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.

Please note that late entry or reentry of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

2000b South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,718th Concert

The Poulenc Trio

and the

National Gallery String Quartet

April 5, 2009

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

“Great Britons in Music”

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Phantasy Quartet, op. 2 (1932)

Gordon Jacob (1895-1984)

Suitefor Bassoon and String Quartet (1969)

Prelude

Caprice

Elegy

Rondo

INTERMISSION

Frank Bridge (1879-1941)

Quintetfor Piano and String Quartet in D Minor (1904)

Adagio-allegro moderato

Adagio ma non troppo-allegro con brio-adagio ma non troppo

Allegro energico

The Musicians

THE POULENC TRIO

The Poulenc Trio brings together three uniquely gifted virtuosos: Vladimir

Lande, oboist, Bryan Young, bassoonist, and Irina Kaplan Lande, pianist.

The Trio’s performances in the unusual combination oftheir respective

instruments transport audiences into a world ofbeautiful sonorities, playful 

rhythms, and dramatic excitement. One of a select few professional wind

trios, The Poulenc Trio is committed to expanding the repertoire through

the discovery of old masterpieces and new works.

The Trio was recently featured at Italy’s Ravello Festival, where it premiered

two new compositions written especially for them by Italian composer Gaetano 

Panariello and Russian-American composer Igor Raykhelson. These pieces add 

to the Trio’s growing catalogue ofnew commissions, which includes two works 

premiered with violinist Hilary Hahn and two triple concertos with orchestra,

premiered during the 2006-2007 and current seasons.

The Trio’s busy concert schedule has included a recent tour ofRussia with

Hilary Hahn, a tour ofthe Caribbean, and multiple appearances across the

United States. Highlights ofthe Trio’s recent activity include a performance at

the United States Performing Arts Exchange Conference; a whistle-stop tour

ofthe western United States; and concerts in Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland,

Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Washington, DC, and Wisconsin.

The ensemble has garnered positive attention in recent full-length profiles by

Chamber Music Magazine and by the Double Reed Journal. The group has been

called “virtuosos of classical and contemporary chamber music” in a profile 

for Russian television, and has been repeatedly praised by the Washington Post,

the Baltimore Sun, and Fanfare magazine.

3
NATIONAL GALLERY STRING QUARTET

The National Gallery String Quartet has performed regularly at the Gallery 

since its debut in 1995. In addition to standard quartet repertoire, the group

presents rarely-heard masterpieces of chamber music. The musicians also 

perform under the name Sunrise Quartet, and in that capacity they have 

been recognized with a Chamber Music America residency at the Duke

Ellington School ofthe Arts as well as with residencies at the Concerts at the

Beach in Delaware and the Davies Concert Series in Camp Springs, Maryland. With perfectly matched skills, the first and second violinists are able to

change places, a practice that is rare among string quartets.

Violinist Claudia Chudacoff appears frequently as a soloist and chamber

musician in the Baltimore-Washington area. In addition to her position as 

the newly-appointed concertmaster ofthe U.S. Marine Band’s White House

Chamber Orchestra, Chudacoffis the concertmaster ofthe Alexandria

Symphony Orchestra and the National Gallery Orchestra.

Violinist Teri Lazar has performed as a soloist and chamber musician

in Europe and the Middle East as well as in the United States. She is the

concertmaster ofthe Virginia Chamber Orchestra and performs with

the Richmond Chamber Players and in Currents, a chamber music series

also based in Richmond.

Violist Osman Kivrak is a winner ofthe National Scholarship Competition

in Turkey and the Baltimore Chamber Music Awards. He has performed at

the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, and has toured Italy and

other parts of Europe as a chamber musician. He performs with the Richmond Chamber Players and in Currents, and teaches at American University 

as a musician in residence.

Cellist Diana Fish came to Washington, DC, in 1994 to become a member

ofthe Marine Chamber Orchestra of “The President’s Own” United States

Marine Band, in which she currently serves as assistant principal cellist. Fish

has also been the principal cellist ofConcert Artists ofBaltimore.

4

The Narrator

Jonathan Palevsky is currently the program director of wbjc-fm, Baltimore’s

classical music station. In addition to his administrative duties at the radio

station, he appears on the air as the host of “Face the Music,” “The wbjc

Opera Fest,” “The wbjc Opera Preview,” “Past Masters,” “Word on Wine,”

and numerous community interviews. For the past ten years, Palevsky

has led wbjc listeners on annual opera excursions to Italy and central

and western Europe. He is a past president ofthe Association of Music

Personnel in Public Radio.

A graduate ofCarleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and the Peabody 

Institute, Palevsky is a lecturer for the Odyssey Program and the Evergreen

Society at the Johns Hopkins University, and the Auburn Society at Towson

University. When he is not busy broadcasting, he plays jazz guitar, reads

haiku, and enjoys skiing and figure skating.

Program Notes

Narrator Jonathan Palevsky’s spoken program notes for “Great Britons in

Music” explore major works by Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten, and Gordon

Jacob. This is one of a number ofthematic programs created by the members

of The Poulenc Trio for “Music in the Museum,” a performance series that

integrates chamber music, celebrity speakers, and guest artists to explore the

rich connections between music and art. Since its successful debut in 2004,

which featured sold-out performances at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, 

the series has remained a popular favorite for audiences. The Trio has expanded

the program to include performances at the Zimmerli Art Museum in New

Jersey as well as this concert at the National Gallery. “Music in the Museum”

often finds the Poulenc Trio joining forces with guest artists, local celebrities, 

and expert lecturers. The National Gallery String Quartet is happy to join the

likes of clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, the Berlin-based Jacques Thibaud Trio,

and soprano Hyunah Yu as collaborators in this worthwhile project.

5
The National Gallery ofArt is an especially fitting place in which to

present “Great Britons in Music,” since the works of British artists were of

particular interest to its founder, Andrew Mellon, and to its principal benefactor during its first sixty years, his son, Paul Mellon. A British sculptor,

Henry Moore (1898-1986), was commissioned to provide the signature

sculpture at the entrance to the East Building (Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece,

1976-1978), and another British artist, Tessa Pullen (b. 1953), fashioned the

bust of Paul Mellon that is now part ofthe Gallery’s permanent collection.

Looking just at the period represented by the compositions by British

composers on this program (1904-1969), there are eleven pieces ofsculpture by British artists from the period in the Gallery’s permanent collection.

Twentieth-century British painters have on many occasions caught the

eye of collectors who subsequently bequeathed their paintings to the Gallery.

Among its twenty-one canvases painted by Britons between 1904 and 1969

are Sir Francis Bacon’s Studyfor a Running Dog (c. 1954) and Sir Oswald

Hornby Joseph Birley’s portrait ofAndrew Mellon (1933). British artists also 

painted most ofthe other portraits in the Founder’s Room on the West 

Building Main Floor.

Thanks to a “British connection,” concerts in the Gallery began in

December 1942, when its first director, David E. Finley, decided to extend the

Gallery’s hours on Sunday nights to accommodate the many Armed Forces

personnel who were in Washington at the outbreak ofWorld War 11. The idea 

ofaugmenting the museum’s service to the public with music was inspired

by Finley’s first-hand experience ofthe recitals presented in 1940-1941 by the

great English pianist Myra Hess, who remained in London during tire Blitz

and entertained the troops and the public with evening recitals in the National 

Gallery ofthat city. In both cities, the concerts proved immensely popular and

served to boost morale in the capital in difficult times. When the war ended,

the concerts in London’s National Gallery ended, too, but in Washington’s

National Gallery they continue to this day.

6

Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

April 17-19

Choral Festival celebrating the reopening ofthe American Galleries

American music from tire nineteenth century and music based

upon nineteenth-century American tunes

All concerts take place in the West Building, East Garden Court

Friday, April 17

National Men’s Chorus

1:30 pm

Columbia Union Choir

3:30 pm

Saturday, April 18

Master Singers ofVirginia

1:30 pm

Greater South Jersey Chorus

3:30 pm

Sunday, April 19

Central Bucks High School West Choir

1:30 pm

The Eighteenth Street Singers

3:30 pm