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Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

www.nga.gov

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available in recognition oftheir support. Please contact the development 

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

The Seventy-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,980th Concert

Aron Zelkowicz, cello 

Ryo Yanagitani, piano

February 16, 2014

Sunday 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Variations concertantes, op. 17 (1829)

Thema: Andante con moto

Variation 1: (no tempo marking)

Variation 2: (no tempo marking)

Variation 3: Piu vivace

Variation 4: Allegro con fuoco 

Variation 5: L’istesso tempo

Variation 6: L’istesso tempo

Variation 7: Presto ed agitato

Variation 8: Tempo 1

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

Sonatafor Cello and Piano in G Minor, op. 19 (1901)

Lento; Allegro moderato

Allegro scherzando

Andante

Allegro mosso

INTERMISSION

Kevin Puts (b. 1972)

“Air for Cello and Piano” from Four Airs (2004)

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Introduction et polonaise brillante, op. 3 (1829)

Arranged by Leonard Rose

Introduction: Lento

Alla polacca: Allegro con spirito

Gigue

The Performers

ARON ZELKOWICZ

Cellist, performer, teacher, and administrator Aron Zelkowicz has cultivated

a repertoire that ranges from classical to ethnic to contemporary and from

the familiar to the obscure. Having recently completed his tenth season as

the founder and director ofthe Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, he has

generated commissions for works from major composers including Nizan

Leibovich, Judith Shatin, and David Stock. Critics noted Zelkowicz’s “impressive” directorial debut ofthe chamber opera The Dybbuk by Ofer Ben-Amots

and dubbed the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival “one ofthe highest quality

concert series in town” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) and a local “best-kept

secret” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

Active as a chamber and orchestral musician, Zelkowicz is principal cellist

ofthe Miami Symphony Orchestra. A familiar figure at the Aspen, Banff,

Chautauqua, Colorado, Sarasota, Sunflower, and Tanglewood music festivals 

as well as seminars sponsored by the Juilliard Quartet and the New York

String Orchestra, he has collaborated with members ofthe Cleveland and

Emerson quartets and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. An innovative

programmer, he includes outreach for adults and children in settings as various 

as the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Piccolo Spoleto’s Spotlight chamber

music series, the Proteus Ensemble, and his own Pittsburgh Jewish Music

Festival. He has served on the faculties ofthe Brevard Music Center, the North

Carolina Governor’s School, and Point Counterpoint Chamber Music Camp.

A native of Ottawa, Canada, Aron Zelkowicz grew up in Pittsburgh and

received degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, and

the State University of New York at Stony Brook, studying with Colin Carr,

Steven Doane, Paul Katz, Janos Starker, and Anne Martindale Williams. He 

maintains web sites at www.aronzelkowicz.com and www.pjmf.net.

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RYO YANAGITANI

Winner ofthe gold medal at the Tenth San Antonio International Piano

Competition where he received special recognition for a performance ofthe

complete Chopin Ballades, Ryo Yanagitani has distinguished himselfthrough

other recent successes, including winning the grand prize at the Hugo Kauder 

International Piano Competition. He is also a laureate ofthe Minnesota

International Piano-e-Competition; the Dr. Luis Sigall International Competition

in Vina del Mar, Chile; and the Hilton Head International Piano Competition.

Among the orchestras that have featured Yanagitani as a soloist are the

Edmonton, Hartford, Moroccan, San Antonio, and Vancouver symphony

orchestras as well as the Minnesota and Montreal Metropolitan orchestras.

In addition to many solo recitals, he has been active as a chamber musician,

performing in a wide range ofsettings from the duo sonata repertoire to

large ensembles. Yanagitani’s collaboration with cellist Dai Miyata has

resulted in a number of concert tours ofJapan, and he is the pianist of Duo 

Chrysalis with cellist Jacques Lee Wood, with whom he has toured Korea

and the United States.

A recipient ofnumerous scholarships and awards, Yanagitani has twice 

been named an “Emerging Artist” by the Canadian Arts Council and has

received the Arthur Foote Scholarship from the Harvard Musical Association. He is an artist-in-residence for the Maxwell Shepherd Fund of Connecticut and the S&R Foundation ofWashington, DC, from which he

recently received the Washington Award, given to young artists and performers whose careers foster international collaboration. His recordings include

two solo CDs ofworks by Chopin and Debussy as well as a cd in collaboration with Dai Miyata.

Recipient of a doctor ofmusical arts degree from the Yale School of

Music under Boris Berman, a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from

the University ofBritish Columbia under Henri-Paul Sicsic, and an artist

diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music under Sergei Babayan, Ryo

Yanagitani is the artistic advisor ofthe Overture Concert Series at the Evermay

Estate in Georgetown. He maintains a web site at www.ryoyanagitani.com.

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Program Notes

Although Felix Mendelssohn’s relationship with his sister Fanny has been

well documented, his relationship with his brother Paul has received considerably less attention. The third offour children, Paul pursued a career in

banking, unlike his two more musically inclined older siblings. Paul cared

deeply for Felix, helping his family and promoting his music after Felix’s

untimely death at age thirty-eight. Paul played the cello at an amateur level,

and Felix dedicated two of his cello works to his brother: Variations concertantes

and the Sonata in B-flat Major, op. 45.

If Felix intended for the dedicatee to play Variations concertantes, one

could assume that Paul was an above-average amateur player, with good

technical skill and a wide expressive range. The opening theme allows the

cello and piano to share the spotlight, and in the ensuing variations the lead

voice again alternates between the two instruments. The variations generally

increase in tempo (even the minor-mode seventh variation is marked presto

ed agitato) until the concluding variation, which returns to the opening

andante before launching into a spirited coda.

Completed in November 1901 and premiered the following month with

the composer accompanying cellist Anatoliy Brandukov (1858-1930), Sergei 

Rachmaninoffs Sonatafor Cello and Piano in G Minor received little acclaim

in the wake of his titanic Piano Concerto no. 2, which had had its premiere

the previous month. Both works carried special importance for Rachmaninoff,

however, because they helped to break a creative dry spell that marked the

lowest point of his career. From 1901 onward, with the help ofpsychologist

Nikolai Dahl, Rachmaninoff discovered a new creative voice and a plentiful

stream of gorgeous melodic writing that would carry him through a successful livelihood of composing and performing.

Rachmaninoff hesitated to call his new work a cello sonata, opting

instead for the more detailed title Sonatafor Cello and Piano. He wanted it 

clear just from reading the title that the cello and piano participate as equals— 

if anything the piano is the dominant voice, presenting much ofthe thematic

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material throughout. The first movement lasts the longest, filling out the

traditional sonata form completely and ending with an almost frantic coda.

The second, a scherzo, is marked by alternating fast figurations and lyrical 

interludes. The third movement, considered by many as the strongest

expressive statement ofthe work, begins with an intimate, surging theme

for the piano. The cello expands on the piano’s melodic ideas, guiding the

movement to a powerful climax and a gentle ending. The finale begins with

a fresh, vigorous cello theme and continues with a passionate, expansive

second subject. These two themes interact cleverly throughout the movement, and the work concludes brilliantly with a restatement ofthe opening

theme from the first movement.

Known for his distinctive and richly colored musical voice, composer

Kevin Puts has had works commissioned and performed by leading orchestras,

ensembles, and soloists throughout Europe, the Far East, and North America. 

Most recent among the many honors and awards he has received is the 2012

Pulitzer Prize for Music for his opera Silent Night. Commissioned by the

New Mexico chamber music festival Music from Angel Fire, Puts’ Four Airs

was composed in 2004 and premiered in September ofthat year. Each movement features only one instrument with piano accompaniment, and the

second, “Air for Cello and Piano,” is the most developed ofthe four. Romantic

in tone, the Air allows the cello’s inherent singing quality and richness of

tone to shine forth.

A brilliant and dazzling piano virtuoso, Frederic Chopin composed

almost exclusively for piano solo throughout his career. One interesting

exception came in 1829, when the nineteen-year-old pianist’s father had

brought him to the estate of Prince Antony Henryk Radziwill (1775-1833),

hoping to help Frederic recover from a severe case of heartbreak. Among

the distractions on the estate were Prince Radziwill’s two beautiful young

daughters, one ofwhom, Wanda, was a pianist. She persuaded the young

composer to write a polonaise for her and her father to play together. Chopin

included numerous piano flourishes to show offWanda’s quickly moving

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fingers, but declined to submit the work for publication, considering it merely

a salon piece with cello obbligato. The following year, however, he included the

Polonaise in the repertoire for a tour with Austrian cellist, Joseph Merle (1795-

1852). In 1831 Chopin added a slow introduction and published the work as

Introduction et polonaise brillante.

Program notes by Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Rachmaninoffby Michael Jacko,

music program assistant, National Gallery ofArt. Program notes on Kevin Puts

by the composer.

Next week at the National Gallery ofArt

Louise Toppin, soprano

Leon Bates, pianist

Spirituals and other music by

African American composers

In honor ofAfrican American History Month and

the seventy-fifth anniversary of Marian Anderson’s

historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial

February 23, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium

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