CONCERTS

78TH SEASON OF

national gallery of art | january 26, 2020
2

3

PROGRAM

Minguet Quartett 

Uli Isfort, violin 

Annette Reisinger, violin 

Aroa Sorin, viola

Matthias Diener, cello 

With Andreas Klein, piano

Bach, Beethoven, and Beyond

January 26, 2020 | 3:30 p.m.

West Building, West Garden Court

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

String Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 18, no. 6 (1798/1800)

Allegro con brio

Adagio ma non troppo

Scherzo: Allegro

La Malinconia: Adagio — Allegretto quasi allegro

Avner Dorman (b. 1975)

String Quartet no. 2 (Mirage) (2004)

Mirage

Prayer for the Innocents 

Ruchot 

Intermission

Sergei Prokofiev (1891 – 1953)

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

Allegro, ma non troppo

Scherzo: Allegro marcato

Andante

Vivace

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)

Keyboard Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052 (1734)

Allegro

Adagio

Allegro

Minguet Quartett, photo by Frank Rossbach
4 5

Since his meteoric start in his native Germany, performing recitals and as soloist 

with orchestra, Klein eventually answered the call to go to the Juilliard School in New 

York. His highly focused musical approach to every work he performs was nurtured by 

one of his early teachers, the great pianist Claudio Arrau. A frequent broadcaster, Klein 

has often appeared on WGBH Boston, WFMT Chicago, and KUHF in Houston. He was 

the subject of a “Musician Portrait” in Germany, and his Intermezzo with Andreas Klein

was televised by PBS. 

THE MUSICIANS

Minguet Quartett 

Winner of multiple awards, the Minguet Quartett is one of today’s most renowned 

string quartets. The group performs regularly at music festivals and major concert 

halls worldwide, most recently at New York’s Frick Collection, Washington, DC’s 

Kennedy Center, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, and venues in 

Paris, Vienna, and Venice.

As a champion for premiering and performing contemporary works, the quartet 

received the 2015 Diapason d’Or in Paris for Wolfgang Rihm’s Et Lux with the Huelgas 

Ensemble (ECM records). In 2010, it won the coveted ECHO Klassik Award for Peter 

Ruzicka’s complete works for string quartet. At the 2015 AUDI Summer Concerts, Kent 

Nagano conducted the quartet’s performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Helicopter 

String Quartet. Upcoming projects with Italian and German composers are underway, 

in cooperation with the European Academy for Music and Performing Arts and the 

Kunststiftung, NRW foundation in Germany. The first complete recordings of Rihm’s 

string quartets, as well as works by Ruzicka and Joerg Widmann, are among the 

ensemble’s most important projects. 

The Minguet Quartett was founded in 1988, taking its name from eighteenthcentury Spanish philosopher Pablo Minguet. Through his writings, Minguet wanted 

to make the fine arts accessible to the general population — and this idea is behind 

the Minguet Quartett’s artistic mission.

Andreas Klein, piano

Andreas Klein is widely admired as a pianist of rare sensitivity and musicality. The 

Washington Post has praised his “articulate and flowing pianism,” and the New 

York Times has called him “a pianist who makes silences sound like music.” About 

a recent Glenn Gould tribute with the Minguet String Quartett, the Calgary Herald

reported, “[Klein brings] to his performance a mature understanding . . . as well as 

a brilliant execution.”

Klein has performed at many of the leading concert houses of Europe and the 

United States, from London’s Wigmore Hall to the Berlin Philharmonie, and from 

New York’s Carnegie Hall to Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center. He is as much at home 

playing with the Berlin Philharmonie as he is with Chicago’s outdoor Ravinia Festival 

or at New York’s intimate (Le) Poisson Rouge.
6 7

The third movement’s title is Ruchot. This Hebrew word has multiple meanings 

and refers to winds, spirits, and souls. Desert winds are extremely unpredictable — one 

minute weak and the next minute strong. The winds carry sand and can cover or reveal 

anything in a matter of seconds. In a sense, they can imitate spirits or souls — and are a 

kind of mirage. Program note by the composer, Avner Dorman

Sonata no. 2 in D Minor, op. 14

Sergei Prokofiev composed Sonata no. 2 in D Minor, op. 14, in 1912, while a student 

at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Although he had already met with success, both 

as a pianist and a composer with his first piano concerto, it is in this sonata that we 

hear Prokofiev start to develop his distinct musical language of percussive angularity 

and harshness. The sonata premiered in Moscow in 1914, and Prokofiev kept it in 

his repertoire for years to come, including performing it at his New York debut in 

1918. The New York Times described the sonata as evoking “a charge of mammoths 

on some vast immemorial Asiatic plateau.” Program note by Robert Hanson, Music 

Program Specialist, National Gallery of Art

Keyboard Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a total of seven keyboard concertos. The Keyboard 

Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052, is a brilliant hodgepodge of earlier works by Bach that 

he repackaged to create a masterpiece. The first two movements come from “Wir 

müssen durch viel Trübsal in das Reich Gottes eingehen” (“We must pass through great 

sadness”), BWV 146, and the third movement comes from “Ich habe meine Zuversicht” 

(“I have placed my confidence”), BWV 188. In taking from his earlier compositions, Bach 

further developed the musical ideas, creating a work full of drama and passion fit for 

works originally composed for the church. Program note by Robert Hanson, Music 

Program Specialist, National Gallery of Art

PROGRAM NOTES

String Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 18, no. 6 

String Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 18, no. 6, is the last of the opus 18 string quartets —

Beethoven’s first set of quartets. It is in this work that we start to see glimpses of the 

greatness to come in the composer’s later quartets. The first movement, Allegro con 

brio, starts off with a joyous main theme. When the second theme appears, it has a 

more aristocratic style — serious and stately. As the movement progresses into the 

development, Beethoven inserts a little humor, writing into the music an abrupt stop, 

which startles the listener. The Adagio is a masterpiece of beauty and simplicity. In the 

Scherzo we get to hear more joyfulness and humor. The finale, “La Malinconia,” is the 

most complex movement of the quartet. Beginning slowly, and with a sense of drama, 

it is quite a departure from the first three movements. As the piece progresses to the 

Allegretto quasi allegro sections, Beethoven closes out the quartet, riffing on the last 

movement of Joseph Haydn’s Sunrise Quartet, op. 76, no. 4. Program note by Robert 

Hanson, Music Program Specialist, National Gallery of Art

String Quartet no. 2 (Mirage)

Anyone who has walked in the desert or driven in hot weather is familiar with the 

phenomenon of a mirage. What seems like a pool of water in the distance, disappears 

as you get near it. When I was asked to write a new piece for the Jerusalem Quartet, 

I wanted it to be uniquely Israeli. Mirage is characteristic of both our physical land 

and our history and heritage. Throughout the piece, themes appear and develop, but 

before reaching a satisfying culmination they evaporate or fade away as we approach 

them. The first movement, Mirage, begins with a short mystical introduction. The 

initial theme recalls a quasi-Indian raga and on rhythmic cycles, while the second 

movement is inspired by the rhythms of classical Persian music. Throughout this 

movement, the opening three chords help to blur the boundaries between what is real 

and what is fantastic. As the mirage continues to elude the traveler, frustration builds, 

creating more and more energy, and also anxiety, toward the end of the movement.

The second movement, Prayer for the Innocents, follows the first movement 

without a pause. It begins with a transition based on the opening three chords, which 

leads into a solemn prayer. The prayer theme is first introduced in a baroque-like 

fashion and then is followed by a variant in Middle Eastern style. As a quiet cry can 

express tragedy more powerfully than words, this movement is simpler in style. 

While I was writing this movement, the horrible massacre in Beslan, Russia, occurred. 

In memory of the children who died there, the movement’s title, Prayer for the 

Innocents, quotes a Russian archbishop praying for the victims’ souls.
Upcoming Events of the SeventyEighth Season of The William Nelson 

Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, concerts 

are held in the West Building, West 

Garden Court.

Diane Monroe, violin

With PUBLIQuartet

Violin Woman, African Dreams

Music inspired by the environment and 

objects from The Colored Girls Museum, 

Philadelphia.

This concert is part of a series of 

performances by female violinists, 

showcasing the brilliance and stylistic 

versatility of the instrument.

February 2, 3:30 p.m.

Nordic Voices

Music from the Time of Charles V

Celebrating Alonso Berruguete: 

First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain

February 9, 3:30 p.m.

Eighth Blackbird

Ice ‘n’ SPICE

Works by Nina Shekhar, Fjola Evans, 

Andy Akiho, and others.

February 16, 3:30 p.m.

Third Coast Percussion

Music of Devonté Hynes (aka Blood 

Orange), Ryan Lott (aka Son Lux), and 

iconic composer Philip Glass.

February 23, 3:30 p.m.

General Information

Admission to the National Gallery of Art 

and all of its programs is free of charge, 

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording 

equipment during the performance 

is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic 

devices are turned off.

—

Concerts are made possible in part 

through the generosity of donors to the 

National Gallery of Art through The Circle. 

Reserved seating is available in recognition 

of their support. Please contact the 

development office at (202) 842-6450 or 

circle@nga.gov for more information.

—

The department of music produced 

these program notes. Copyright © 2020 

Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, 

Washington

cover Colleen Browning, Union Mixer

(detail), 1975, National Gallery of Art, 

Washington, George C. Miller & Son 

(printer), New York, Lorillard Company 

(publisher), Corcoran Collection (Gift of 

Lorillard Tobacco Company), 2015.19.2586