theme separated by two contrasting episodes. The third movement 

(Prestissimo) is unabashedly operatic. The first part brings to mind the

sense of excitement as the opera house curtain rises and the stage slowly

fills with singers who soon launch into the lusty opening chorus. The

middle section features an exquisite tenor aria for cello, accompanied by

the other instruments playing pizzicato in imitation of a guitar. Verdi

then repeats the opening section. The finale (Scherzo-Fuga: Allegro assai

mosso) is indeed a scherzo in the original meaning ofjoke or jest. Fuga

refers to the prevalent melodic imitation, in which the tunes are gaily

tossed from one instrument to another. This high-spirited movement,

with its energetic, forward-pushing motoric action, provides a joyful 

conclusion to the entire quartet.

Program notes by Elmer Booze

Notes on Verdi adapted by the Quartetto di Venezia 

from Guide to Chamber Music by Melvin Berger

(Used with permission)

The Sixty-second Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2483d Concert

QUARTETTO DI VENEZIA

ANDREA VIO, violin ALBERTO BATTISTON, violin

LUCA MORASSUTTI, viola ANGELO ZANIN, cello

Sunday Evening, 1 February 2004

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Luigi Boccherini

(1743-1805)

Program

Quartet in D Major, op. 52, no. 2

(1795)

Allegretto vivace assai

Andantino patetico

Minuetto: Allegro risoluto

Rondeau: Allegretto

Gian Francesco Malipiero Quartet No. 8

(1882-1973) “Per Elisabetta” (For Elizabeth) (1963-1964)

Intermission

Hugo Wolf

(1860-1903)

Italian Serenade in G Major

(1887)

Giuseppe Verdi

(1813-1901)

Quartet in E Minor

(1873)

Allegro

Andantino

Prestissimo

Scherzo-Fuga: Allegro assai mosso

The use ofcameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell

phones, pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

The Musicians

Four musicians with a common musical vision founded the Quartetto di

Venezia, which is currently celebrating its twentieth-anniversary season.

Throughout its twenty-year history, the quartet has concentrated on the

qualities of sonority, balance, and technique that give this ensemble its

distinctive Italian charm and flair. Its artistic conception is derived from

two important schools of string quartet interpretation: the Italian school,

having among its exponents the famous Quartetto Italiano, and the central

European school, represented by the renowned Vegh Quartet. The

members of the Quartetto di Venezia were pupils of the violist of the

former quartet, Piero Farulli, and the beneficiaries of numerous coaching

sessions with Sandor Vegh and Paul Szabo ofthe latter quartet.

In addition to annual appearances throughout Italy, the Quartetto di

Venezia has toured extensively throughout the rest of Europe and the

United States, Latin America, Japan, and Korea. It has had the honor of

playing for Pope John Paul II and for the president of the Italian Republic.

Its extensive discography includes recordings for Dynamic, Koch,

Ermitage, Hommage, Aura, Musical Heritage Society, Fonit Cetre, CD

Classic, and UNICEF labels. The first violinist, Andrea Vio, plays a 1651

Nicolo Amati violin from the II Canale Collection (Milan). The quartet

appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Melvin Kaplan, Inc.,

of Burlington, Vermont.
Program Notes

Boccherini’s Quartet in D Major, op. 52, no. 2, is one of more than three

hundred quartets that he composed. This astounding accomplishment, 

alongside the estimated three hundred quintets and three hundred

chamber works for other ensembles that are attributed to him, makes him

one ofthe most fecund composers in the history of chamber music. In his

own time (the Viennese Classical period) he was considered the preeminent Italian chamber music composer. His style, according to Stanley

Sadie (Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians),

“became increasingly personal and even idiosyncratic over the forty-four

years in which he composed, to an extent that he sometimes seems to be

repeating himself (even if more subtly).” Idiosyncratic as some of it may

be, Boccherini’s music possesses a certain harmonic and melodic

inventiveness that unfolds with charisma and gracefulness. Such musical

attributes have endeared Boccherini’s string compositions to chamber 

music lovers over the centuries and solidified his position in the

pantheon of distinguished Italian composers.

Gian Francesco Malipiero’s String Quartet No. 8 (“Per

Elisabetta”) is one of ten compositions that he dedicated to the American

music patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (1864-1953). The work is

Malipiero’s last in this genre and takes the form of a one-movement 

work. In his four-volume compendium, The Literature of Chamber

Music, Arthur Cohn writes: “There is his usual sectional arrangement of

structure [as well as] his ability to provide a natural, fully resonant

instrumental sound. One point to be noted is a freer approach to line

writing—the intervallic widths are much larger than in his other string

quartets.”

Although he is best known for songs that perpetuate the spirit of

Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf left for posterity two of his best efforts in

instrumental writing, the Italian Serenade and the String Quartet in D

Minor. First performed in Vienna in 1904, the Italian Serenade was

composed in 1887 and arranged for chamber orchestra in 1903. It was the

first and only movement completed for an intended suite for string

quartet. The format for this intriguing work is that of a rondo, wherein

the principal theme, appearing three times, alternates with two subsidiary

interludes. A highly original and resonant work, the Italian Serenade is a

recognized masterpiece, an amalgamation of idyllic utterance and

intractable caricature. Wolf, who suffered a great deal of personal

anguish, succumbed to the tragic hold of mental illness in 1898 and was

placed in an asylum, where his difficult life ended at the early age of

forty-three.

Verdi’s Quartet in E Minor is his only exclusively instrumental

composition, but it is a work of unquestionable authority and great

appeal. His letters make it clear that he was very well acquainted with the

great quartet scores of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. He is said to have

kept them constantly by his bedside and to have advised his students to

use the classical string quartets as models of clear and concise

organization.

The quartet received its premiere on 1 April 1873, just one day

after the opening of Aida, at an informal concert at his hotel. The

performers were identified only as the Pinto brothers, violins; Salvador,

viola; and Giarritiello, cello. A few weeks later, Verdi set down these

words: “I’ve written a quartet in my leisure moments in Naples. I had it

perfonned one evening in my house, without attaching the least

importance to it and without inviting anyone in particular. Only the seven

or eight persons who usually come know that it’s a quartet! I don’t know

whether the quartet is beautiful or ugly, but I do know that it’s a quartet.”

Despite Verdi’s cavalier attitude, the quartet has become a staple of the

string quartet repertoire, famed for the skillful way the composer 

combined brilliant theatrical and melodic techniques with extremely

fluent and idiomatic string writing.

The dramatic first theme of the opening Allegro is stated

immediately by the second violin and conveys a sense of quiet,

suppressed urgency. In a departure from traditional first movement form,

the theme is immediately repeated and then developed, ending the

movement with a comparatively brief restatement of the second subject.

The main theme of the second movement (Andantino) is lyrical and

charming. It is marked to be played con eleganze (with elegance). The

movement is organized in rondo form, with the three appearances of the