Next week at the National Gallery of Art

Thomas Pandolfi, pianist

Music by Chopin, Liszt, and Schumann

May 1, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the 

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones,

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

wmv.nga.gov

COVER: Paul Stevenson Oles, Sketch ofthe East Building Exterior, 1971,

National Gallery of Art Archives, Gift of I. M. Pei and Partners

The Sixty-ninth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,839th Concert

Christian Tetzlaff and Antje Weithaas, violinists

Presented in collaboration with the Embassy of the

Federal Republic of Germany and the Embassy Series

April 28, 2011

Thursday, 12:10 pm

East Building Auditorium

Admissionfree
Program

Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764)

Sonata no. 6 in D Major (c. 1730)

Allegro

Adagio

Gavotte

Gigue

Charles-Auguste de Beriot (1802-1870)

Duo Concertanto in D Minor; op. 57, no. 1

Moderato

Adagio moderato

Rondo; allegro con spirito

Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931)

Sonatafor Two Solo Violins in A Minor, op. posthumous (c. 1914)

Poco lento, maestoso; allegro fermo

Allegretto poco lento

Finale: Allegro vivo e con fuoco

The Musicians

CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF

Recognized internationally for his musical integrity, technical assurance, and

intelligent and compelling interpretations, Christian Tetzlaffis one ofthe

most important violinists ofhis generation. Performing and recording a broad

spectrum ofrecital repertoire, from J. S. Bach’s unaccompanied sonatas and

partitas to world premieres of contemporary works, he is also a dedicated

chamber musician, frequently collaborating with distinguished artists

including Leif Ove Andsnes, Alexander Lonquich, Lars Vogt, and Tabea

Zimmermann. In 1994 Tetzlaffformed the Tetzlaff Quartet with violinist

Elisabeth Kufferath, violist Hanna Weinmeister, and his sister, cellist Tanja 

Tetzlaff. His highly regarded recordings reflect the breadth of his musical

interests and include solo works, chamber music, and concertos ranging

from Haydn to Bartok.

Born in Hamburg in 1966 to a music-loving family, Christian Tetzlaff

began playing the violin and piano at age six, but pursued a regular academic education while continuing his musical studies. He began intensive study

ofthe violin at age fourteen, when he enrolled in the music conservatory in

Liibeck, Germany, where his teacher was Uwe-Martin Haiberg. Tetzlaff came

to the United States in 1985 to work with Walter Levine at the University of

Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His 1998 solo recital tour ofthe

United States included a concert at the National Gallery ofArt.

Much in demand as a soloist with many ofthe world’s leading orchestras

and conductors, Tetzlaffhas performed with the symphony orchestras of

Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Toronto as well as with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, London 

Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Christian Tetzlaffmakes his home near Frankfurt, Germany, with his

wife, a clarinetist with the Frankfurt Opera, and their three children. Fie

currently performs on a violin modeled after a Guarneri del Gesu, made by

the German violin maker Peter Greiner. Fie appears at the National Gallery 

with Antje Weithaas by arrangement with GAMi/Simonds, www.gamisim.com,

and CMArtists New York, www.cmartists.com.

ANTJE WEITHAAS

Flailed by FonoForum magazine as “one ofthe great violinists ofour time,”

Antje Weithaas has a wide-ranging repertoire that includes the great violin

concertos by Beethoven, Mozart, and Schumann, modern classics by Gubaidulina, Ligeti, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, and rarely performed concertos by

Hartmann, Korngold, and Schoeck. Weithaas has been invited to perform

with Germany’s leading orchestras, including the Bamberger Symphoniker, 

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and the

major Gennan radio orchestras as well as the bbc Symphony Orchestra, Los

Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, San Francisco

Symphony Orchestra, and leading orchestras ofAsia, The Netherlands, and

Scandinavia. Among the illustrious conductors with whom she has worked 

are Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Neville Marriner, and Yuri Temirkanov. As artistic 

director ofthe Camerata Bern, she collaborates with violist Tabea Zimmermann and composer and clarinetist Jorg Widmann. As artist-in-residence

with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, she performed the Beethoven and

Widmann violin concertos and directed the orchestra in several programs.

Extremely active in the field of chamber music, Weithaas has partnered

with Silke Avenhaus, Clemens Hagen, Sharon Kam, and Lars Vogt as well

as Christian and Tarija Tetzlaff and the Arcanto Quartet. With pianist Silke

Avenhaus on the CAvi-music label, Weithaas has released several highly

praised recordings ofsonatas by Brahms and Mendelssohn, as well as works

by Schubert, Saint-Saens, Ravel, and Faure.

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Antje Weithaas began playing the violin at age four and later studied at the

Hochschule fur Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin with Professor Werner Scholz.

She won the Kreisler Competition in Graz in 1987 and the Bach Competition

in Leipzig in 1988, as well as the Hannover International Violin Competition

in 1991. After teaching at the Universitat der Kiinste Berlin, she became a

professor ofviolin at the Hochschule fur Musik “Hanns Eisler” in 2004. She 

also plays on a Peter Greiner violin, made in 2001. Antje Weithaas appears by

arrangement with Karsten Witt Musik Management Berlin.

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Program Notes

Widely regarded as the founder ofthe French school of violin playing,

Jean-Marie Leclair is often identified as Jean-Marie Leclair the Elder, since

his son also achieved some prominence in French music history. A renowned performer, he composed many suites, sonatas, and concertos for 

his instrument. After the death ofhis first wife in 1728, Leclair married the

engraver Louise Roussel, who prepared for publication all of his works from

opus 2 onward. Named ordinaire de la musique by Louis xv in 1733’ Leclair

resigned four years later after a clash over control ofthe music in the royal

court. He was subsequently employed by the Princess of Orange, herself a

fine harpsichordist and former student of Handel. Following the breakup of

his second marriage in 1758, Leclair purchased a small house in a dangerous

section of Paris. There he was found stabbed to death in 1764, a murder

that remains unsolved to this day. Although his ex-wife was a prime suspect

for financial reasons, stronger suspicion rested upon Leclair’s nephew,

Guillaume-Fran^ois Vial, who had not forgiven the violinist for abandoning

his second wife. Others who wrote about his death surmised that the

murderer may have been an envious rival musician.

Leclair played a pivotal role in the world of eighteenth-century Parisian

music. In the opinion ofmusicologist Bertil van Boer, who specializes in

the eighteenth century, “He is one ofthose shadowy figures who seem to

lurk in the historical period where Italians such as Giuseppe Tartini represent the epitome ofthe virtuoso performance style on the violin, and yet

his works represent an amalgam of both Italian lyricism and French taste."

Leclair’s Sonata no. 6 in D Major is from a set ofsix sonatas for two violins

published around 1730 as his opus 3. Each ofthese sonatas represents what

van Boer calls “a blend ofthe older baroque style ofVivaldi with the new

galant style of emerging classicism.”

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Charles Auguste de Beriot was born in Leuven, Belgium, but relocated

to France in 1810, where he studied violin. He served as chamber violinist to

Charles x of France and to William I ofThe Netherlands and toured with

great success to London, Paris, and the other great music centers of Europe.

In 1843 de Beriot became the chiefviolin instructor at the Brussels Conservatoire, where he established the Franco-Belgian school ofviolin playing. 

Henri Vieuxtemps was one ofhis most illustrious pupils. Beriot carried on

a long relationship with the opera singer Maria Malibran (1808-1836),

which eventually led to marriage in 1836—tragically, only a few months

before she died from injuries sustained in a riding accident. Their son,

Charles-Wilfrid de Beriot (1833-1914), became a professor of piano at the

Paris Conservatoire, where he taught, among other illustrious graduates

ofthat school, Enrique Granados and Maurice Ravel. The Duo Concertante

in D Minor, op. 57, is an example ofCharles Auguste de Beriot’s ability to

combine virtuosic technique with romantic melody.

Belgian violinist, composer, and conductor Eugene Ysaye was born in Liege.

Despite his peasant background, he eventually earned the title “King ofthe

Violin” ofhis generation. In 1886 Cesar Franck wrote his only violin sonata as a

wedding present for Ysaye and his first wife, Louise, who was also a composer. 

After her death in 1924, he married Jeanette Dincin, an American pupil of

his who was forty-four years his junior. The Sonatafor Two Violins in A Minor,

composed around 1914, was dedicated to and intended for the use ofQueen

Elisabeth of Belgium (1876-1965), consort ofAlbert 1, who was a capable 

violinist in her own right and a pupil ofYsaye. The technical demands ofthe

work proved too difficult for the monarch to surmount, and the work was not

published in Ysaye’s lifetime. The opening movement is virtuosic, and a fugue

appears in the central section. Reviewer Michael Cookson views the second

movement, marked Allegretto poco lento, as “intensely passionate music with

impressionistic tendencies...surely providing a musical description of a love

affair.” The beautiful closing movement seems reminiscent ofthe harmonies

and fleeting romanticism ofGabriel Faure.

Program Notes by Louis Reith, Georgetown University