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Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

200ob South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-fourth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,543rd Concert

The Beaux Arts Trio

Menahem Pressler, piano

Daniel Hope, violin

Antonio Meneses, cello

October 9, 2005

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Program

Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959)

Trio no. 1 (Cinq pieces breves) (1930)

Allegro moderato 

Adagio

Allegro

Allegro moderato 

Allegro con brio

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Trio in E-Jlat Major, op. 70, no. 2 (1808)

Adagio cantabile

Scherzo: Allegro assai

Finale: Allegro

INTERMISSION

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Trio in E-Jlat Major, op. 100 (1828)

Allegro

Andante con moto

Scherzo: Allegro moderato 

Allegro moderato

The Musicians

THE BEAUX ARTS TRIO

Now in its fifty-first season, this world-renowned piano trio has set the standard for performance ofits type ever since its public debut on July 13, 1955,

at the Berkshire Music Festival, known today as the Tanglewood Music 

Center. From the United States to Russia, from Japan to Germany, from

Israel to Brazil, the trio has earned the highest praise and ovations in all of

the world’s major music centers. Chosen as the Musical America Ensemble

ofthe Year in 1997, the group has maintained its freshness while preserving

its distinctive musical heritage. The Beaux Arts Trio, which was founded by

Menahem Pressler, Daniel Guilet, and Bernard Greenhouse, has played a

major and ongoing role in the programs of important cultural and educational centers throughout North America, with annual concert series in such

grand settings as the Celebrity Series of Boston, the Library of Congress,

and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It has also made

annual appearances in Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Louisville, New York,

Philadelphia, Portland, Saint Paul, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver.

The trio’s engagements at major North American music festivals include

Caramoor, Mostly Mozart, Orford, Ottawa, Ravinia, and Tanglewood, and it

is invited every year to return to the prestigious international festivals in

Edinburgh, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Israel, Lucerne, Vienna, and Warsaw.

Several contemporary composers have written pieces for the trio.

Among recent premiere performances are Ned Rorem’s Spring Music, commissioned in 1991 by Carnegie Hall as part ofits centennial celebration,

and George Rochberg’s Summer, icjc)0, commissioned by the Philadelphia

Chamber Music Society.

The Beaux Arts Trio’s extensive discography on Philips Records encompasses the entire piano trio literature. The recordings have brought several 

coveted awards, including the Gramophone Record ofthe Year, three Grands

Prix du Disque, the Prix Mondial du Disque, and the Stereo Review Record

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ofthe Year Award. The trio’s recording of music by Spanish composers 

was nominated for a Grammy in 1998. In September 2004 the trio released its first recording with its current membership on Warner Classics,

and Universal Classics released a two-CD anniversary compilation from

the Philips discography. A Steinway Piano ensemble, the Beaux Arts Trio

appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with the Sheldon Division

of Columbia Artists Management, llc, of New York City.

MENAHEM PRESSLER

The founding member and pianist ofthe Beaux Arts Trio has established 

himself among the world’s most distinguished and honored musicians,

with a career that spans nearly five decades. Outstanding as both a chamber

musician and a solo performer, Menahem Pressler has also gained an international reputation as a gifted teacher. His career was launched when he 

won the first prize at the Debussy International Piano Competition in San

Francisco. This was followed by his successful American debut with the

Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Eugene Ormandy. Pressler made 

his debut as a chamber musician at the 1955 Berkshire Music Festival,

where he appeared as pianist with the newly formed Beaux Arts Trio. This

ensemble quickly established Pressler’s standing as a premiere chamber

musician. His many chamber music collaborations include multiple performances with the Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri, and Juilliard Quartets as

well as the Israel Quartet and the Pasquier String Trio. This year Pressler 

celebrates his fiftieth year of association with Indiana University’s School of

Music, where he holds the rank of distinguished professor of music.

Born in Magdeburg, Germany, Menahem Pressler received most of

his musical training in Israel. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from

the Universities of Kansas and Nebraska. In 1994 he was honored with 

Chamber Music America’s Distinguished Service Award. In 1998 he 

received the prestigious Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award, and

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in 2000 he was elected to the Academy ofArts and Letters. In addition 

to more than fifty recordings with the Beaux Arts Trio, Menahem Pressler

has compiled more than thirty solo recordings, ranging in repertoire

from Bach to Ben-Haim. On December 16, 2003, Pressler celebrated his

80th birthday (and Beethoven’s 233rd) with a gala recital at the Library

of Congress.

DANIEL HOPE

Violinist Daniel Hope was voted “best young British classical performer of

the year” in 2004 for his recording ofthe Britten and Berg violin concertos 

on Warner Classics. This was a milestone in a career that has repeatedly 

caught the attention ofthe European public. By age ten Hope had already

appeared on British television, playing chamber music with double bassist

Gary Karr. Hope was subsequently invited by Yehudi Menuhin to perform

Bartok duos for German television. The two musicians played more than

sixty concerts together, including Lord Menuhin’s final concert on March 7,

1999, at ^e Tonhalle in Diisseldorf.

Daniel Hope is a veteran ofthe world’s great concert stages and has

appeared at major events such as the bbc and Manchester Proms and 

the festivals of Carinthian Summer, Colmar, Gstaad, Harrogate, Klangbogen

Vienna, Lucerne, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, San Sebastian, SchleswigHolstein, Schloss Elmau, Spannungen, and Vail. A recent review in the 

American Record Guide states, “With his winning combination of old-world

lyricism, beautiful tone, and a sure sense ofstyle, he is a star in the making.”

In addition to his collaboration with the Beaux Arts Trio, Hope has appeared 

in chamber music concerts with Yuri Bashmet, Philippe Entremont,

Lynn Harrell, Alexei Lubimov, Paul Meyer, Christoph Poppen, Lars Vogt,

and Tabea Zimmermann. He founded and has traveled worldwide with

the London International Quartet, winner ofthe 1999 Allianz Prize.

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ANTONIO MENESES

Antonio Meneses was born in Recife, Brazil, to a musical family—his 

father was first horn player at the Opera of Rio de Janeiro—and began to

study the cello at age ten. During a tour in South America cellist Antonio 

Janigro heard the young musician and asked Meneses to join his classes

in Diisseldorf and in Stuttgart. In 1977 Meneses won First Prize at the 

International Competition in Munich and in 1982 was awarded first prize 

and the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Antonio Meneses performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and is a frequent guest at many international music festivals, including

the Berlin Festwochen, Festival Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico, Festival de

Colmar (founded by Vladimir Spivakov in France), La Grange de Mesley

(founded by Sviatoslav Richter in France), the festivals of Lucerne and

Salzburg, the Prague Spring Festival, and the Vienna Festwochen. In addition to his work with the Beaux Arts Trio, Meneses regularly tours Europe

and Japan in chamber music concerts with the Amati, Carmina, and

Vermeer Quartets. He performs each season with the Casals Hall Quartet

in Japan. He has recorded with Anne Sophie Mutter as well as with the 

Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the 

baton of Herbert von Karajan, and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

Program Notes

Although Bohuslav Martinu spent most of his creative life away from his 

native Czechoslovakia, he shares with Leos Janacek (1854-1928) the honor

of being remembered as one ofthe two most substantial Czech composers 

ofthe twentieth century. His first work in the piano trio literature, Cinq

pieces breves, is solidly polyphonic and makes consistent use ofrepeated 

motifs. The principal of opposition between contrasting elements informs

the opening ofthe second piece (Adagio), as the homophonic piano part

opposes the more polyphonic writing for the strings. As the movement

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progresses, however, the piano and string textures are brought together and 

the contrast disappears. The third piece (Allegro) is a dialogue between 

conjunct and disjunct patterns in rapid motion, while the fourth (Allegro

moderato) juxtaposes eighth-note groupings and triplets. In the finale

(Allegro con brio) the piano once again provides a homophonic foil to the

counterpoint in the strings.

The period between 1806 and 1808 was one of intense creative activity

for Beethoven, after several years in which he had produced relatively few

notable compositions. His Heiligenstadt Testament (1808) gives evidence

that he had managed to come to terms with two deeply troubling aspects of

his life: his deafness and his by-then-abandoned hope to marry his pupil 

Josephine von Brunswick. All three piano trios of opus 70 are basically

serene works, infused with the character that only a German word truly captures: Gemutlichkeit. Some ofthe fiery temperament for which Beethoven

was famous does show itselfin the Trio in E-flat Major, op. 70, no. 2, however. The graceful second movement (Scherzo: Allegro assai) is rudely interrupted by a blustering second theme with off-beat accents, and the last

movement (Finale: Allegro) catches the listener by surprise as it begins with

a series of aggressive runs.

Franz Schubert turned to the piano trio medium late in his short life,

but the two trios he produced are both masterworks. One ofthe first musicians to write about the Trio in E-flat Major, op. 100, after Schubert’s death 

was Robert Schumann (1810-1856), who described it as “active, masculine,

and dramatic...possessed of a deep indignation and passionate longing.” In

the second movement (Andante con moto) Schumann heard “a sigh, rising

to spiritual anguish.” In this movement Schubert presents an original 

melody in the style of a folk song, supported by a marchlike rhythm. In the

third movement (Scherzo: Allegro moderato) he makes use of a canon in

the style of Haydn, with a contrasting waltz as the trio. The last movement

(Allegro moderato) takes on the sonata-rondo form and reiterates the theme

from the second movement, giving unity to the composition as a whole.

The indignation and longing ofthe previous slower movements give way to

jubilation as the work closes with a spirited coda.