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 ofthe 

West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

For the convenience of concertgoers, 

the Garden Cafe remains open for light refreshments

until 6:00 pm on Sundays.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

wuw.ngfl.gov

Concerts are made possible in part through the generosity of donors

to the National Gallery ofArt through The Circle. Reserved seating is

available in recognition oftheir support. Please contact the development 

office at (202) 842-6450 or circle@nga.gov for more information.

The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,940th Concert

Mykola Suk, pianist

with members ofthe National Gallery ofArt String Quartet

and the Phillips Camerata

April 21, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Music by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Seven Bagatelles, op. 33 (1801-1802)

E-flat Major (Allegro grazioso quasi allegretto)

C Major (Scherzo: Allegro)

F Major (Allegretto)

A Major (Andante)

C Major (Allegro non troppo)

D Major (Allegro quasi andante)

A-flat Major (Presto)

Quartetfor Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello in E-fat Major, op. 16 (1785)

Grave; allegro ma non troppo 

Andante cantabile

Allegro ma non troppo

INTERMISSION

Piano Concerto no. 5 in E-flat Major, op. 73 (“Emperor”) (1809-1811)

Arranged for piano and strings by Franz Paul Lachner (1803-1890)

Allegro

Adagio un poco mosso

Rondo: Allegro

The Musicians

MYKOLA SUK

Making his third appearance at the National Gallery ofArt following

acclaimed solo recitals in 2001 and 2003, Ukrainian-American pianist

Mykola Suk gained international recognition as the winner ofthe first 

prize and gold medal at the 1971 International Liszt-Bartok Competition 

in Budapest, Hungary. Performing in the most prestigious venues around

the world, from the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory to Carnegie Hall

in New York, Suk has garnered critical acclaim from audiences and critics

alike. The Toronto Star praised his “... enormous digital control... [and]

an impressive technique... so completely subsumed in the task ofmusical

characterization” while American Record Guide cited his “... astonishing

blend ofmuscular power, poetry, and utter control.”

Suk has appeared as soloist with numerous leading orchestras, including the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn under Roman Kofrnan and the Russian 

National Symphony under Mikhail Pletnev. He has collaborated with many

ofthe world’s outstanding conductors, including Charles Bruclc, James

DePreist, Janos Ferencsik, Arvid Jansons, and Stefan Turchak. Suk’s passion

for chamber music has taken him to many distinguished festivals, including

the Australian, International Keyboard Institute, Kiev, and Kuhmo chamber

music festivals. An avid supporter oftwentieth- and twenty-first-century

piano literature, he has premiered numerous works, including those of his 

fellow Ukrainians Ivan Karabyts, Valentin Silvestrov, and Myroslav Skoryk.

Holder ofthe doctor ofmusical arts degree in piano performance from 

the Moscow State Conservatory where he studied with Lev Vlasenko, Suk

served as professor ofpiano at the Kiev and Moscow state conservatories. 

Since coming to the United States, he has given master classes at many 

festivals as well as at Columbia University, the Manhattan School of Music,

the New England Conservatory, and the University of Southern Alabama.

His numerous recordings appear on the Hungaraton, Meldac / Tritan

Melodia, Russian Disc, Cambria-Troppe Note, and Music & Arts labels.

Mykola Suk appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Shupp 

Artists Management, www.shuppartists.com.

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NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART STRING QUARTET

The National Gallery ofArt 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. Performing

under the name Sunrise Quartet, the musicians have been recognized with

a Chamber Music America residency at the Duke Ellington School ofthe 

Arts as well as with residencies at Concerts at the Beach in Delaware and 

the Davies Concert Series in Camp Springs, Maryland. The quartet appeared

on the Millennium Stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing

Arts and has collaborated in concert at the National Gallery with pianists

Miceal O'Rourke and Menahem Pressler. Members ofthe National Gallery

ofArt String Quartet performing in this evening’s concert are violinist Teri

Lazar, violist Osman Kivrak, and cellist Diana Fish.

THE PHILLIPS CAMERATA

Founded in 2011, the Phillips Camerata appears in various combinations of

instruments to suit the demands of a wide variety of chamber music. Comprised ofsixteen leading instrumentalists from the Baltimore, New York,

Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, areas, and under the artistic direction of

Phillips Collection music director Caroline Mousset, the Camerata performs

the first and last Sunday concerts of each season at the Phillips Collection

and offers additional performances at other chamber music venues. It made

its inaugural guest appearance at the National Gallery ofArt in 2012, playing

music written between 1890 and 1921 in honor ofthe exhibition Picasso’s

Drawings, 1890-2921: Reinventing Tradition. Representing the ensemble in

today’s concert are violinist Karen Johnson and bassist Jeffrey Weisner.

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Program Notes

This is the fifth and final concert of a series planned collaboratively by

Stephen Ackert, head ofthe music department at the National Gallery of

Art, and Caroline Mousset, director ofmusic at the Phillips Collection, with 

the aim of presenting, in the space of a few weeks, all ofthe piano concertos 

by Ludwig van Beethoven. Taking advantage of a cadre ofmusicians who

are in residence at the two institutions, they have assembled a string quintet

to perform the concertos as they were arranged by Franz Paul Lachner in

chamber music formation. Piano Concerto no. 1, op. 15, was performed on

March 24 at the Phillips Collection by Irina Nuzova and members ofthe 

Phillips Camerata; Concerto no. 2, op. 19, was performed on March 27 at

the Gallery by Edvinas Minkstimas and members ofthe National Gallery

ofArt String Quartet, National Gallery ofArt Orchestra, and Phillips Camerata. Members of all three ensembles combined to assist pianists Danielle

DeSwert Hahn and Thomas Pandolfi as they played Concertos nos. 3 and 4

on April 7 and 14, respectively.

Classical and romantic composers wrote short pieces ofmusic more

frequently than their baroque forebears, reflecting the increasing influence 

ofhumanism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Improvisatory 

in nature and sometimes enigmatic, the pieces carry such names as

“moment musical,” “impromptu,” or “bagatelle,” and often reflect a whim

or a sudden change ofmood on the part ofthe composer. The latter genre 

name comes from the Italian bagattella, which means a trifle or a thing

with merely decorative purpose. Given the extended rhapsody and unyielding abundance of development in Beethoven’s sonatas and piano concertos,

one is not surprised to find in his Bagatelles, op. 33, a concentrated version of

the same creativity. In these short pieces, the composer explores numerous

musical possibilities while giving each idea just the right anount oftime, 

attention, and development.

Beethoven composed all three of his piano quartets at age fifteen, when

he was developing a reputation as a prodigious pianist in his home town of

Bonn. The works reflect his ambition to write and play music that would

show off his skill at the keyboard, but the writing for the string instruments

5
also shows maturity and insight beyond the composer’s years. Particularly

noteworthy in the Quartet, op. 16, is the freedom and scope ofthe viola

part. The instrument moves with fluidity throughout its range, sometimes

functioning as soprano or alto in the ensemble, whereas traditionally it 

shared the tenor voice with the more powerful cello.

Beethoven earned the reputation of a revolutionary in every genre in

which he composed, and his piano concertos are no exception. Already with

his first two concertos, composed in the 1790s, he was surprising his listeners.

Bohemian composer Johann Tomaschek (1774-1850) heard Beethoven play

both works, and soon thereafter wrote: “I admired his powerful and brilliant

playing, but his frequent daring deviations from one motive to another,

whereby the organic connection, the gradual development ofidea was put

aside, rudely awakened the unbiased listener from his transport.”

With his fifth piano concerto, the composer, already at thirty-nine a

larger-than-life figure among the musicians ofhis time, set out to surpass

even his own previous masterpieces in this genre. The nickname “Emperor”

was added by a later publisher, as an acknowledgment ofthe superior place 

that he felt the work should occupy in the pantheon of concertos. After an

opening chord, the ensemble gives way to the piano’s rhapsodic, improvisational introduction. Only then does one hear the ensemble undertake the

exposition, a thorough exploration oftwo themes. The subsequent development comes to an impressive climax, setting the stage for the cadenza,

which Beethoven wrote out specifically for use with this movement.

The strings open the second movement with a chant-like passage, to

which the piano responds on its own with music that relates to the chant

without actually quoting it. After an extended piano melody with plucked

string accompaniment, the movement closes with a preview ofthe theme

that will function as the rondo ofthe third movement, which arrives without

pause. The motoric energy ofthis last movement has been a model for all

subsequent composers who have undertaken concertos, few ofwhom have

ever surpassed it.

Program notes by Stephen Ackert, head, music department, National Gallery ofArt

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Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Duo Leroy-Moubarak

French music for cello and piano written between 1815 and 1915

Presented in honor of Color, Line, Light: French Drawings,

Watercolors, and Pastelsfrom Delacroix to Signac

Sponsored in part by the Cultural Services ofthe

Embassy of France in Washington, DC, and Safran usa

April 24, 2013

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Katherine Chi, pianist

Music by Bach, Beethoven, Mallia, Scriabin, and Vonorov

April 28, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court