The Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,731st Concert

Dan Zhu, violinist

Jie Chen, pianist

June 7, 2009

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Three Chinese Folk Songs

Pastoral (1953) by HanKun Sha 

Rondo no. 1 (1937) by Sicong Ma

Berceuse (1935) by Sicong Ma

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Fantasiafor Violin and Piano in C Major (“Sei mir gegriisst!

D. 934 (op. posth. 159)

Andante moderato

Allegretto

Andantino

Tempo 1; allegro vivace; allegretto; presto

INTERMISSION

Anton Webern (1883-1945)

Four Piecesfor Violin and Piano, op. 7 (1910)

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Sonata no. 2 in D Minor, op. 121 (1851)

Ziemlich langsam; Lebhaft 

Sehr lebhaft

Leise, einfach

Bewegt

This concert is made possible in part by a gift

from the Markow-Totevy Foundation.
The Musicians

DAN ZHU

Described as “one ofthe emerging Chinese international artists today” (Gramophone), and “an artist ofaffecting humility and beautiful tone production”

(The Strad), Dan Zhu has given concerts in Asia, Europe, and North America. 

As a soloist, he has appeared with The China Philharmonic Orchestra, the

Lutoslawski Philharmonic, l’Orchestre National de Belgique, l’Orquestre de 

Cadaques, l’Orchestre National de France, and l’Orchestre Symphonique de

Montreal, playing under the direction ofMaestros Matthias Bamert, Philippe

Entremont, Christoph Eschenbach, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Jeffrey Tate. As

a chamber musician, he has collaborated with Richard Goode, Nobuko Imai,

Michel Lethiec, Dame Felicity Lott, Paul Meyer, Arto Noras, Bruno Pasquier,

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Radovan Vlatkovic, and has performed at the Marlboro Festival, the Prades-Casals Festival, Festival Pontlevoy, Festival de Givemy,

and the Spoleto Festival. In the 2009-2010 season, he will play recitals at the

Kuhmo Festival in Finland and the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris,

among other orchestral and festival engagements.

Zhu has won awards at several international competitions, among them

the China International Violin Competition, the Concours Musical International de Montreal, the Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels, the Sendai

International Music Competition in Japan, and the Waldo Mayo Memorial

Competition for Young Gifted Violinists, at which he took first prize.

Bom in Beijing, Dan Zhu made his public debut at age nine, performing

the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the China Youth Chamber Orchestra.

At twelve he entered the Central Conservatory ofMusic in Beijing. Four years

later he was awarded the Alexis Gregory Scholarship to study with Lucie

Robert at The Mannes College of Music in New York. In 2003 he received the

Premier Prix de Violon at The Fontainebleau American Conservatory. Zhu

plays on a Carlo Antonio Testore violin of 1763, generously loaned by the

Alexis Gregory Foundation.

3
JIE CHEN

Pianist Jie Chen is a winner ofthe Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in Israel, the Piano-E-International Competition in America, the 

Santander Paloma O’Shea International Competition in Spain, and the

Van Cliburn International Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. Her performances have been broadcast on the German radio station mdr, Israel

National Television, the Italian National Television Network raiuno,

Minnesota Public Radio, American Public Radio’s “Performance Today,”

and the National Television of Spain.

Since her debut at age sixteen with the Philadelphia Orchestra under

Maestro Wolfgang Sawallisch, she has performed in Alice Tully Hall and

Carnegie Hall in New York, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Terrace Theater

at the Kennedy Center, and many other leading music venues throughout

the world. The New York Times wrote: “she has shown she is more than a

virtuosic clone,” and a critic at the Gilmore Rising Stars Series wrote: “Chen

displayed almost frightening technical capabilities wedded to superior

musicality.” The Israeli newspaper Haaretz proclaimed “A star is bom!” A

frequent soloist with major orchestras, she has collaborated with the Israel 

Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra and

Maestro Osmo Vanska, the New Jersey Symphony and Maestro Neemi Jarvi,

the Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid and Maestro Jesus Lopez-Cobos, the 

Sinfonia Varsovia of Poland, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Chen

has also just released a solo album on the naxos label featuring works

by Chinese composers.

A Yamaha artist, Chen studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in

China; the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was awarded 

the Fastorazzi Prize for “Best Pianist ofthe Year;” and the Mannes School of

Music in New York.
Program Notes

Sha Han Kun’s Pastoral uses a folk song from the eastern part ofInner

Mongolia as its melody. The words are quintessentially pastoral: “In the blue

sky there are dots ofwhite doud. Beneath the doud are herds ofwhite sheep.

These herds look like little dots ofwhite silver, spreading over the meadow.

How lovely it is!” Pastoral reflects the unsung text in its use of an extraordinarily beautiful yet simple melody.

Born in 1912, Ma Sicong (Ma Sitzon) enjoyed a distinguished career

as a composer and violinist. He began his instrumental study and pursued

his interest in folk music when he was at a primary school in Guangzhou,

China. In 1923 he went to France for the first time to study the violin, returning to China in 1929 after finishing his studies. As one of China’s first 

violinists, he gave concerts in Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, and other

cities. In 1930 he went to France for the second time to study composition.

Ma devoted his whole life to creating a new national identity for Chinese

music. He pioneered the use offolk idioms, often adopting fragments or

motifs from folk tunes, crafting them into his own musical writing. Rondo

no. 1 and Berceuse were written during his second trip to France. In Rondo

No. 1, the composer incorporated a folk tune from the province of ShanXi

(mid-west China), and in Berceuse he expressed his nostalgia for his homeland through the touching melodies.

Franz Schubert’s Fantasy in C Majorfor Violin and Piano, composed in

1827 and premiered in 1828, the year ofhis death, stands apart from the rest

ofhis late works. Written for the young virtuoso violinist, Joseph Slavik, it is

a flashy tour-de-force in the style of Liszt and Paganini, filled with technical

fireworks for both pianist and violinist. This is in stark contrast to the other

works he wrote late in his life, such as the famous song cycle Die Winterreise

and the two piano trios. Perhaps Schubert was trying to carry on the torch of

the great Beethoven, in the year ofhis death, with a groundbreaking modern

ch/l P T n OTVW pxrpr> f +V» O E*n unp ^ « •"-El.* «
unconventional sequence. The first section in C major acts as a sort of

introduction, moving into a fast Hungarian-style dance in A minor, which

acts as the second movement. Schubert borrowed from himselffor the third

movement, using his song Sei mir gegriisst as the theme for which he wrote 

variations. In the last movement, Schubert brings back themes from earlier

sections, culminating in a lively, almost symphonic Presto.

Anton Webern began to experiment with extreme concentration in all of

the elements ofhis music with his Four Piecesfor Violin and Piano, op. 7. They

are unlike anything else that was written at the time, examples ofwhich would

include Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1913), Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier (1911), and 

Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (1910). The Four Pieces contain, respectively, nine,

twenty-four, fourteen, and fifteen measures. They are arranged in somewhat

of a slow-fast-slow-fast order, with the third being the very slowest, and the 

second having the fastest tempo. However, because ofthe very concentrated 

nature ofthe writing, one’s perception oflength is somewhat obscured.

It is not only in brevity that Webern creates this minimalist yet intense

aesthetic. In fact, it is in the dynamic polarity, color, and gesture where it is

most defined. In the first piece, the violin uses four different techniques,

including sustained harmonics and pizzicato. The wild and rhapsodic

second piece provides ample contrast to the third, in which pianissimo (pp)

is the loudest marked dynamic. Where he calls for the softest dymanic, 

pianississimo (ppp), Webern adds “kaum horbar,” (scarcely audible). The 

fourth piece highlights opposites in high and low pitches, and in making

one instrument primary and the other secondary alternately. When the

pieces are played with exactitude and extreme attention to every detail, it

is clear that Webern (even at such an early stage in his career) was a master

of creating a fascinating sound-world with very few notes on the page.

Written on the heels ofhis first violin sonata (it is believed that Schumann was unhappy with his first, and began almost immediately to write 

the second), and composed in about a week in October 1851, the Sonata no. 2

in D Minorfor Violin and Piano is generally considered the superior ofthe 

two. He spent much ofthat year concentrating on minor keys and works of

6
an introspective nature, including the Piano Trio in G Minor and the Phantasiestiicke, opus in. As is the case with most of Schumann’s chamber works

with piano, the violin sonatas are driven by the piano part.

The first movement ofthe second violin sonata is not unlike the opening ofthe composer’s Piano Trio in D Minor, opus 63. Both works feature

a stormy and vigorous lento introduction, based on the main theme. Once 

the sonata proper begins, the tempo quickens as the violin comes in with its

statement ofthe theme. The second movement is essentially a scherzo, led 

by the piano in a pulsing duple meter. In the trio section, the violin takes

its own path, introducing what will be thematic material in the third movement. In the slow movement (Leise; einfach) (quiet; simple) Schumann

uses a cyclical technique, as he reintroduces the scherzo theme within the

movement’s variations. The brisk finale gives each instrument a chance to

lead and a time to accompany, though neither gets an opportunity to rest

amid all the activity. Schumann closes the last movement in a major tonality,

finally lifting the mood ofthe otherwise dark work.

Program notes on “Three Chinese Folk Songs” by Dan Zhu

Other notes by Danielle DeSwert

Next week at the National Gallery of Art

National Gallery Piano Trio

with

Vilmos Szabadi, violin

Szilvia Kovacs, viola

Music by Dohnanyi, Shostakovich, and Weiner

June 14, 2009

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

7
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 ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov
With apologies to her and to the audience for an error

in the program, the National Gallery music department

welcomes pianist Renana Gutman, who collaborates with Dan 

Zhu in tonight’s recital. Praised by the New York Sun for

playing “with great vigor and aplomb” and for the “true

poetry in her phrasing,” Gutman has performed across three 

continents as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and collaborative 

pianist. A top prize winner at New York’s International 

Keyboard Festival, the Los Angeles Liszt Competition, and

Israel’s Tel-Hai International Master Classes, she has

performed with the Doctors Orchestral Society ofNew York,

I Fiamminghi, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and the

Mannes College Community Orchestra. Her recordings have 

been heard and seen on the BBC, National Public Radio, and 

Israel’s “Voice of Music” radio and television network.

An ardent interpreter ofBeethoven, Gutman was one

offour young pianists selected by Leon Fleisher to participate

in his most recent workshop on Beethoven piano sonatas 

hosted by Carnegie Hall, where she performed the

“Hammerklavier” and “Appassionata” sonatas to critical 

acclaim.

This summer she will be in residence for the third

time at the Marlboro Music Festival, where she previously 

collaborated with Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, and

members ofthe Guarneri and Mendelssohn string quartets. 

Much affiliated with vocalists, Gutman has performed with 

Lincoln Center soprano Susan Naruki and Metropolitan

Opera mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford. Her readings of

contemporary and twentieth-century composers such as Paul

Ben-Haim, George Crumb, Nathan Currier, Charles Ives,

Gyorgy Kurtag, and Kaija Saariaho have been heard at the

Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival and New Music 

Mannes as well as the Walden Music School and several
universities in the United States. The recent debut in

Cleveland ofTerzetto, a piano trio she founded with violinist

Diana Cohen and cellist Tanya Ell, was received with great 

enthusiasm.

A native ofIsrael, Gutman started playing the piano at

age six. Soon recognized as a prodigy, she garnered multiple 

awards and honors, and received scholarships from the

America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Jewish

Foundation for the Education of Women. She counts among

her most influential teachers Natasha Tadson in Israel and

Richard Goode at the Marines College of Music in New York,

where Gutman completed her bachelor and master ofmusic

degrees. Among the other prominent pianists with whom she

has worked are Marcel Baudet, Victor Derevianko, Vladimir

Feltsman. Martin Isepp, Pnina Salzman, and Andras Schiff.