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.

For the convenience of concertgoers the Garden Cafe remains

open for light refreshments until 6:00 pm on Sundays.

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

The Sixty-eighth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,786th Concert

Paul Neubauer, violist

Anne-Marie McDermott, pianist

May 9, 2010

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Sonata in D Minor, op. 40 (1934)

Allegro non troppo

Allegro

Largo

Allegro

Alan Paul (1905-1968)

Sonatafor Viola and Piano (1948)

Andante tranquillo

Maestoso

Allegro comodo

INTERMISSION

Shostakovich

Sonatafor Viola and Piano, op. 147 (1975)

Moderato

Allegretto 

Adagio

The Musicians

PAUL NEUBAUER

Paul Neubauer’s musicality and effortless playing distinguish him as one

ofthis generation’s quintessential artists. Balancing a solo career with

performances as an artist ofthe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, 

Neubauer was appointed principal violist ofthe New York Philharmonic in

1984. Twenty-one years old at the time, he was the youngest principal string

player in that orchestra’s history. He is the orchestra and chamber music

director ofthe OK Mozart Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

In 2005 Neubauer premiered Joan Tower’s Purple Rhapsody, a viola

concerto commissioned for him by seven orchestras and the Koussevitsky 

Foundation. He has recently released an all-Schumann recital album

with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott for Image Recordings and recorded

works that were written for him: Wild Purple for solo viola by Joan Tower for

Naxos; Viola Rhapsody, a concerto by Henri Lazarof, on Centaur Records;

and Soul Garden for viola and chamber ensemble by Derek Bermel on CRI.

Neubauer’s recording ofWilliam Walton’s Viola Concerto was recently

re-released on Decca.

Neubauer has appeared with more than 100 orchestras throughout Asia,

Europe, and the United States, and has played the world premiere performances ofviola concertos by Joel Philip Friedman, Gordon Jacob, Dedev 

Miiller-Siemens, David Ott, Krysztof Penderecki, and Tobias Picker. He has

performed at many prestigious festivals, including the Hollywood Bowl,

Marlboro, Mosdy Mozart, Ravinia, Stavanger, and Verbier festivals. An Avery

Fisher Career Grant recipient and the first prize winner ofthe D’Angelo, 

Lionel Tertis, and Whitaker International Competitions, Paul Neubauer is a

member ofthe faculty of the Juilliard School of Music and Mannes College.

He appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Diane Saldiclc of

New York City.

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ANNE-MARIE MCDERMOTT

Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott balances a versatile career as a recitalist,

concerto soloist, and chamber musician. Her eclectic repertory ranges from

Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Prokofiev to contemporary composers

such as Aaron Kernis, Joan Tower, and Charles Wuorinen.

With more than fifty concertos in her repertoire, McDermott has performed with the Atlanta, Baltimore, Colorado, Columbus, Dallas, Houston,

New Jersey, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Seattle Symphony Orchestras; the

Hong Kong and New York Philharmonic Orchestras; the Australian and

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras; and the Moscow Virtuosi, among others.

Recital engagements have included the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully Hall, the

Kennedy Center, The Schubert Club, and Town Hall as well as universities

across the country.

As a chamber musician, McDermott was named an artist member ofthe

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1995 and performs and tours

extensively with the society each season. She continues a long-standing

collaboration with violinist Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg; performs regularly

with her sisters Maureen McDermott and Kerry McDermott in the McDermott Trio; and is a member ofthe piano quartet Opus One with violinist

Ida Kavafian, violist Steven Tenenbom, and cellist Peter Wiley. McDermott

can be heard at music festivals across the United States including the Aspen,

Newport, and Santa Fe Festivals, and has been named the artistic director

oftwo new festivals—the Ocean ReefChamber Music Festival in Key Largo,

Florida, and The Avila Chamber Music Celebration in Curasao.

A former student of Dalmo Carra, Constance Keene, and John Browning

at the Manhattan School of Music, McDermott was a winner ofthe Young

Concert Artists Auditions and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

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Program Notes

In 1934 Dmitri Shostakovich was suffering through a period ofstrife in his

marriage and in his career. His recently composed opera, Lady Macbeth of

Mtensk, met with official rejection, including an attack attributed to Josef

Stalin, who called the work “chaos instead ofmusic” and referred to Shostakovich as “bourgeois.” This began a trying period for the composer, in which

his music was pulled from rehearsal and performance, and one ofhis most

ardent supporters within the government was executed.

Shostakovich was probably glad at this point to turn to a work of a smaller

scale, a cello sonata which he dedicated to cellist Victor Kubatsky. (Paul Neubauer plays an adaptation for the viola ofthis Sonata in D Minor, op. 40). The

composer and Kubatsky toured with the sonata, which escaped criticism from

the government, despite the fact that it exhibits Shostakovich’s characteristic

style, vascillating between a dry, sardonic wit and moments of great lyricism. 

The opening movement, in conventional sonata form, presents a subdued

picture, with long lines in the solo instrument and the piano playing a supporting role. The lively waltz ofthe second movement suggests a Russian folk

dance. In the third movement, Largo, Shostakovich presents a warm and

muted lament. The romping finale, with its burlesque gallop, seems to be a

nod to the comic theater.

Alan Paul was bom in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied with Ralph 

Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music and later became a BBC

staff composer, pianist, and arranger. Among his works are a clarinet

concerto, solo piano works, songs, and the Sonatafor Violin and Piano

that is included in this program. He wrote this neoromantic work for

the legendary violist William Primose (1904-1982), who was also born

in Glasgow.

Shostakovich’s Sonatafor Viola and Piano is a much later work than the

Sonata, op. 40. It was completed scarcely a month before his death in 1975. So

weak that he could barely hold a pen and feeling the advancement ofhis blindness, he wrote sparsely, with stark and subdued lines, but still managed to

5
convey intense emotion. The work is replete with self-quotations and reminiscences, as ifthe composer were writing his own epitaph. Serene, mournful,

and resigned, the music seems to accept the sadness ofthe composer’s fate.

There are also allusions to Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no. 14 (“Moonlight”).

Writing about the sonata to violist Fyodor Druzhinin (1932-2007), for whom

it was written, the composer said: “The first movement is a novella, the

second a scherzo, and the finale is an adagio in memory of Beethoven; but

don’t let that inhibit you. The music is bright and clear.”

Program notes on Shostakovich by Danielle DeSwert Hahn

Program notes on Alan Paul by Paul Neubauer

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Next Week at the National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art Piano Trio

Music by Bernstein, Copland, and Ives

Presented in honor of

American Modernism: The Shein Collection

May 16, 2010

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court