Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

May and June 2002

May (The 59th American Music Festival)

5 Ramsey Lewis Trio Jazz concert

12 Mallarme Chamber

Players

Works by Peter Schickele, Lou

Harrison, Scott Joplin, and Penka

Kouneva

19 National Gallery Vocal

Arts Ensemble

Presented in honor of

the exhibition An American

Vision: Henry Francis du

Pont’s Winterthur Museum

Works for solo vocal quartet by

eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury American composers

26 No concert

June

2 National Gallery Orchestra Beethoven: “Coriolanus” Overture

George Manos, conductor Bach-Stokowsi: Passacaglia and

Fugue in C Minor

Brahms: Symphony No. 4

(Concerts continue until 30 June, 2002.)

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 Sixtieth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2419th Concert

THE ZURICH STRING TRIO

BORIS LIVSCHITZ, violin

ZVI LIVSCHITZ, viola

ALEXANDER KAGANOVSKY, cello

Sunday Evening, 28 April 2002

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
PROGRAM

Ludwig van Beethoven

(1770-1827)

Serenade in D Major 

Op. 8 (1796-1797)

Marcia: allegro

Adagio

Minuetto: allegretto 

Adagio; Scherzo: Allegro molto

Allegretto alia polacca

Andante quasi allegretto (Tema con variazioni) 

Marcia: Allegretto

Alfred Schnittke

(1934-1998)

String Trio

(1985)

Moderato

Adagio

INTERMISSION

Ernst von Dohnanyi

(1877-1960)

Serenade in C Major, Op. 10

(1902)

Allegro

Adagio non tanto, quasi andante

Scherzo: vivace

Tema con variazioni

Rondo: Allegro vivace

Founded in 1977 and now considered one of the world’s finest string

ensembles, the Zurich String Trio has performed extensively on many

continents, including North and South America, Europe, and Asia. The

trio’s reputation has grown steadily through its profound interpretation of

both classical and contemporary string chamber music. Its technical 

perfection and natural musicality are derivative of the unique styles of

the individual members, brought together in one seamless unit. The trio’s

performances represent a combination of traditional romantic virtuosity 

and classical authentic musicianship. “[This is] full-blooded, musical

chamber music playing, a genuine product of equal partners” {Financial

Times, London).

Violinist Boris Livschitz, who was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, studied

at the Lithuanian State College of Music, where he won the Lithuanian

National Music Competition. He also studied at the Tel Aviv Music

Academy with Yair Kless and was a member of the Israel Chamber 

Orchestra. Since 1975 Livschitz has been a principal player in the Zurich

Opera Orchestra. In addition to teaching master classes in the Near and

Far East, North and South America, and Europe, he concertizes 

extensively. Boris Livschitz plays on a violin made in 1699 by Giuseppe

Guadagnini.

A native of Samara, Russia, violist Zvi Livschitz studied at the

Lithuanian State College of Music with Saulius Sondeckis. Until 1971 he

led the viola section of the Lithuanian Philharmonic and was a member 

ofthe string quartet formed by that orchestra. From 1971 to 1975 he held

the first chair in the viola section of the Israel Chamber Orchestra and

was a member of the Daniel String Quartet. Subsequently he was for

three years a principal player in the Zurich Opera Orchestra. Since 1974

he has been working as a freelance musician and teacher, appearing

throughout the Near and Far East, North and South America, and

Europe. Giuseppe Guadagnini was also the builder of Zvi Livschitz’

viola, which was made in 1798.

Ukrainian cellist Alexander Kaganovsky was born in the city of Kiev.

He began studying music at the age of five, and at the age of sixteen he

won the Ukraine Cello Competition. Following his immigration to Israel,

Kaganovsky studied at the Tel Aviv Rubin Academy of Music with Uzi
Wiesel. In 1985 he won first prize in the Israel Broadcasting Authority 

Competition, and that same year he became a member of the Israel

String Quartet. Kaganovsky currently lives in Switzerland and since

1998 has been a member of the Zurich String Trio. He plays on a cello

that was built in 1726 by Carlo Testore.

A serenade may be written as a vocal or an instrumental composition.

During the eighteenth century the instrumental version was more

common. Such a work was often commissioned for a specific occasion 

and meant for casual listening rather than a concert setting. Mozart’s

Serenade, K. 185, for example, was the first of six commissioned 

Salzburg Serenades that proved to be quite popular. The impetus for

Beethoven’s Serenade in D Major, Op. 8, on the other hand, is unclear,

particularly since no evidence of an attributable commission has been

documented. Of prime importance is the fact that it remains today one of

his most beloved compositions. The work is in the trio genre, in this

case three stringed instruments. Beethoven wrote five string trios, but he

gave the title Serenade only to Op. 8. As a genre piece, the eighteenthcentury instrumental serenade was basically in a tripartite format [ABA].

Like many other eighteenth-century composers, Beethoven inserted

additional movements, such as a Minuet and a Scherzo. Later he used

these forms and titles for the third movement of his first, second, third,

and eighth symphonies.

The Serenade embodies no classical form, such as the sonata allegro

form or the rondo, but the opening and closing Adagio movements can

be seen as a unifying element for the work. Following one another 

without connection (other than a limited key relationship) or

development, the movements present various dance forms, among them

minuet, polka, and march. Beethoven cleverly introduces a short theme

with four variations in the fifth movement without losing the overall

feeling of casual elegance. Taken as a whole, the Serenade carries a

capriciousness of mood that lies somewhere between the lightness of

open-air music and the seriousness of chamber music.

Alfred Schnittke’s String Trio, commissioned by the Alban Berg

Foundation, celebrates the centenary of Berg’s birthday as well as the

fiftieth anniversary of his death. First performed in the Moscow

Conservatory on 2 June 1985, the trio had a second performance a month

later in Lockenhaus, Vienna. It is a two-movement work, marked

Moderato and Adagio, that incorporates a number of Berg’s unique

compositional techniques. Among them are the variation principle as a

formal precept, the use of aphoristic brevity rather than discursive formal

exposition, and a strong polyphonic element in the part-writing. In

addition, Schnittke, like Beethoven, found that the trio medium has a

sound persona all its own. Exploring it with contemporary music colors

and textures enabled Schnittke to allow each voice to retain its unique

tonal prism and brought some revelatory results. Music critic Michael

Oliver was both intrigued and inspired after hearing a performance ofthe

work and wrote: “The String Trio is a fascinating piece. It is a most

ingenious expression or [a] redefinition of [the] sonata form. There is

much poignancy and anxiety in the piece and some Shostakovich-like 

fury and despair, [with] the melody eerily rising above the drama. It is a

passionate, at times anguished piece, and a strangely moving one.”

Now one hundred years old, Dohnanyi’s Serenade in C Major, Op. 10,

continues to maintain its high popularity among the devotees and

practitioners of chamber music. At the time of its publication (1904),

Dohnanyi was twenty-six years old, a first-rate pianist, and enamored

with the creative style and compositional technique of Brahms, who was

his hero. The music of Dohnanyi, like that of Brahms, is marked by

imaginative tints and concentrated utterances that are the hallmark ofthe

romantic movement. Firmly entrenched in the classical mode, however,

both composers used the traditional harmonies and fundamental forms

from earlier periods. The Serenade borrows an eighteenth-century form

in which three diverse inner movements are preceded and followed by

marches, making a total offive movements.

Program notes by Elmer Booze

For the convenience ofconcertgoers,

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