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performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off'.

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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

Concerts are made possible in part through the generosity of donors

to the National Gallery ofArt through The Circle. Reserved seating is

available in recognition oftheir support. Please contact the development 

office at (202) 842-6450 or circh@nga.gov for more information.

The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,927th Concert

Vienna Piano Trio

Bogdon Bozovic, violin

Matthias Gredler, cello

Stefan Mendl, piano

March 3, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Piano Trio in C Major, Hob. XV:27 (1795)

Allegro 

Andante

Presto

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Piano Trio in E-flat Major, op. 70, no. 2 (1808)

Poco sostenuto; allegro ma non troppo

Allegretto

Allegretto ma non troppo

Finale: Allegro

INTERMISSION

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)

Piano Trio no. 2 in E Minor, op. 92 (1892)

Allegro non troppo

Allegretto

Andante con moto

Grazioso— poco allegro

Allegro
The Musicians

Described by the Washington Post as “one ofthe world’s leading ensembles

ofviolin, cello, and piano,” the Vienna Piano Trio has received praise for 

its silken, homogenous sound and its “telepathic gifts of communication”

(Cleveland Plain Dealer). As a protege ensemble ofthe Beaux Arts Trio, the

Haydn Trio Wien, and the Trio di Trieste, the Vienna Piano Trio performed

regularly in Vienna in the Jeunesse series at the Wiener Musikverein. In

1993 the group was selected by Isaac Stern for his Public Chamber Music 

Workshop at Carnegie Hall. Since the 2006-2007 season, the trio has been

the ensemble-in-residence at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, playing regularly in its

Mozartsaal series. Invitations for honorary residencies have also come from

London’s Wigmore Hall and the bbc.

Frequent guests at international music festivals, the ensemble has

appeared at the Aix-en-Provence, Brighton, Carinthischer Sommer, Casals, 

Wiener Festwochen, Flanders, Kuhmo, Mozartwoche Salzburg, SchleswigHolstein, and Schubertiade Schwarzenberg festivals. North American

chamber music festivals that have featured the trio include Domaine Forget,

Lanaudiere, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, and Woodstock.

The broadcast ofthe ensemble’s 2004 concert at the National Gallery of

Art was enthusiastically received, and led to subsequent live broadcast performances on National Public Radio, wnyc New York, and wgbh Boston. Its

recordings for Nimbus have won many awards, including Classic cd’s “Top

ofthe Class” (1999) and The London Times’ Record ofthe Year (2001). The

Vienna Piano Trio appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Shupp

Artists Management, www.shuppaiiists.com.

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Program Notes

Joseph Haydn composed more than forty trios for keyboard, violin, and cello

during his prolific career, ranging from early trios in the late baroque style

to extended works in the high classical style. His early trios appear to have 

been intended for the harpsichord, and the keyboard parts evolved as the

fortepiano became the standard keyboard instrument. The Piano Trio in C

Major comes from a series offifteen late piano trios composed while Haydn

was in London in the 1790s. Unlike Mozart, whose late trios granted unprecedented independence to the violin and cello, Haydn continued to feature

the piano as the primary virtuoso instrument within the trio ensemble, as

indicated by the printed subtitle ofthis trio—“Sonata for Pianoforte with

Accompaniment for the Violin and Violoncello.”

Haydn’s wit and creativity are on full display throughout the trio. With 

its catchy themes and brilliant passagework, the first movement presents

an arresting exposition, followed by a development that exhibits adventurous contrapuntal writing. The second movement spins a gorgeous A major

melody into a tumultuous A minor section. During the restatement ofthe

A major theme, the piano writing becomes more independent, as Haydn

incorporates cadenza-like passages for that instrument. The third movement, a lively synthesis ofrondo and sonata-allegro form, typifies Haydn’s

tendency to conclude pieces playfully and joyfully.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s three trios, op. 70, date from the same year as

his fifth and sixth symphonies (1808). He simultaneously began to introduce

greater harmonic freedom and formal variation into his large-scale works 

and more lyricism to his chamber works. A world-class pianist, Beethoven

incorporated virtuoso keyboard passages into his trios, but seldom relegated

the violin and cello to accompanying roles.

The first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E-flat Major, op. 70, no. 2

begins with a slow introduction leading into an allegro in 6/8 time. Beethoven 

deliberately misleads the innocent audience member, who might be expecting a standard sonata form movement—the recapitulation begins conspicuously in the wrong key before returning to E-flat major, and he intersperses

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a reprise ofthe slow introduction before revisiting the allegro for the coda.

The second movement, a set of variations marked allegretto, is an intermezzo,

as opposed to the “slow movement” one might expect from a typical classicalera work. The third movement (allegretto non troppo), a scherzo, features a

repeated trio, a practice that became commonplace for Beethoven beginning

in his middle period. In the energetic finale, the second theme group relates

to the home key by thirds rather than fifths—a progressive technique in 1808.

The French tradition ofromantic chamber music originated in 1841 with

Cesar Franck’s op. 1, titled Trois Trios concertants. Camille Saint-Saens followed

Franck’s lead with a much more prolific output of chamber music. The latter

composer’s long career included the composition oftwo piano trios—op. 18

in 1869 and op. 92 in 1892. Like Haydn and Beethoven, Saint- Saens had a

penchant for writing technically demanding, sometimes dazzling music for 

the piano, even when it is part of a chamber ensemble.

The Trio no. linT Minor begins with wandering piano chords behind a

legato string melody, which constitutes the first theme. The second theme is

a call-and-response between the piano and the strings. The 5/8 meter in the

second movement is a curious choice for Saint-Saens, who is remembered

in the pantheon of composers as a conservative, but was, in fact, known to

innovate. This movement, marked Allegretto, shares the formal structure of

the Beethoven scherzo heard before the intermission—a scherzo and two

trios. The third movement develops a lyrical string melody over a syncopated piano accompaniment, and the fourth is another scherzo-like movement

in 3/8 time. The finale begins with whole notes, first in unison and then as

a dominant chord, belying the spirited rhythmic energy that the movement

has in store. The first theme returns frequently throughout this rondo-form

movement, which presents a wide range ofstylistic variation, including a

fugue and a brilliant coda that once more brings back the 3/8 meter.

Program notes by Michael Jacko, music program specialist, National Gallery ofArt

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Concerts in March 2013 at the National Gallery ofArt

Hermitage Cats Save the Day

Music by Chris Brubeck

March 10, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium

Inscape Chamber Orchestra

Richard Scerbo, conductor

Music by Debussy, Delage,

Hindemith, and Ravel

March 17, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Paul Posnak, pianist

Music by Gershwin

and other composers

March 20, 2013

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

East Building Auditorium