Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen is undoubtedly one of the world’s most

famous and beloved violin masterpieces. Although widely thought of as

a derivative of the gypsy violin music of Spain, Zigeunerweisen relates 

more to that of Hungarian gypsies. Although one may debate the success 

of Sarasate’s attempt to integrate all the themes he uses into one

complete whole, the work sustains the listener’s fascination with the

violin’s pyrotechnics, even as each section stands on its own.

Programs notes by Elmer Booze

Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

20 January

Eugenia Zukerman,flutist

Rachelle Jonck, pianist

27 January

The Iceland Trio

Works by William Grant Still and

other composers in honor of the

birth anniversary of Martin Luther 

King

Piano trios by Sweinsson,

Beethoven, and Brahms

The use ofcameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed.

For the convenience of concertgoers

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

During the months ofJanuary and February,

recent performances by the National Gallery Orchestra

can be heard Wednesday evenings at 9:00 p.m. on WETA, 90.9 FM.

The Sixtieth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2405th Concert

LIANG CHAI, violinist

DAVID DU, pianist

Sunday Evening, 13 January 2002

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
PROGRAM

Francesco Geminiani Sonata No. 1 in A Major

(1687-1762) Op. 1 (1716)

Adagio; presto; adagio; presto; adagio

Allegro

Grave; presto

Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata No. 9 in A Minor (“Kreutzer”)

(1770-1827) Op. 47 (1802-1803)

Adagio sostenuto; presto 

Andante con variazioni

Presto

INTERMISSION

John Corigliano 

(b. 1938)

Sonata for Violin and Piano

(1963)

Allegro

Andantino

Lento

Allegro

Pablo de Sarasate 

(1844-1908)

Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs)

Op. 20, No. 1 (1878)

Hailed by the string magazine, The Strad, as a “large-scaled player

with a warm, pleasing sound,” violinist Liang Chai is among the

foremost artists of his generation. Born in Shenyang, People’s Republic

of China, to a composer father and a mother who was a singer, Chai

began to play the piano at the age of four and switched to the violin at

age nine. After two years of violin study, he was accepted into the

Conservatory of Shenyang. In 1986 he was accepted without audition

into Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, and in 1991 he came to the

United States on a full scholarship to the University of Southern

California. A subsequent full scholarship from the Starling Foundation 

enabled him to study with the eminent violin teacher Dorothy DeLay and

her associate Hyo Kang at the Juilliard School of Music in New York

City. Chai received the master of music degree from Juilliard in the

spring of 1997 and was awarded a two-year teaching appointment as a

fellow of the DeLay-Starling Institute. Chai played his New York City

solo debut with the Korean Symphony Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall and

his debut in China with the Beijing National Symphony Orchestra,

performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. He appeared at the

renowned Newport Music Festival in 1999 and 2000.

Pianist David Du is the son of not one but two composers. 

He began studying the piano at the age of six and composition 

at the age of ten. By the time he was thirteen, some of his work

had already been published in a music magazine. In 1979 he

was admitted to the secondary school affiliated with the Shanghai

Conservatory of Music. He majored in piano and won several national

and school competitions. In 1983 the Ministry of Culture of the Central

Government in China selected Du to participate in the Tokyo

International Music Competition, at which he won fifth prize. The

Japanese critics praised the sixteen-year-old’s playing as “unaffected

and natural, possessing emotional depth and youthful energy.” Du

completed his formal musical education at the Juilliard School of Music,

where his teachers were Russell Sherman and Oxana Yablonskaya. He

has performed in solo recitals and with orchestras in Australia, the

Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, France, Holland, and the

United States.
Francesco Geminiani, a student and disciple of Arcangelo Corelli (1653-

1713), left his native Italy to settle in London in 1714. A multi-talented 

virtuoso violinist, teacher, theorist, and composer, he gained instant fame

and recognition as a leader in English musical society. Some of his

instrumental works, including sonatas for solo violin and Concerti

grossi, are respected icons in the baroque repertoire. Modeled after the

sonatas of Corelli, Geminiani’s sonatas are more sonorous, more

chromatic in harmony and melody, freer in rhythm and form, more

dramatic in concept, and more difficult to play than those of the elder 

master. In addition, Geminiani included ornaments in all of the

movements, whereas Corelli embellished only his slow movements.

The British mulatto violin virtuoso George A. Polgreen Bridgetower 

(c. 1779-1860) was the son of an African father and a European mother.

His brilliant violin playing greatly affected Beethoven and inspired him

to compose the “Kreutzer” Sonata, Op. 47. Bridgetower played the

premiere of the work in 1803 in Vienna. Sometime later, Beethoven and

Bridgetower ceased to be friends, purportedly after a jealous quarrel over

a woman, and the sonata was dedicated to the distinguished French 

violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831), who became the sonata’s

eponym. Ironically, Kreutzer found the work “outrageously unintelligible”

and never played it.

The sonata begins with a slow chordal introduction, played first by the

violin and then by the piano. A passionate Presto section follows,

unfolding into an extended passage for solo piano. The second

movement {Andante con variazioni) is the best known section of the

work and presents an unadorned theme in the piano that is subsequently 

joined by the violin. The initial simplicity of the Andante is gradually 

replaced by increasing elaboration as the movement progresses through 

four embroidered variations. The finale (Presto) is a robust and energetic 

tarantella that begins with a single chord played fortissimo on the piano,

followed by the entrance of a 6/8 rhythmic pattern, set by the violin. The

driving motion thus initiated launches the movement into a virtuoso 

cyclonic conclusion that requires uncompromising precision on the part

of both performers.

The 1964 Spoleto Festival Competition for the Creative Arts, sponsored

by Boston University, was the setting for the world premiere of John 

Corigliano’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. Corigliano has written: “For

the most part, [the sonata is] a tonal work, although it incorporates nontonal and polytonal sections, as well as other twentieth-century 

harmonic, rhythmic, and constructional techniques. The listener will

recognize the work as a product of an American writer, although this is

more the result of an American writing music than writing ‘American’

music—a second-nature, unconscious action on the composer’s part.

Rhythmically, the work is extremely varied. Meters change in almost

every measure, and independent rhythmic patterns in each instrument are

common. The [sonata] was originally entitled Duo, [making obvious] the

treatment of both instruments as co-partners. Virtuosity is of great

importance in adding color and energy to a work [that] is basically an

optimistic statement, but the virtuosity is always motivated by musical

means. To cite an example: the last movement rondo includes a virtuosic 

polyrhythmic and polytonal perpetual motion, [the] thematic material 

and accompaniment figures [of which] are composed of three distinct 

elements derived from materials stated in the beginning of the

movement. The sixteenth-note perpetual motion theme is originally a

counterpoint to the initial theme [of the movement]. Against this are set

two figures—an augmentation of the primary theme and, in combination

with that, a 5/8 rhythmic ostinato, originally to accompany a totally 

different earlier passage. All three elements combine to form a new

virtuoso perpetual motion theme, which is, of course, subjected to

further development and elaboration.” In a New York Times critique that

also appeared in 1964, Corigliano was said to have “the audacity and the

skill to take an old musical joke like the perpetual-motion finale and

restate it in modern terms without sounding simple-minded and without 

losing the point.... He has an important future.”