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-eighth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,746th Concert

Yakov Kasman, pianist

November 8, 2009

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Largo from Sonatafor Organ in C Major, bwv 529

Transcription by Samuel Feinberg

Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

From The Seasons, op. 37 (1875-1876)

February (Carnival)

May (Starlit nights)

August (Harvest)

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Sonata no. 2 in D Minor, op. 14 (1912)

Allegro ma non troppo

Scherzo: Allegro marcato

Andante

Vivace

INTERMISSION

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Humoreske, op. 20 (1839)

Einfach

Hastig

Einfach und zart

Intermezzo (Vivace)

Innig

Sehr lebhaft

Mit einigem Pomp

Zum Beschluss

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Trois mouvements de Petrouchka

Danse russe

Chez Petrouchka

La semaine grasse
The Musician

Winner ofthe silver medal in the 1997 Tenth Van Cliburn International

Piano Competition, Yakov Kasman has since given recitals throughout Asia,

Europe, Russia, South America, and the United States. He has appeared as

soloist with more than fifty orchestras, including the Alabama, Buffalo, Fort 

Worth, Memphis, Miami, Nashville, Oregon, Pacific, and Syracuse Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre de Lille and l’Orchestre Philharmonique de 

Montpellier (France), the Athens State Orchestra (Greece), the Moscow Philharmonia Orchestra (Russia) the Singapore Symphony, Orquestra Simfonica

de Baleares (Spain), Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra (South Korea), and

the National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan). He has won prizes in many competitions, including the 1991 Valentino Bucchi Competition in Rome, the 1991

London World Piano Competition, the 1992 Artur Rubinstein International

Competition in Tel Aviv, and the 1995 International Prokofiev Competition

in Saint Petersburg.

Kasman has fourteen studio recordings on the Calliope label. His recording ofthe complete sonatas of Prokofiev was awarded the Grand Prix de la

Nouvelle Academie du Disque in France in 1996. International Piano Quarterly

magazine recommended his recording of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, as one ofthe best in a survey ofrecordings over the past 75 years. His

recording of Shostakovich's Concerto no. 1, and Schnittke’s Concertofor Piano

and Strings, released in 2000, received the “Choc du monde de la musique”

award in France, was rated highest for artistry and sound quality by Classics

Today.com, and was referred to as “superlative” in American Record Guide. He

has also recorded two CDs with Harmonia Mundi.

Born in the city ofOrel, near Moscow, Kasman began his piano studies

at age five. A graduate and postgraduate ofthe Moscow Conservatory and

previously a professor of piano at the Music College ofthe Conservatory, he

is now professor ofpiano and artist-in-residence at the University of Alabama, 

Birmingham. Kasman, who appears at the National Gallery by arrangement

with Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd., of Mount Vernon, New York, maintains a Web site at www.yakovkasman.com.

4

Program Notes

Between 1727 and 1731 Johann Sebastian Bach composed six Trio Sonatasfor

Organ (bwv 525-530). Using the traditional form ofthe baroque trio sonata,

Bach took the three voices that would traditionally have been played by three

different instruments (keyboard plus two others) and put them all in the

organist’s hands and feet. Among the composers who have subsequently

transcribed Bach’s trio sonatas for other instruments are pianists, among

them the Russian piano virtuoso and composer Samuel Feinberg (1890-

1962). Known as a great interpreter of Bach—his complete recording ofthe

Well-Tempered Clavier still stands out among such recordings— Feinberg

transformed the middle movement from Bach’s fifth trio sonata into a highly

expressive version for piano solo.

Shortly after the premiere ofhis First Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky 

received a commission from the editor ofthe monthly music magazine

Nouvellist for twelve short pieces, one for each month. The editor, Nikolay

Matveyevich Bernard, also suggested a subtitle for each month, which

Tchaikovsky also accepted. He composed January and February before the

end of December, 1875. March, April, and May were then composed separately, and the rest, all found in the same copybook, appear to have been

written in about a five week period in April and May 1876. The pieces are in

A-B-A form, and though short and evidently quickly composed, each is a

miniature masterpiece ofmelody and character. We hear the joyous festivities of carnival time in February, the sweet intimacy ofspring in May, and

the alternately busy and bucolic sounds of country activities in August.

In his Piano Sonata no. 2 in D Minor Prokofiev separated himselffrom

Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, and began to define his own unique keyboard

style. Synthesizing Russian traditionalism with elements of neoclassicism

and modernism, Prokofiev’s personal voice rings loud and strong in this fourmovement sonata. The opening ofthe first movement is a rapidly descending theme, leading into the second, lyrical main theme. These are interwoven

in the development, and the movement ends in a brilliant coda. In the second

movement, Scherzo, Prokofiev demonstrates what will become his signature

5
wildly motoric piano writing. The dark and stormy Andante ofthe third movement mirrors the seriousness ofthe first, though its alternating melody provides some respite from the storm. In the Vivace fourth movement, Prokofiev

brings back the second theme ofthe first movement, to contrast with its

maniacal opening motive.

Upon seeing the title of Robert Schumann’s Humoreske, one might

assume it is a light-hearted, whimsical piece—potentially even funny. On 

the contrary, the title refers to “humor" in the broader sense, as in a passing

mood, and Schumann explores the darker, more melancholic side of human

emotion. Beginning with a melancholy theme, the opening sets the tone for

the whole piece. Moving into shorter subsections of ebullience, eventually

the reflective music returns. This alternation continues throughout the piece,

sometimes in agitated spurts, returning again and again to the opening

mood, though never repeating the exact theme.

After completing his ballet Firebird, Igor Stravinsky chose to compose 

something unrelated to the theater, and conceived the idea for what he 

called a KonzertstiXck (concert piece). With the picture of an agitated puppet

in his mind, he composed a work for piano and orchestra, which he titled

Petrouchka, after a popular country fair puppet show character. In the fall of

1910, when the ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev (1872-1929) came to visit

Stravinsky, he heard the piece, and immediately felt that it could be fully

orchestrated and turned into a stage work. In 1921 pianist Artur Rubinstein 

(1887-1982) offered Stravinsky 5,000 francs to transcribe three movements

of his ballet Petrouchka for the piano. Stravinsky made it clear that these transcriptions were not orchestral reductions, but in fact virtuosic pieces that are

written for the piano and meant to be independent concert pieces. The brilliant piano writing makes these three movements a challenge for the virtuoso

performer and the equal to their orchestral counterparts.

Program notes by Danielle DeSwert Hahn

6

Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery of Art

Zephyrus Ensemble

Music by Couperin, Leclair, Rameau, and Rebel

November 11, 2009

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

National Gallery ofArt Vocal Ensemble

Renaissance and Baroque French Music

November 15, 2009

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Both concerts presented in honor of

Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings

from the National Gallery ofArt, 1500-1800