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

www.nga.gov

The Seventieth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,847th Concert

National Gallery ofArt String Quartet

Claudia Chudacoff and Teri Lazar, violin

Osman Kivrak, viola

Diana Fish, cello

October 2, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Music by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) 

Quartet in G Major; op. 18, no. 2 (1802)

Allegro

Adagio cantabile

Scherzo: Allegro 

Allegro molto, quasi presto

Quartet in E-fiat Major, op. 127 (1825)

Maestoso; allegro

Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile

Scherzando vivace

Allegro

INTERMISSION

Quartet in C Major, op. 59, no. 3 (1808)

Andante con moto; allegro vivace

Andante con moto quasi allegretto

Menuetto (Grazioso)

Allegro molto

The Musicians

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. In April 2011, the quartet

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

Performing Arts, and in 2009 the ensemble collaborated in concert with the

renowned chamber musician and pianist Menahem Pressler, playing music

by Mozart and Schumann.

CLAUDIA CHUDACOFF

In addition to serving as concertmaster ofthe Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, the National Gallery ofArt Orchestra, and the United States Marine

Band White House Chamber Orchestra, violinist Claudia Chudacoff appears

frequently as a soloist and chamber musician in the Washington and

Baltimore areas. A member ofboth the Sunrise Quartet and the National

Gallery ofArt String Quartet, she has also performed with the Contemporary Music Forum and National Musical Arts as well as in the Embassy

Series and at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She is

featured on a CD of chamber music by Erich Korngold released by Albany 

Records, and has been heard on American Public Media’s Performance Today.

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TERI1AZAR

Violinist Teri Lazar has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in

the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. She is the concertmaster

ofthe Virginia Chamber Orchestra and performs with the Richmond

Chamber Players and in Currents, a chamber music series also based in

Richmond. She earned a doctor ofmusic degree from the Catholic University ofAmerica and teaches violin at American University, where she is a

musician in residence. Lazar has recorded chamber music for the Albany,

Centaur, Klavier, and North/South Consonance labels and has been heard

on Performance Today.

OSMAN KIVRAK

With numerous concert tours of Europe to his credit, including performances

at the Spoleto festivals in the United States and Italy, violist Osman Kivrak

brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the National Gallery ofArt

String Quartet. He also performs with the Sunrise Quartet, the Richmond

Chamber Players, and Currents and serves as artistic director ofConcerts

at the Beach in Delaware and the Davies Concert Series in Camp Springs,

Maryland. A viola instructor in the applied music program at American

University, Kivrak received master ofmusic and doctor ofmusic degrees

from the Catholic University ofAmerica. Before coming to the United States,

he studied at Gazi University in Turkey and the Guildhall School of Music 

in London. He has recorded chamber music for the Amerimusic, Arizona

University Recordings, Klavier, and Living Music labels. His compositions

for viola and other instruments have been heard at the Corcoran Gallery of

Art, the Kennedy Center, and the Library ofCongress.

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DIANA FISH

A resident ofWashington, DC, since 1994, when she became a member of

the Marine Chamber Orchestra of “The President’s Own” United States

Marine Band, cellist Diana Fish currently serves as assistant principal cellist

ofthat ensemble. She graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where

she studied with Orlando Cole, and continued her work at the graduate

level at Indiana University under Janos Starker. Fish has been the principal

cellist of Concert Artists of Baltimore, with whom she performed as soloist

in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for piano, violin, and cello. She has also 

appeared as soloist with the Marine Chamber Orchestra in Victor Herbert’s

Cello Concerto in E Minor. She is a founding member ofboth the Sunrise

Quartet and the National Gallery ofArt String Quartet.

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Program Notes

This evening’s performance is the fourth in a series ofsix concerts at the

National Gallery ofArt in which six different string quartets will play all ofthe

works that Beethoven wrote for the medium. Intended to give Washingtonarea concertgoers an opportunity to hear this great body ofwork and compare

the interpretations provided by quartets from various stylistic traditions, the

series has so far presented performers from Germany (Leipzig String Quartet), and the United States (American and Ariel String Quartets). Resuming

tonight with the National Gallery ofArt String Quartet, the six-part series

continues with the Talich String Quartet on November 6, and concludes with

a concert by the Pacifica String Quartet on December 4, 2011.

Beethoven’s opus 18 string quartets, ofwhich there are six, were not

composed in the order in which they are numbered. Composed between

1798 and 1800 and published in 1802, Quartet in G Major, op. 18, no. 2, was 

the fifth ofthe sequence to be written. The most classically grounded ofthe

six, this quartet pays tribute not only to preclassical styles, but also to the

more light-hearted quartets of Mozart and Haydn. Rich in wit and humor,

the slow movement is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the much more

serious and beautiful slow finale of Haydn’s C Major Quartet, op. 54, no. 2.

In the five years that passed between the publication of Beethoven’s

first set ofstring quartets, opus 18, and the composition ofthe second set,

opus 59, his style had changed immensely. Placed by music historians in

the composer’s middle period and dubbed “Razumovsky” for the Russian

patron who commissioned them, the opus 59 quartets are longer and more

fully developed than the opus 18 quartets, and replete with emotional contrasts. The Quartet in C Major, op. 59, no. 3, was regarded at the time ofits

composition as the most approachable ofthe three, but it too has its share

of challenges for both the listener and the performer. The grandiose finale

gives the quartet its nickname, “Eroica” (heroic).

The quartets of op. 127 fall without question into Beethoven’s late period.

The Quartet in E-Jlat Major, op. 127, is considered the most mild-mannered

and conventional ofthe quartets from his final period. Its structure is, in fact,

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more classical than that of any ofthe earlier “Razumovsky” quartets, yet the

spirit is bolder and more exploratory than any previous quartet. Beethoven

originally had more grandiose ideas for the project, intending it to contain

six movements, including one subtitled “La gaiete” as well as an Adagio of

darker character. Having abandoned the grand plan, Beethoven was content

to produce a calm, expansive four-movement work of astonishing beauty

and innocence. First published in Mainz in 1826, the quartet is dedicated to

Prince Nikolai Golitsin, who commissioned it and the two Beethoven quartets

that followed, opp. 131 and 132.

Program notes by Danielle DeSwert Hahn

Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

National Gallery ofArt Orchestra

Saint Petersburg Symphony Orchestra

Music by Bernstein, Mussorgsky, and Prokofiev

October 9, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Atrium

“From the Top” with Christopher O’Riley

October 16, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium