December

22 Cantate Chamber Singers Christmas music by Benjamin

Gisele Becker, music Britten

director

29 Luigi Piovano, cellist Sonatas by Brahms, Schumann,

Luisa Prayer, pianist and Saint-Saens

January

5 National Gallery Orchestra Gala Viennese New Year Concert

George Manos, conductor

12 Gary Graffman, pianist

19 The Verdehr Trio

Walter Verdehr, violin

Elsa Ludwig Verdehr,

clarinet

Sylvia Roederer, piano

26 Thomas Zehetmair

Quartet

Reinicke: Sonata, Op. 179

Von Sauer: Waldandacht

Chopin/Godowsky: Etudes

J. S. Bach/Brahms: Chaconne in

D Minor

Reger: Four Etudes

Blumenfeld: Etude, Op. 36

Mozart: Trio, K. 358

Fanny Mendelssohn: Romance

Armand Russell: Romance

Tchaikovsky: Entr'acte from

Sleeping Beauty

Joan Tower: Rainwaves

Bright Sheng: Reflections, Tibetan

Dance

Schumann: String Quartet No. 1

Cage: String Quartet in Four Parts

Bartok: String Quartet No. 5

The Sixty-first Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

L. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

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2435th Concert

THE NEW ZEALAND STRING QUARTET

HELENE POHL, violin DOUGLAS BEILMAN, violin

GILLIAN ANSELL, viola ROLF GJELSTEN, cello

Sunday Evening, 24 November 2002

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
PROGRAM

Alexander Borodin String Quartet No. 2 in D Major

(1833-1887) (1881)

Allegro moderate

Scherzo: Allegro

Notturno: Andante

Finale: Andante; vivace

Zoltan Szekely

(1903-2001)

String Quartet

(1937)

Moderate ma non troppo

Presto

Molto moderate

Andante sostenuto

Largamente, quasi cadenza

Presto grazioso, come una danza

Allegro appassionato

Molto vivace, con brio

INTERMISSION

Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in E Minor

(1770-1827) Op. 59, No. 2 (1824)

Allegro

Molto adagio

Allegretto

Finale: Presto

The use of cameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed. Please he sure that cell

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

Musicians

Acclaimed for its powerful communication, dramatic energy, and unique

voice, the New Zealand String Quartet has won the hearts of audiences

all over the world. With annual tours of North America and Europe and

regular visits to Korea, Japan, and Australia, the quartet plays more than

seventy-five concerts annually at home and abroad. The New Zealand

String Quartet has performed at such renowned North American summer

festivals as the Tanglewood, Rutgers Summerfest and Monadnock Music

Festival, and at the Mount Gretna, Olympic, and Banff International

Festivals. The quartet members, who are dedicated teachers as well as

performers, have been artists-in-residence at the Victoria School of Music

at the University of Wellington, Canada, since 1991 and are also guest

faculty at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. The New Zealand string

quartet appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Jonathan

Wentworth Associates, Limited, of Mount Vernon, New York, and

acknowledges the ongoing support of Montana Wines and Meridian

Energy as sponsors of the first violin and viola chairs, respectively. Other

sponsors are HSBC Bank, Air New Zealand, the Turnovsky Endowment,

the Adam Foundation, and Creative New Zealand. The members of the

quartet wear fashions by Blanchet.

Violinist Helene Pohl grew up in Ithaca, New York, and spent her

childhood on both sides of the Atlantic, as her parents are of German

extraction. Having begun her musical studies at the age of four, she was

accepted at age seventeen at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, Germany.

She later continued her studies with members of the Cleveland Quartet at

the Eastman School of Music and with Josef Gingold at Indiana 

University. She joined the New Zealand String Quartet as first violinist

in February 1994.

A native of Kansas, violinist Douglas Beilman studied with

Dorothy Delay and Hyo Kang at the Juilliard School of Music and the

New England Conservatory of Music. He continued his studies with

Isadore Tinkleman at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he

received the master of music degree. Before joining the New Zealand
String Quartet in 1989, Beilman was first violinist of the Sierra String

Quartet, the first resident quartet at the Chamber Music Center at the San

Francisco Conservatory of Music. A founding member of the twentiethcentury music ensemble CadeNZa, Beilman has participated extensively

in premiere performances of New Zealand and international

compositions.

Violist Gillian Ansell began the study of violin and piano at an

early age in her hometown of Auckland, New Zealand. At age sixteen

she made her concerto debut with the Auckland Symphonia (now known

as the Auckland Philharmonia). As a recipient of an Associate Board

Scholarship to study violin, viola, and piano, she studied at the Royal

College ofMusic in London, where she won several prizes. After

working professionally in London for three years, she returned to New

Zealand to become a founding member of the New Zealand String

Quartet. In 2001 Gillian Ansell became artistic director, with fellow

quartet member Helene Pohl, of the Adam New Zealand Festival of

Chamber Music.

Born in Victoria, British Columbia, cellist Rolf Gjelsten began his

study of the cello at age fifteen under James Hunter and Janos Starker. At

age twenty-one he obtained a position with the Berlin Symphony 

Orchestra, becoming its youngest member. He returned to North America 

to study with Zara Nelsova, which led to further study with the members

of the La Salle, Hungarian, Vermeer, Cleveland, and Emerson String

Quartets. Gjelsten continued his studies in 1980 at Rutgers University

with the eminent Casals protege Bernhard Greenhouse receiving the doctor 

of music degree in cello. Gjelsten joined the New Zealand String Quartet

in May 1994 and became a New Zealand citizen in 1997.

Program Notes

The Quartet No. 2 in D Major by Alexander Borodin was not written, as

might be expected, by someone who devoted an entire lifetime to

perfecting the art of composition. Borodin was a world-renowned 

scientist, a chemist by profession, and he held various official positions

that usurped much of his creative time. In addition, he was not only a

composer but also a commissioner, philanthropist, artist, and doctor. It

was his musical works, however, that made his name for posterity,

despite the fact that they are few in number. They include several vocal

compositions, an opera, two symphonies, and two string quartets. Of the

two string quartets, the later one is the more popular-Broadway

composers borrowed one of its themes for the musical Kismet. The

widely recognized theme comes from the third movement of the quartet

(Notturno), which is one of the most famous slow movements in the

entire realm of chamber music.

One of Hungary’s preeminent violinists, the late Zoltan Szekely

was a pupil of the celebrated Hungarian violinist Jano Hubay (1858—

1937) and a composition student of both Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967) and

Bela Bartok (1881-1945) at the Ferenc Liszt Academy in Budapest. In

late 1936 Szekely entered his String Quartet in the Coolidge competition

sponsored by the Library of Congress. The work did not win the

Coolidge prize, but Szekely took the matter in good spirits, claiming

later: “If I had won the competition, I might have chosen to become a

composer rather than a violinist.” Although written when the composer 

was thirty-three, the String Quartet is a mature work and was the last that

he undertook. It is in eight short movements and explores many devices

that were modern for its time, including polyrhythms.

The three string quartets that comprise Beethoven’s Opus 59 were

commissioned by the Russian count Andreas Razumovsky, ambassador 

to the Royal Court in Vienna in 1806. Beethoven’s models were the

paradigmatic string quartets of Haydn. Mozart, following Haydn’s

example, raised the level of quartet writing to an even higher plane of

perfection, and Beethoven, in his Opus 59, surpassed the achievements

of both Haydn and Mozart to an extent that radiated shock waves among

the cognoscenti of the musical world. These quartets enlarged upon the

prevailing basic principles of chamber music writing: instrumental range,

harmonic distribution, stylistic implication, and thematic indulgence or

selection, as well as melodic and rhythmic articulation. Author Joseph de

Marliave, in his book Beethoven's Quartets, states: “Beethoven’s
melodies have practically nothing in common with either the perfectly

tuned phrases of Haydn or...Mozart’s perfect balance and symmetry.”

The starkness that emanated from Beethoven’s bold adventure would last

at least a century. It was the product of Beethoven’s “middle period,”

during which he also produced such masterpieces as the “ Waldstein " and

“Appassionato,” Piano Sonatas (Opp. 53 and 57, respectively) and the

“Eroica ” Symphony, Op. 55.

Each of the quartets of Opus 59 has established and sustained a

personal, idiosyncratic voice. In the String Quartet in E Minor, two

revelatory chords are interjected before the entrance of the first theme,

each apparently designed to gain the listeners’ attention and at the same

time announce the chordal nature of the work. After a dynamic pause, the

main theme is introduced at the pianissimo level, using an arpeggiated E

minor chord followed by a downward progression of a diminished

seventh chord in B major that resolves logically to the tonic key of E

minor. Following this opening statement, Beethoven introduces forceful

drive through dynamic contrast, rhythmic diversity, chromaticism, and

judicious placement of rests and silence. The movement is hypercharged

with tension and intrigue and heralds the importance of these two

elements in the quartet as a whole.

The tempo marking for the second movement (Molto adagio) is

enhanced by Beethoven with the statement, Si tratta questo pezzo con

molto di sentimento (Treat this piece with much feeling). Deeply

expressive and shrouded in a chorale-like delivery, the main subject is

poignantly decorated with an exhilarating display of charismatic and

luxurious sounds. The third movement (Allegretto) is a scherzo with a

trio, whose melody is a touching Russian folk tune that was also used in

Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov (in the Coronation Scene in Act I).

The finale (Presto) is set in a modified sonata-rondo form. The

theme begins in the key of C major, followed by a second theme in E

minor. This movement has been described as one of Beethoven’s great

grotesques in the style of Charles Dickens. In place of the customary

recapitulation, the developmental tension continues to the very end,

prompting Harris Goldsmith to write: “One is left with exhaustion from

the orgiastic excitement.” Moreover, in the closing section Beethoven

allows no two instruments to play at the same time, leaving an indelible

impression in the listener’s memory.

Program notes by Elmer Booze

For the convenience of concertgoers

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

Concerts at the National Gallery of Art

Under the direction of George Manos

December 2002 and January 2003

December 1, 8, and 15: The 60th American Music Festival

Presented in honor of the exhibition Drawing on America’s Past: Folk

Art, Modernism, and the Index ofAmerican Design

1 Philip Quint, violinist

David Riley, pianist

8 Washington Men’s

Camerata

Frank Albinder, music

director

15 The American Chamber

Ensemble

Foss: Three American Pieces

Gershwin/Heifetz: Excerpts from

Porgy and Bess

Corigliano: Sonata (1963)

Songs for the Holiday Season by

Conrad Susa and other American

Composers

Muczynski: Fantasy Trio

Moore: Quintetfor Clarinet and

Strings

Schickele: Serenade for Three