established an international career through numerous concerts 

and recordings with his brothers, Sigiswald and Barthold Kuijken, as well

as with Frans Briiggen, Alfred Deller, and Gustav Leonhardt. Since 1971

Wieland has taught at the conservatories ofThe Hague and Brussels and 

has frequently served on the juries of many international competitions.

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Program Notes

Music lovers throughout the world are celebrating the 250th anniversary 

ofthe birth ofWolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756-December 5,

1791). This concert is one of eleven programs in the “Mozart on the Mall”

festival, which was organized by the six institutions that regularly present

concerts on the National Mall (the Freer Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn

Museum, the Library of Congress, the National Academy of Sciences, the

National Gallery of Art, and the National Museum of American History).

The festival will also include a Mozart symposium on March 25, 2006,

sponsored by The Smithsonian Associates. The large audiences that have

attended the festival concerts to date testify to the fact that Mozart’s music

is indeed alive and well in the twenty-first century.

The six quartets known as the “Haydn” set are arguably Mozart’s greatest 

achievement in the genre. It seems he found the string quartet to be a particularly difficult medium, evidenced by the disproportionate number of corrections to such manuscripts, including rejected tempos and dynamics. Written 

between 1782 and 1785, without a specific commission, these masterpieces 

were inspired by Haydn’s quartets opus 33 (1781). Upon completing the set,

Mozart wrote a touching letter of dedication to Haydn, in which he referred

to the quartets as his “children,” and to the older composer as “their father,

their guide, and their friend.” Haydn’s appreciation may be judged by a

remark he made to Mozart’s father, Leopold, in February 1785: “Before God,

and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer 

known to me either in person or by name.”

The Kuijken Quartet begins this concert with the Quartet in B-fiat

Major, K. 458, which is the third in the set of six. Over time it has earned

the nickname “The Hunt,” thanks to its opening motif, which calls to

mind the sound of a hunting horn. In the effusive first movement, Allegro

vivace assai, Mozart presents a number of countermelodies against the main

themes. The movement features an extended coda that lasts almost as long

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as the development section. Departing from the model established by

Haydn, Mozart makes the Menuetto the second movement and imbues it

with a seriousness that is his special gift to the form. The playful trio 

provides an almost startling contrast to the Menuetto. Mozart marked the 

next brooding, slow movement adagio, another alteration to the standard

quartet form: Mozart and Haydn generally marked the slow movements

andante, an easygoing pace. The use ofthe slower tempo (adagio) and the 

intensity ofthe texture make this movement one ofthe emotional high

points within the entire set of six quartets. The last movement, Allegro

assai, is spirited and affectionate. Like the first movement, it is generous

in its use of counterpoint between principal and secondary melodies, and 

it makes several good-humored turns that are another form of homage

to “Papa” Haydn.

The Quartet in D Minor, K. 421, is the only one ofthe set in a minor

key. Mozart does not remain in the minor mode for long, however, as he 

moves to the relative major key (F major) in the second theme ofthe first

movement. The second movement, Andante, has the flavor of an Austrian

folk song, beginning in the major key, but Mozart transforms the mood

as he returns to the minor key over the course ofthe movement. In the

Menuetto Mozart contrasts the minuet and trio sections again, this time

by juxtaposing the minuet’s unbroken musical line against the trio’s more

angular phrasing. The final movement, marked Allegretto ma non troppo,

is a theme with four variations, none of which depart with any conviction

from the minor mode— uncharacteristic of Mozart’s handling ofthe

theme-and-variations form. The rhythmic tapping oftriplets gives the

movement an ominous undertone.

The Kuijken Quartet brings this salute to Mozart to a close with the

quartet he completed first in this cycle, K. 387, in G major, perhaps

the most outwardly brilliant ofthe six works. The opening measures are

notable for their texture—the four instruments function as equals, with 

no special role assigned to the first violin. The second movement presents

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chromatic harmonies and decisive dynamic alterations of a type not heard

again until Beethoven’s time. The finale, Molto allegro, combines elements

ofsonata form with a fugue of more than one subject. Mozart first composed such fugues after being exposed to the works of Johann Sebastian

Bach. In this movement, listeners familiar with Mozart’s symphonies will

notice a four-note motive similar to the one the composer employed six

years later in the finale ofthe “Jupiter” Symphony (no. 41 in C Major, K. 551).

As a salute to Haydn’s musical sense of humor, Mozart gives the movement

a grand forte closing, then confounds the listener with a quiet coda.