enamored with the final outcome of his endeavor that he wrote to

the publisher Hartel, saying: “I...regard them as my best work of

the earlier days, and Mendelssohn often spoke to me in the same

sense.” Mendelssohn was the recipient of Op. 4Ts dedication. The

A Minor Quartet, perhaps the most expressive of the three, opens

with an introductory statement (Andante espressivo) in a polyphonic

setting. Atypically, the introduction includes no thematic reference

to the following Allegro, in which chromatic major sixth chords

“provide a foretaste of Loge’s motive in the Ring cycle” (James

Lyon, editor, The American Record Guide). The second movement

(Scherzo: Presto) is a spirited gallop, unrelenting in its forward drive

except for the trio section, which gives a moment ofreprieve before

the return of the driving gallop. The third movement (Adagio)

pays homage to Beethoven, with its melodic theme that mimics

the third movement of his Ninth Symphony. The finale (Presto), in

sonata-allegro form, “fairly cries out for a full orchestra, and in 

fact, its sound and fury are just barely contained in the quartet

frame” (J. Lyons).

Program notes by Elmer Booze

The use ofcameras or recording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

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

During the months ofFebruary andMarch, recentperformances

by the National Gallery Orchestra can be heard on Wednesdays at 9:00p.m.

on WETA-FM, 90.9.

Selectionsfrom Concerts atthe Gallery can be heard on the second Sunday of

each month at 9:00p.m. on WGMS-FM, 103.5.

The Fifty-eighth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and 

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2338th Concert

TOKYO STRING QUARTET

MIKHAIL KOPELMAN, violin KIKUEIIKEDA, violin

KAZUHIDE ISOMURA, viola CLIVE GREENSMITH, cello

Sunday Evening, 27 February 2000

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
PROGRAM

Claude Debussy String Quartet in G Minor

(1862-1918) Op. 10 (1893)

Aime et tres decide

Assez vif et bien rythme

Andantino, doucement expressif

Tres modere; tres mouvemente

Anton Webern

(1883-1945)

Langsamer Satz

(1905)

INTERMISSION

Robert Schumann Quartet in A Major

(1810-1856) Op. 41, No. 3 (1842)

Andante espressivo; allegro molto moderato

Assai agitato

Adagio molto

Finale: Allegro molto vivace

Officially formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music in

New York City, the Tokyo String Quartet has a well-deserved

reputation as one of the world’s supreme ensembles. The

quartet traces its origin to the Toho School of Music in Tokyo,

where Professor Hideo Saito profoundly influenced the founding

members, Hoichiro Harada, Yoshiko Nakura, Kazuhide Isomura,

and Sadao Harada. Deeply committed to chamber music, the

original members eventually came to the United States for further

study with Robert Mann, Raphael Hillyer, and Claus Adams. Soon 

after its creation, the quartet won First Prize at the Coleman

Competition, the Munich Competition, and the Young Concert

Artists International Auditions. Violinist Kikuei Ikeda, who was 

also trained at the Toho School of Music, joined the quartet

as second violinist in 1974. Born in Ukraine, violinist Mikhail

Kopelman studied at the Moscow Conservatory and was the first

violinist ofthe Borodin Quartet for two decades. Kopelman joined

the Tokyo String Quartet in 1996. Violist Kazuhide Isomura

studied violin with Ivan Galamian and Paul Makanowitsky, chamber

music with Robert Mann and Raphael Hillyer, and viola with

Walter Trampler. Cellist Clive Greensmith, the newest member,

studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and was principal

cellist of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Although much of Debussy’s music is for piano, he devoted a good

deal of his energy to music for other instruments, whether solo

or in combination, and looked to the string quartet as a measure

of his skill as a composer. The theme of the String Quartet in G

Minor, Opus 10, is derived from the interval of the tritone, with

the result that the tonality is ambiguous but never relinquished.

Each movement has its own key signature, but Debussy’s tonal

center for the quartet as a whole remains G minor. The use of the

whole-tone scale with its inherent tritones (inspired by Indonesian

gamelan music) appears in this work parenthetically. The theme

is subject to so many transformations that at times it becomes

almost undiscernible. There is an Andalusian dance in the second

movement, which later gives rise to an elongated, morose Andante

that is awash in kaleidoscopic harmony.

An early work of Anton Webern, Langsamer Satz (Slow Movement)

was never published or performed during his lifetime; it was

published some years after his death and first performed in 1962.

Written during the period when Webern began his studies with

Schoenberg (1904-1908), it gives strong evidence of Schoenberg’s

influence, particularly in the area of compositional frugality. After

1908 Webern changed his compositional techniques, moving away

from the style of Schoenberg and earning for himself a stellar

position among those composers who forged paths leading to a

new kind of music.

The QuartetNo.1 inA Minor, Op.41, is one ofonly three that Schumann

wrote. He completed all three in 1842 and never returned to the

string quartet again, except to combine it with the piano. In 1838

Schumann wrote to his fiancee, Clara Wieck, that the pleasure he

derived from hearing quartet music inspired to him write his own. 

Clara was presented with the first hearing of the A Minor Quartet on

her birthday, 13 September 1842. She was highly impressed with

his writing, noting: “My respect for his genius, for his intellect,

altogether for the whole composer grow with each work. Here

everything is new and at the same time lucid, finely worked out,

and always in the quartet idiom.” Schumann himself was so