77TH SEASON OF

CONCERTS

national gallery of art | march 24, 2019
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Natalie Clein, cello 

Dina Vainshtein, piano 

March 24, 2019 | 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Nadia Boulanger (1887 – 1979)

Three Pieces for Cello and Piano (1924)

Modéré

Sans vitesse et à l’aise

Vite et nerveusement rythmé

Frank Bridge (1879 – 1941)

Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor, H 125 (1915 – 1918)

Allegro ben moderato

Adagio ma non troppo; Molto allegro e agitato

Intermission

Elisabeth Lutyens (1906 – 1983)

Nine Bagatelles (1942)

Rebecca Clarke (1886 – 1979)

Sonata for Viola (or Cello) and Piano (1919)

Impetuoso

Vivace

Adagio; Allegro

PROGRAM

Photo by Sussie Ahlburg
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THE MUSICIANS

Natalie Clein

Described by the New York Times as “mesmerizing” and “soaringly passionate,” British 

cellist Natalie Clein has built a distinguished career, regularly performing at major venues 

and with orchestras worldwide.

In the current season, Clein tours Australia, the United States, and Ireland, and 

performs a program of Beethoven cello works at the Festival Cervantino in Mexico 

with Marianna Shirinyan. In the United Kingdom, she returns to Wigmore Hall and 

Eaton Square and gives recitals in Cardiff, Nottingham, Bournemouth, Southampton, 

and Jersey. Concerto dates include Bloch’s Schelomo with the Opole Philharmonic.

The 2017 – 2018 season saw Clein perform Haydn’s D Major Cello Concerto with 

the Salzburg Chamber Soloists in Brazil, Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Collegium Musicum 

Basel, and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Insula Orchestra and Laurence Equilbey 

for International Women’s Day 2018, and also as part of the Utzon Music Series at the 

Sydney Opera House and with the Brandenburgische Staatsorchester Frankfurt. She 

was a judge in the 2018 BBC Young Musician competition and performed in a special 

BBC Prom celebrating the competition’s 40th anniversary. She also toured South 

America with Sergio Tiempo and recorded Dobrinka Tabakova’s On the South Downs

with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Truro Cathedral.

Other recent travels have taken Clein to orchestral performances with the London 

Philharmonia, Manchester’s Hallé, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orquesta 

Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, and the Bournemouth, Birmingham, Montreal, New 

Zealand, and St. Petersburg Symphonies. She has performed with eminent conductors, 

including Sir Mark Elder, Sir Roger Norrington, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Leonard 

Slatkin, and Heinrich Schiff.

A keen recital and chamber performer, Clein has recently performed Bach’s 

Complete Cello Suites in London, Southampton, and Oxford, and she has curated a 

series of four concerts for BBC Radio 3 at LSO St Luke’s.

In 2015, Clein was appointed Artist-in-Residence and Director of Musical Performance 

at Oxford University for four years, taking a leading role in concert programming, in 

developing new artistic projects, and in introducing new modes of teaching. In 2018, 

she was appointed professor of cello at the Rostock Academy of Music in Germany.

Born in the United Kingdom, Clein came to widespread attention at the age of 

sixteen when she won both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the Eurovision 

Competition for Young Musicians in Warsaw. As a student she was awarded the Queen 

Elizabeth the Queen Mother Scholarship by the Royal College of Music. She completed 

her studies with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna and is presently a professor at the Royal 

College of Music London. She plays the “Simpson” Guadagnini cello of 1777.

Clein has released three discs for EMI, and she records regularly with Hyperion. 

Her most recent disc was released in January 2019 and features works by Rebecca 

Clarke, Frank Bridge, and Vaughan Williams with pianist Christian Ihle Hadland. She has 

also recorded the two Cello Concertos by Camille Saint-Saëns, Bloch’s Schelomo, and 

Bruch’s Kol Nidrei with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to great critical acclaim. 

Her solo disc with works by Bloch, Ligeti, and Dallapiccola was released in 2017. 

Dina Vainshtein

Pianist Dina Vainshtein is one of the most versatile and sought-after collaborative pianists 

today. Based in Boston, she’s the daughter of two pianists and studied with Boris Berlin 

and Artur Aksenov at the prestigious Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow. 

While there she received the special prize for the Best Collaborative Pianist at the 1998 

Tchaikovsky International Competition. 

Vainshtein came to the United States in 2000 to attend the Cleveland Institute of 

Music, where she worked with Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and Donald Weilerstein. Her 

talent propelled her to numerous performing opportunities, from Alice Tully Hall and 

Weill Recital Hall in New York City, to the Caramoor, Music at Menlo, and Ravinia Festivals, 

the Heifetz International Music Institute, and tours of Europe, Russia, and Asia. 

Bob McQuiston, reviewing the Naxos release of Emile Sauret’s violin showpieces 

featuring Michi Wianko wrote: “She couldn’t have a better partner than Ms. Vainshtein, 

who plays the perfect supporting role in these fiddle-dominated pieces. More specifically, she exercises a perfect balancing act between artistic reserve during bravura 

violin passages as opposed to compelling dramatic assertiveness when the piano is 

spotlighted.” Vainshtein has another acclaimed Naxos recital disc with Frank Huang, 

concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.

For nearly a decade Vainshtein has been affiliated with the New England Conservatory 

and the Walnut Hill School in Massachusetts, where she teaches chamber music. At 

both institutions, she worked with Benjamin Zander in his famous master classes on 

interpretation. Maestro Zander has viewed her participation as “the perfect partnership, the ultimate professional.”

In recent concerts, Vainshtein has collaborated with violinists Miriam Fried, Ilya 

Kaler, SooBeen Lee, Yura Lee, Karen Gomyo, Chad Hoopes, Caroline Goulding, Nicholas 

Kitchen, and Angelo Yu; cellists Natasha Brofsky, Amit Peled, and Brannon Cho; and the 

Borromeo String Quartet.
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Upcoming Events of the SeventySeventh Season of The William Nelson 

Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, concerts 

are held in the West Building, West 

Garden Court.

Fauré Quartett

Works by Fauré, Mahler, and Frank Bridge

March 31, 3:30

Haimovitz-Iyer Duo

Cellist Matt Haimovitz collaborates with 

pianist and composer Vijay Iyer.

April 7, 3:30

East Coast Chamber Orchestra

An Ancient Walkabout

Featuring works by Bach, Purcell, 

and Britten 

April 14, 3:30

Living Art Collective Ensemble (LACE)

Elisa Monte Dance

DJ Twelve45

Celebrating By the Light of the Silvery 

Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs 

from the 1850s to Apollo 11

The Lunar Effect

April 21, 3:30

Duo Sonidos

Sound Sketches

Location will be announced the day 

of the concert.

April 26, 12:10

General Information

Admission to the National Gallery of Art 

and all of its programs is free of charge, 

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording 

equipment during the performance 

is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic 

devices are turned off.

—

Concerts are made possible in part 

through the generosity of donors to the 

National Gallery of Art through The Circle. 

Reserved seating is available in recognition 

of their support. Please contact the 

development office at (202) 842-6450 or 

circle@nga.gov for more information.

—

The department of music produced 

these program notes. Copyright © 2019 

Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, 

Washington

Camille Pissarro, Orchard in Bloom, Louveciennes, 1872, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
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