For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

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-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,659th Concert

Juilliard String Quartet

Joel Smirnoff and Ronald Copes, violin

Samuel Rhodes, viola

Joel Krosnick, cello

February 17, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

String Quartet in E Minor, op. 68 (1873)

Allegro 

Andantino

Prestissimo

Scherzo fuga: Allegro assai mosso

Elliot Carter (b. 1908)

String Quartet no. 2 (1959)

Introduction

Allegro fantastico; cadenza for viola

Presto scherzando; cadenza for cello

Andante espressivo; cadenza for violin 

Allegro 

Conclusion

(Played without pauses between movements)

INTERMISSION

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1828)

String Quartet in C Major, op. 59, no. 3 (1806)

Andante con moto; allegro vivace

Andante con moto quasi allegretto

Menuetto: Grazioso

Allegro molto

The Musicians

The Juilliard String Quartet enjoys international renown, and has been

recognized for much ofits sixty-one-year history as the quintessential

American string quartet. Composer and music educator William Schuman

(1910-1992), who was president ofthe Juilliard School ofmusic from 1945

to 1962, considered the establishment ofthe school’s resident string quartet

in 1946 as one ofthe great achievements of his tenure. This concert marks

the third time that this famous ensemble has performed at the National

Gallery. Its first Gallery concert in 1949 featured the original quartet members: violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Ralph Hillyer, and

cellist Arthur Winograd. Not long thereafter, the Juilliard Quartet established residency at the Library of Congress, which was the only venue at

which it could be heard in Washington for many years. In 1991 the ensemble

made an exception to that rule and returned to the Gallery to participate

in its fiftieth anniversary concert season. On that occasion, Mann was still 

the first violinist, and his colleagues were the players who remain members

ofthe quartet to this day—Joel Smirnoff on second violin, Samuel Rhodes

on viola, and Joel Krosnick on cello.

In the 2007-2008 season, the quartet offers special programming in

recognition ofthe centenary of Elliott Carter, a composer with whom it has

had a long and remarkable relationship. An ardent advocate ofCarter’s

complex and visionary works, the Juilliard made a landmark recording ofhis

first four string quartets, which was released by Sony in 1991. This season the

ensemble performs his String Quartet no. 2 and partakes in celebrations of

his work at the Ravinia Festival in Illinois. In addition to this evening’s concert, 

the Quartet will perform in California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, 

New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The season also includes

an extensive Juilliard Quartet tour across Europe, with stops in The Netherlands and Paris, and a return engagement to Japan’s Miyazaki Festival.

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As quartet-in-residence at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City,

the ensemble is widely admired for its seminal influence on aspiring string

players around the world. It was instrumental in the formation ofthe Alexander, American, Brentano, Colorado, Concord, Emerson, Lark, La Salle,

Mendelssohn, New World, Saint Lawrence, and Tokyo string quartets. It has

performed a comprehensive repertoire ofsome 500 works and has premiered

more than sixty compositions by American composers. In 2006 the Quartet

played the world premiere of Ezequiel Vinao’s Quartet 11, “The Loss and the

Silence,” commissioned by the Juilliard School in honor ofits centennial.

The ensemble has been associated with Sony Classical since 1949.

With more than 100 releases to its credit, the Juilliard is one ofthe most

widely recorded string quartets of our time and has received numerous

awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and

many European institutions.

The Quartet members are annual guests at the Tanglewood Music 

Festival and frequent guests at the Lucerne, Miyazaki, and Schubertiade

festivals. They are all American-born and received their musical training

in the United States. Violinist Joel Smirnoffhas been a member since 1986. 

He is chair ofthe violin department at the Juilliard School and pursues

an active career as a conductor. In 1997 violinist Ronald Copes joined the

ensemble as second violinist and was appointed to the violin faculty at

Juilliard. He appears in solo recitals across the United States and in Europe.

Violist Samuel Rhodes, who has been with the quartet since 1969, is also

an active recital and orchestral soloist. He is a composer and chair ofthe

viola department at the Juilliard School. Joel Krosnick, cellist ofthe Juilliard

String Quartet since 1974, performs regularly with pianist Gilbert Kalish,

his sonata partner of over twenty years. Krosnick has been chair ofthe cello

department at Juilliard since 1994.

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Program notes

It is interesting to conjecture whether Giuseppe Verdi might not have written

a string quartet at all, had he not encountered a peculiar set of circumstances

while in Naples in 1872. A staging ofAida in that city was postponed due to

the illness ofseveral singers, and Verdi had a great deal oftime on his hands.

He used it to write his one and only string quartet, which was first performed

on April 1,1873, at a party in his hotel suite. The first movement opens with 

the second violin setting forth a dramatic theme, which is taken up by the

first violin. A subdued, contemplative second subject appears in the cello. To

the second movement tempo marking—Andantino—Verdi adds con eleganza

(with elegance), and he gives the cello an elegant aria to sing. The finale,

marked Scherzofuga, features high-spirited writing that drives the music

to an exciting conclusion.

In the twentieth century, American composers emerged as major creative

talents on the world stage. Elliot Carter, who celebrates his 100th birthday

this year, is undoubtedly the master among American composers ofthe last 

century. In his long life, Carter has composed in every musical genre, turning

eventually to opera (his first opera, What Next?, had its premiere in December

2007 in New York). He wrote eight string quartets, though he withdrew the

first three from publication. In the second ofhis published string quartets,

Carter gives each instrument its own musical personality and characteristic

style. Because ofthe total independence ofthe individual parts, the composer

first thought ofhaving the performers seated in four comers ofthe stage, 

but later deemed the idea impractical. The Juilliard String Quartet played the

premiere ofCarter’s String Quartet no. 2 on March 25, i960, in New York City.

In his own analysis ofthe work, Carter writes: “The form ofthe quartet

helps to make elements ofthe four-way conversation clear.... The Allegro

fantastico is led by the violin, whose whimsical, ornate part is imitated by the

other three... .The same occurs in the Presto scherzando, led by the second

violin, and the Andante, led expressively by the cello, which eventually draws

the others into one ofits characteristic accelerations.” In between the

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movements, the composer inserts cadenzas—one for the viola, one for the 

cello, and the last for the violin. Throughout the twenty-minute work, the 

second violin acts as a moderating influence, using its pizzicato and bowed

notes to mark regular time.

If Haydn is regarded as the progenitor ofthe string quartet, Beethoven

was the composer who brought the genre to its zenith. His sixteen quartets

cover the period from the late 1790s to 1826, a year before his death, and 

are evenly spaced throughout his creative career. Beethoven’s personal style

emerges strongly in the set ofthree quartets he grouped under opus 59.

They are known to posterity as the “Razumovsky” quartets, after the man

who commissioned them—Count Andrey Kyrillovich Razumovsky (1752-

1836), who was the Russian ambassador to the Hapsburg court in Vienna in

the first decade ofthe nineteenth century. Particularly noteworthy is the

exploitation ofinstrumental timbres. In the earlier quartets, the themes are

generally played by the first violin while the other three instruments provide

the accompaniment. In opus 59, no. 3, which is the ninth of his quartets,

Beethoven opens with a slow introduction which leads into the Allegro vivace.

The first and last movements ofthis work are happy outbursts ofthe composer’s growing maturity and innovative skill. The second movement has 

been called a “lament,” perhaps due to the theme—a soulful violin melody

over a pizzicato from the cello. A traditional minuet provides the third movement, which leads to the energetic finale, a fully-developed fugue marked

Allegro molto. This was the first time that Beethoven included such a lengthy 

fugue in a string quartet, and it constituted an act of courage on his part.

Some ofthe fugues that he had written earlier had been compared unfairly 

with fugues of Bach, and were subjected to ridicule by critics, making

Beethoven quite sensitive about the subject. The viola launches the driving

fugal theme, which is then taken over by the second violin, followed by

the cello and the first violin. Marked by dynamic energy and a triumphant

conclusion, this movement acts as a kind of vindication for a composer

who did not need to prove himself.

Program notes by Sorab Modi

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Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

National Gallery Chamber Players Piano Trio

Music by Dvorak, Ravel, and Schoenfield

February 24, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Celeste Headlee, soprano

Danielle DeSwert, pianist

Music by William Grant Still

Presented in honor ofAfrican American History Month

February 27, 2008

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall