For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe 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 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

The Sixty-third Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,536th Concert

The St. Petersburg String Quartet

Alla Aranovskaya, first violin

David Chernyavsky, second violin

Boris Vayner, viola

Leonid Shukayev, cello

May 15, 2005

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Program

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

String Quartet no. 2 in A Minor, op. 13 (1827)

Adagio; allegro vivace

Adagio non lento

Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto

Presto

Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Quartet no. 4 in D Major, op. 83 (1949)

Allegretto

Andantino

Allegretto

Allegretto

INTERMISSION

Bedfich Smetana (1824-1884)

Quartet no. 1 in E Minor (“From My Life”) (1876)

Allegro vivo appassionato

Allegro moderato a la polka

Largo sostenuto 

Vivace

The Musicians

In the twenty years since its founding, the St. Petersburg String Quartet has

established a reputation as one ofthe world’s leading ensembles ofits land.

Founded in 1985 as the Leningrad Quartet by Alla Aranovskaya and Leonid

Shukayev, both graduates ofthe Leningrad Conservatory, the quartet blazed a

trail through international chamber music competitions, winning first prize

at the All-Soviet Union String Quartet Competition, the silver medal and

a special prize at the Tokyo International Chamber Music Competition,

first prize and both special prizes at the Vittorio Gui International Competition in Florence, Italy, and first prize and the Grand Prix Musica Viva at 

the Melbourne [Australia] International Chamber Music Competition.

When the city of Leningrad reassumed its historic name, the quartet

changed its own name to the St. Petersburg String Quartet. The group has

continued its ascendancy, earning a Grammy nomination, “best record”

honors in both Stereo Review and Gramophone magazines, and the Chamber

Music America/WQXR Prize for best CD of 2001. In 2003 the St. Petersburg

String Quartet proudly commemorated the 300th anniversary ofits namesake city by performing around the globe in events honoring the arts of St.

Petersburg. From 1996 to 2003 the ensemble held the respected position of

quartet-in-residence at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and this

year it is in residence at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Following the group’s recordings ofthe complete string quartets of

Shostakovich, Borodin, and Prokofiev as well as Nadarejshvili’s String

Quartet no. 1, and Glazunov’s Quartet no. 5, avid classical CD collectors are

eagerly awaiting its soon-to-be-released recording ofthe complete works

of Tchaikovsky for string quartet. The St. Petersburg String Quartet appears

at the National Gallery by arrangement with Lisa Sapinlcopf Artists of

Emeryville, California.

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Alla Aranovskaya, the first violinist and a founding member of the St.

Petersburg String Quartet, is a native of St. Petersburg. She was the secondprize winner in the 1985 All-Soviet Union Violin Competition. She has

played with the Kirov Opera Orchestra under Yuri Temarkanov and Valery

Gergiev and has taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music. Her

students have won prizes at prestigious international competitions, including Jugend Musiziert and the St. Petersburg International Chamber Music

Competition.

Violinist David Chernyavsky, a graduate ofthe St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music, the Indiana University School of Music, and the Juilliard

School of Music, has performed with the Indiana University School of

Music Orchestra and the Spoleto usa Festival Orchestra, of which he was

the concertmaster in 2001 and 2002. A native of St. Petersburg, he has

won prizes in several competitions, including first prize in the 1998 Indiana 

University Concerto Competition.

The violist in the quartet, Boris Vayner, was born in 1977 in Novosibirsk, Russia, and began to play the violin at age seven. He studied at

the St. Petersburg Conservatory and the Berliner Hochschule fur Musik.

He has twice been a prize winner in the Gartow Fund Chamber Music

Competition, once as a member ofthe Krasny Quartet and once as a soloist.

Since 2003 he has been studying at the New England Conservatory of

Music in Boston.

Cellist Leonid Shulcayev is a native of St. Petersburg and a founding

member ofthe quartet. He studied at the Rimsky-Korsakov Music College

and at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he was a pupil ofthe famous 

Russian teacher Boris Pergamenshilcov. Shulcayev has played in the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Trio. He and pianist

Helena Kurdina won the first prize in the chamber music competition for

all ofthe music colleges in Russia.

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Program Notes

Felix Mendelssohn drew inspiration from Beethoven’s monumental late

string quartets, which he heard shortly before he composed his String

Quartet no. 2 in A Minor, op. 13. Mendelssohn paid tribute to the Beethoven

quartets by adopting several ofthe techniques Beethoven used—integrated

movements, fugal textures, and adventuresome harmonies. The second

quartet makes musical reference to the poem 1st es wahr? (Is It True?) by

Mendelssohn’s close friend Johann Gustav Droyson (1808-1884), in which 

the first line reads, “Is it true that you are always waiting for me in the

arbored walk?” In the spring of 1827, having fallen in love while on holiday,

the eighteen-year-old Mendelssohn set the poem to music as a lied. The 

opening three-note phrase of the lied, published as op. 9, no. 1, became the

germinal melodic cell ofthe op. 13 quartet. This motto permeates the entire

composition, sometimes in direct quotation, but more often by recalling 

its rhythms or intervals.

The quartet begins with a slow introduction. After two mood-setting 

phrases, Mendelssohn presents the all-important three-note motto—1st es

wahr? (long-short-long)—a question he endows with great yearning and pain.

The Allegro vivace introduces a busy sixteenth-note filigree, over which the 

viola starts the principal theme, based on the motto rhythm. After expansion

ofthis first theme, the cello, playing high in its range, launches into the 

intense, impassioned second theme. The extremely emotional second movement, Adagio non lento, starts with what might be termed a very loose paraphrase ofthe rhythm and feeling ofthe original song. A dark, somber fugato

follows, its melody introduced by the viola and then imitated by the other 

instruments. The guileless Intermezzo offers a welcome change from the 

emotionally and intellectually charged atmosphere ofthe previous movement. 

The first violin sings the folklike theme, while the others supply a simple 

pizzicato accompaniment, with only the merest touches of countermelody.

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The fourth and final movement, marked Presto, begins with a dramatic opening reminiscent ofthe recitative from the fourth movement of Beethoven’s

String Quartet op. 132. Everyone plays tremolo except the first violin, which 

plays an agitated ad libitum recitative based on the fugato theme ofthe 

second movement. At the very end ofthis vigorous movement, Mendelssohn 

repeats the introduction to the entire quartet. This time he allows it to

continue with a melody that comes closest to the actual 1st es wahr? theme, 

bringing the quartet and the lied together in one final statement.

From time to time during Shostakovich’s lifetime, the totalitarian

Communist regime in Russia impinged on his work directly. A particularly 

ferocious intervention occurred with the publication in 1948 ofthe Central 

Committee’s Decree on Music. Leading Soviet composers were humiliated

for failing to “appeal to the people.” The decree and the consequential

condemnation of compositions previously considered shining examples

of Soviet art prevented Shostakovich from releasing his Quartet no. 4 to

the public until four years after its completion. The opening theme ofthe

quartet suggests the folk melodies often chosen as quartet themes by Jean

Sibelius or Carl Nielsen. It is given to the first violin, with gentle counterpoint in the second violin and an immense pedal point D in the viola and

cello, sustained for more than sixty bars. The theme meanders through

D major and minor modes, expanding gloriously in a superb developmental 

restatement, before the pulse changes to 3/4 and the key to B minor for a

new melody.

The second movement sustains the folklike atmosphere with a theme

in F minor in first violin, accompanied by second violin and viola. This trio 

texture is sustained for more than thirty bars, so when at last the cello

enters, restating the theme, the music blossoms impressively. The third

movement, a delicate scherzando marked allegretto, is subtly related to the

preceding movements in timbre (the strings remain muted throughout)

and in tonal inflection. The finale, also marked allegretto, capitalizes on

latent elements from the first three movements—the uncertain mode of

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the “home” tonality, a textural ebb and flow, and recessed timbres—which 

are brought one by one into the foreground, making the finale the most

emphatic movement ofthe composition. With reference to the beginning

measures, the folk elements, presented above deep pedal points, bring the

work to its mysteriously satisfying conclusion.

Bedrich Smetana, the founding father of Bohemian-Czech nationalist

music, was bom in the town of Litomysl in Bohemia, which was under

Austrian rule throughout his lifetime. He received his first musical instruction from his father, who played the violin. At age sixteen Smetana heard

Liszt play in Prague and decided to become a professional musician. In

1856 he emigrated to Goteborg, Sweden, where he opened a music school

that attracted more pupils than he could accommodate. Despite three years

ofsuccess in Goteborg as a composer and conductor as well as a piano 

teacher and pianist, Smetana decided to return to his homeland. His most

serious efforts as a composer began after his return to Prague, by which 

time he had become a wholehearted Czech nationalist. Most of his important compositions mirrored this passion. The Bartered Bride, the second of

his eight operas, is full of Czech folk elements and rhythmic verve, and his 

cycle of six symphonic poems, collectively titled Ma vlast (My Country), has 

been called the composer’s instrumental monument to his nation. By 1876

Smetana was losing his hearing and having trouble keeping his balance 

owing to syphilis, which eventually destroyed his health completely. In that

year he composed the remarkable string quartet subtitled “From My Life,”

in which he depicted in vivid musical terms the internal sensation of his 

growing deafness. By 1884 he became so violent that he had to be confined

in Prague’s lunatic asylum, where he died. Smetana’s crucial importance in

the history of his country’s music was not properly recognized until many

years after his death.