Korngold’s Much Ado about Nothing is incidental music for

a

performance of Shakespeare’s play of the same title. Some

members of tonight’s audience will remember the February

1998 performance of this work in its orginial version by the

National Gallery Orchestra under the baton ofGeorge Manos.

That version is scored for nineteen instruments and includes

an overture. The violin and piano reduction is the composer’s

own work.

Written fifteen years after his first sonata for violin and pi­

ano, Mendelssohn’s Sonata inF Major isa product of his mature years. The opening movement is in sonata-allegro form

with an insouciant main theme that is supple and charming. 

The ensuing Adagio is the real prize of the sonata, opening

witha nine-measure phrase that evolves througha series of

textural changes delicately balanced between the two instru­

ments. The finale, with its lightness of touch typical of

Mendelssohn’sscherzo movements, uses fleeting sixteenth-note

passages to bring the composition toa brilliant climax.

-Program notes by Elmer Booze

Concerts at the National Gallery of Art

Under the Direction of George Manos

December 1998

13 Mia Chung, pianist Beethoven:

Mendels­

sohn:

Seven Bagatelles

Sonata, Opus 110

Rondo capriccioso

inE Minor

20 Washington Men’s Camerata Christmas concert

Thomas Beveridge, conductor

27 The Leonardo Trio

Cameron Grant, piano

Erica Kiesewetter, violin

Jonathan Spitz, cello

Beethoven:

Rihm:

Schumann:

Trio inG Major,

Opus 1, No.2

Fremde Szene III

Trio inD Minor

The use ofcameras orrecording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

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

The Fifty-seventh Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and E LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2288th Concert

NAI-YUAN HU, violinist

NELSON PADGETT, pianist

Sunday Evening, December 6, 1998

Seven

O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
PROGRAM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(1756-1791)

Sonata in F Major

K. 377 (1781)

Allegro

Andante

Tempo di Minuetto

Richard Strauss 

(1864-1949)

Sonata in E-flat Major

Opus 18 (1887)

Allegro ma non troppo

Improvisation: Andante cantabile

Finale: Andante; allegro

INTERMISSION

Erich Wolfgang Korngold Much Ado about Nothing

(1897-1957) Opus 11 (1919)

The Maiden in the Bridal Chamber

Dogberry and Verges (March of the Watch) 

Garden Scene

Masquerade (Hornpipe)

Felix Mendelssohn Sonata in F Major

(1809-1847) (1838)

Allegro vivace

Adagio

Allegro vivace

Born in Taiwan, Nai-Yuan Hu began studying violin at age

five and was a soloist with the National Youth Orchestra ofTaiwan three years later. He came to the United States in 1972 to

continue his violin studies, first with Broadus Erie and later with

Joseph Silverstein and JosefGingold. In 1985 Hu won the Grand 

Prize in the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Belgium, whose distinguished jurors included Yehudi

Menuhin, Henryk Szeryng, Igor Oistrakh, and Gidon Kremer. A

member of the faculty of the Hartt School of Music in West 

Hartford, Connecticut, Nai-Yuan Hu appears at the National

Gallery by arrangement with Musicians Corporate Management,

Ltd., of Millbrook, New York.

Pianist Nelson Padgett holds both the bachelor and master of

music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. His

principal teachers were Leon Fleisher and Clifton Matthews.

Among his many awards are the silver medal from the William

Kapell Piano Competition, and the Beethoven Fellowship from

the American Pianists Association. In addition to performing

with Nai-Yuan Hu, Padgett collaborates with violinists Elmar 

Oiveira and Livian Sohn, as well as numerous chamber ensembles

and dance companies.

Almost from the day he received the position, Mozart was unhappy as chapel concertmaster to Archbishop Colloredo of

Salzburg. Things came to a head in 1781, and Mozart was dismissed. Written in that same year, the Sonata in FMajor appears 

at first to reflect Mozart’s frustrated mental state. The first 

movement is blustery, with choppy musical phrases that seem to

communicate an air of indifference. The second movement is a

set of six variations based on a theme in the murky key of D

minor. However, there is a reprieve in variation five, with its 

switch to the major mode, continued by a lilting siciliana in variation six. The finale is a rondo, in which joviality and vivaciousness attempt to mitigate the sonata’s overcast mood.

Richard Strauss composed his only violin sonata at the age of

twenty-three. In the words of one of the sonata’s, champions,

violinist Vincent Skowronski, “From the outset, [the] opening

movement bursts forth with a glorious Straussian statement of

the principal theme. Then, by means of tonal colors, grandiose 

thematic arching, and some Brahmsian patches of dramatic impact, incorporated with unorthodox yet rich harmonic blends,

Strauss twirls and molds the elements of this movement into a

cohesive mixture of impassioned splendor.” This high voltage 

of raw energy is replaced in the second movement by a quiet

reserve ofsuppressed emotion that launches Strauss into one of

his most lyrical and expressive moods. The third movement

segues from a solemn introduction into the joyous and irresistible optimism of the allegro, and climaxes in an energetic and

muscularscherzando.