that is the lengthiest and most intricate of the fugues in Bach’s

violin sonatas. The perfect antithesis for the impassioned fugue is

the following Largo, with its pristine melody assisted by the most

frugal of accompaniments. The closing Allegro assai is a rhythmically brilliant dance with wide-ranging technical demands, challenging even the most advanced performers.

Partita No. 3 in E Major, BUY 1006 opens with an invigorating

Preludio, often heard by itself in violin recitals as an encore. The

Preludio is followed by a loure, a French regional dance from

Normandy with a contemplative, bucolic disposition. The Gavotte

en rondeau, on the other hand, is vivacious and earthy, and like the

Preludio is popular as an encore piece. The delightful Menuetsland

IIoffer a contrast between straightforwardness in the first and sensitiveness in the second. Between the Bourree and the Gigue there

is a contrast of rhythm, but also a common bright and joyful mood

that brings the partita to a successful conclusion.

-Program notes by Elmer Booze

Concerts at The National Gallery of Art

Under the Direction of George Manos

March 1998

15 Paul Badura-Skoda,/M2m/ Mozart: Fantasy in CMinor

Beethoven: ‘Waldstein” Sonata

Chopin: 24 Preludes

22 Mark Kosower, cellist

Jee-Won Oh, pianist

Brahms: Sonata in D Major

Francoeur: Sonata in E Major

Freund: Epicfor Solo Cello

The use ofcameras or recording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30pm.

The Fifty-sixth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2262d Concert

CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF, violinist

Sunday Evening, March 8, 1998

at Seven O’Clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission Free
PROGRAM

Music ofJohann Sebastian Bach for Solo Violin

(1685-1750)

Partita No. 2 in D Minor

BWV 1004 (1720)

Allemanda

Corrente

Sarabanda

Giga

Ciaccona

Sonata No. 3 in G Major

BWV 1005 (1720)

Adagio

Fuga

Largo

Allegro assai

INTERMISSION

Partita No. 3 in E Major

BWV 1006 (1720)

Preludio

Loure

Gavotte en rondeau

Menuet I-II

Bourree

Gigue

CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF was born in 1966 into a musical family in Hamburg, in which four siblings are all professional musicians. He began playing the violin and the piano at age six. After

making his professional debut with the Beethoven Violin Concerto at

age fourteen, he studied at the Hochschule fur Musik in Liibeck.

In 1985 Mr. Tetzlaffspent a year in the United States as a scholarship student ofWalter Levine at the University ofCincinnati College-Conservatory ofMusic. His international career was launched

in 1988 with performances ofthe Schoenberg Violin Concerto, which

he performed with the Munich Philharmonic and the Cleveland

Orchestra. Since then he has been the soloist with numerous American orchestras, including the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati,

and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. In Europe, he has played concertos with theAcademy ofSt. Martin in the Fields, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Orchestre National de France. Mr. Tetzlaffrecords

exclusively for Virgin Classics. His most recent recording features

sonatas by Janacek, Debussy, Ravel, and Nielsen, performed with

his frequent recital partner, pianist LeifOve Andsnes. A recording

ofthe five Mozart violin concertos, for which he functioned as both

soloist and conductor of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, was 

released last year. Christian Tetzlaff makes his home near Frankfurt, Germany, with his wife, a clarinetist with the Frankfurt Opera,

and their young son and daughter. He appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with ICM Artists, Limited, of New York City.

It has been said that in writing his partitas and sonatas for solo

violin, Bach was at the summit of his achievement. Although he was 

an accomplished violinist, the very foundation of his musical style

was his skill as an improviser at the keyboard. The resulting highly

polyphonic textures presentspecial challenges to players ofthe violin

and other sustaining instruments, on which it is difficult, if not impossible to play the music exactly as Bach put it on the page.

The intrinsic musical value ofBach’s solo violin works was not recognized or appreciated by subsequent generations ofstring players. 

Although they were used as a pedagogical aid by violin teachers, the

partitas and sonatas were not brought to the concert stage until the

end of the nineteenth century, when the great Hungarian-born violinist Joseph Joachim began to play them in his programs.

PartitaNo. 2in D Minor, BWV1004 is distinguished by its last movement, a chaconne ofgargantuan dimensions and potency. The famous

nineteenth-century German scholar and Bach biographer Philipp

Spitta wrote: “This chaconne is a triumph ofspirit over mattersuch as

even Bach never repeated in a more brilliant manner.”

SonataNo. 3in CMajor, BWV1005 begins with an adagio that takes

on a funereal character. However, this movement gives way to afuga