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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

www.nga.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 circlo@nga.gov for more information.

The Seventy-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,979th Concert

Fine Arts Quartet

Ralph Evans and Efim Boico, violins

Juan-Miguel Hernandez, viola

Robert Cohen, cello

February 9, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962)

String Quartet in A Minor (1919)

Fantasia: Moderato; allegro moderato

Scherzo: Allegro vivo con spirito

Einleitung und Romanze: Allegretto; andante con moto

Finale: Allegro molto moderato

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

String Quartet no.i in G Minor (1889)

Romance: Andante espressivo

Scherzo: Allegro

INTERMISSION

Efrem Zimbalist Sr. (1889-1985)

String Quartet in E Minor (1932, rev. 1959)

Fantasia: Moderato francamente

Scherzo: Con brio

Romanza: Andante con moto

Finale: Moto perpetuo (Allegro di molto)

The Musicians

Ranked among the most distinguished and authoritative ensembles ofour

time, the Fine Arts Quartet was founded in Chicago in 1946, and has been

based at the University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee since 1963. With nearly

seven decades of concert tours, the quartet performs worldwide in Beijing,

Berlin, Istanbul, Jerusalem, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Moscow, New York,

Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and many other musical centers.

Among the most recent ofthe more than two hundred works the ensemble

has recorded are Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet, Piano Quartet, and Marchenerzahlungen (Fairy Tales); the world-premiere recording ofEfrem Zimbalist’s

String Quartet in E Minor in its 1959 revised edition; Eugene Ysaye’s long-lost 

masterpiece for quartet and string orchestra, Harmonies du soir; and Fritz

Kreisler’s String Quartet. In 2013 Naxos released the Fine Arts’ recording of

Saint-Saens’ Piano Quintet and piano quartets to unanimous praise.

In 2012 the quartet earned special recognition from Gramophone Classical Music Guide, citing its recording of Faure quintets with pianist Cristina

Ortiz as a “Gramophone Award-winner and recording oflegendary status.”

In 2010 its cd of quartets by Cesar Franck was named “Editor’s Choice” by

Gramophone magazine, and in 2008 its album Four American Quartets was 

designated a “bbc Music Magazine Choice.” Nearly all ofthe quartet’s Naxos

cds have been Grammy® Awards nominees.

The subject ofdocumentaries on French and American public television,

the group has taught at the national music conservatories of Paris and Lyon as

well as the summer music schools ofYale and Indiana universities. Its members are often found on the juries ofthe Bordeaux, Evian, and Shostakovich 

international competitions. More information about the Fine Arts Quartet is

available at www.fmeartsquartet.org. The quartet appears at the National Gallery

by arrangement with Melvin Kaplan, Inc., www.melkap.com.

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Program Notes

One ofthe most famous violin masters ofhis day, Austrian-born violinist and

composer Friedrich “Fritz” Kreisler was known for his sweet tone and infallible sense ofrhythm and rubato. Although indebted to the Franco-Belgian 

school ofviolin playing, his style reflects the gemutlich (cozy) approach of

pre-World War i Viennese musicians. His compositions are considered by

most critics to be elevated salon music, yet they have survived the test oftime

and reflect his compassionate and congenial nature.

One of Kreisler’s rarely played masterpieces is his String Quartet in A

Minor. Composers such as Kreisler, who rejected the idea of atonalism and

the style ofthe Second Viennese School, nevertheless sought to find new

and innovative ways to communicate their ideas. In his string quartet,

Kreisler presents extremes of drama, energy, and languidity, all the while

quoting traditional Austrian dance and folk tunes and genres. In her biography Fritz Kreisler, Love’s Sorrow, Love’s Joy, Amy Biancolli quotes him as

identifying this work as his “tribute to Vienna.”

The first movement, Fantasia, strikes a note oftragic drama with the

opening cello solo. This recitative is followed by a delicate waltz and an

intensely anxious episode, after which the first section returns. The Scherzo

dances along, bursting with energy, but the tonality ofthis movement has

a wayward quality, and the languid trio section provides a striking contrast.

In the third movement, Introduction and Romance, Kreisler introduces

Viennese tunes and idioms from the days of his childhood. The Finale is a

permutation of a polka, with reminders ofthe recitative and waltz that

opened the work.

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Sergei Rachmaninoffwas the last ofthe Russian romantic composers

in an extraordinary tradition that largely ended with the revolution of 1917.

His musical life comprised three simultaneous and eminently successful

careers—concert pianist, conductor, and composer. Best known for his

second and third piano concertos, his second symphony, and the Rhapsody

on a Theme ofPaganini, his legacy includes themes that have found their

way into popular music and remain familiar to many music lovers, even 

though they may not know their origin. Two smaller works have enjoyed

the same widespread recognition: the Prelude in C-sharp Minor for piano

and the exquisite Vocalise that has been transcribed for nearly every imaginable ensemble.

Rachmaninofftwice attempted to write a string quartet, both times

leaving the works unfinished with only two movements apiece. His first

quartet, played on tonight’s program, was written when he was a precocious seventeen-year-old student at the Moscow Conservatory. A beguiling

miniature, it is graceful, wistful, and colorful, with highlights of pizzicato

and tremolo. The first movement bears an uncanny resemblance to the

Serenade from Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet, written twenty years 

earlier. Both movements feature long, languid falling lines in the main

theme and brighter, rising lines in the middle section, marked Con moto.

Efrem Zimbalist Sr. was an internationally known concert violinist,

composer, teacher, conductor, and director ofthe Curtis Institute of Music. 

Born in Russia, by age nine he occupied the first violin chair in his father’s

orchestra. Trained under Leopold Auer at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, 

he went on to become one ofthe foremost members ofthe Russian school

ofvirtuoso violinists. He composed a variety ofworks, including chamber

music, vocal works, an opera, and a commercially successful musical

comedy, Honeydew.

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Written in 1932 and revised in 1959, Zimbalist’s String Quartet in E

Minor is imbued with a distinct Russian melancholy. The first movement,

set in classical sonata form, is reminiscent of Borodin and Tchaikovsky in its

luxurious scope. Its exotic effects and modal harmonies suggest an oriental

flavor. The Scherzo, marked Con brio, engages with diverse, intricate colors,

calling for a sort ofraspy attack from the players. The much milder counter

theme gives a moment ofsoftness before the da capo, rife with strummed

effects and syncopations, brings the movement to a close. The slow third

movement gives unusual prominence to the second violin and takes on the 

quality of a lullaby tinged by peripheral counterpoint. The finale scurries

past in a kind ofwhirling perpetuum mobile, only to slow down for a poignant

series of chorale harmonies just before the final thrust ofthe conclusion.

Program notes by Danielle DeSwert Hahn, music program specialist,

National Gallery ofArt

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Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Aron Zelkowicz, cellist

Ryo Yanagitani, pianist

Music by Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Rachmaninoff

February 16, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Louise Toppin, soprano

Leon Bates, pianist

Spirituals and other music by African American composers

In honor ofAfrican American History Month

and the seventy-fifth anniversary of Marian Anderson’s

historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial

February 23, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium