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 of Art

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 circle@nga.gov for more information.

The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,917th Concert

Kenneth Slowik, fortepianist

with Catherine Manson, violinist and violist

Eric Hoeprich, clarinetist

“Music from the Era ofthe Fortepiano, 1700-1830”

Presented in honor of Masterpieces ofAmerican Furniture

from the Kaufman Collection, 1700-1830

December 19, 2012

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Admissionfree
Program

(Performed without intermission)

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Keyboard Sonata in F Major, Hob. XVI123 (1773)

Allegro

Adagio

Finale: Presto

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Sonata in E Minorfor Piano and Violin, K. 304/300C (1778)

Allegro

Tempo di Menuetto 

Haydn

Keyboard Sonata in G Major, Hob. XVhzj-O (1784)

Allegretto e innocente

Presto

Mozart

Triofor Viola, Clarinet, and Piano in Eflat Major, K. 498

(“Kegelstatt”) (1786)

Andante

Menuetto

Rondeaux: Allegretto

The Musicians

CATHERINE MANSON

Educated at the International Cello Center in Duns, Scotland, violinist

Catherine Manson decided at an early age to specialize in chamber music. 

At age twenty, she was appointed first violin ofthe Atlantic String Quartet in

Canada, and has since been a frequent guest of chamber groups including

the Chilingirian and Endellion Quartets, the Florestan Trio, and the Nash

Ensemble. An interest in baroque and classical performance led her to

found the London Haydn Quartet. In 2006 she was appointed leader ofTon

Koopman’s Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. She is frequently invited as a

guest leader for period instrument projects with other ensembles including

Belgium’s Ensemble Explorations and 11 Gardellino, Germany’s Ensemble 

Innovation, and Santa Fe Pro Musica. Dedicated to teaching as well as

performing, Manson is a cofounder of MusicWorks, a chamber music

summer school for young musicians.

ERIC HOEPRICH

Specializing for the past twenty-five years in performing on the historical 

clarinet, Eric Hoeprich brings unique expertise as a musician, scholar, and

instrument maker to the solo clarinet repertoire ofthe eighteenth and 

nineteenth centuries. A founding member and principal clarinet of Frans

Bruggen’s Orchestra ofthe Eighteenth Century, Hoeprich has performed

frequently with many ofthe major early music ensembles in Australia,

Europe, and the United States under conductors Philippe Herreweghe, 

Christopher Hogwood, Jos van Immerseel, Nicholas McGegan, Roger

Norrington, and Michael Willens. The Baltimore-born clarinetist’s activities

as a chamber musician take him around the world, both with his wind 

ensembles Nachtmusique and the Stadler Trio and as a guest with numerous string quartets and pianists. Hoeprich is the author of The Clarinet (Yale

University Press, 2008), a comprehensive book on the clarinet and its role

among the instruments ofthe orchestra.

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KENNETH SLOWIK

Artistic director ofthe chamber music program at the National Museum of

American History since 1985, Kenneth Slowik is a founding member ofthe

Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Axelrod and Smithson quartets, and the

Castle Trio and conductor ofthe Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra. He has

also appeared frequently in performance and recordings with Anner Bylsma’s

baroque ensemble LArchibudelli. As soloist and/or conductor, he has appeared

with the Baltimore and National symphony orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra, Filharmonia Sudecka, l’Orchestre symphonique de Quebec, the Pleven 

Philharmonic, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. His extensive discography, spanning composers from Monteverdi to Richard Strauss, includes

more than seventy recordings—many ofthem international prizewinners—

featuring him as cellist, violist da gamba, keyboard player, baryton player,

and conductor. A member ofthe music faculties ofthe University of Maryland 

and L’Academie de Musique du Domaine Forget, Slowik was named artistic

director ofthe Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute in 1993 and received

the Smithsonian Secretary’s Distinguished Research Lecture Award in 2011.

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Program Notes

As it had for the previous four centuries, Europe dominated the world stage

between the years 1700 and 1830, with the exception ofthe startling political

upheaval that was the American Revolution. It was in Europe that radical

new ideas in philosophy and politics emerged, significant advances in

science and technology were realized, and genius flourished in the fine arts.

Although seen by the rest ofthe world as a backwater during those same years, 

the American colonies and the young United States were the workplace for

a number ofmusicians, artists, and craftsmen who produced poetry, music,

and objects ofdecorative art that have only recently come to be respected and

admired. Many ofthose artists and craftsmen were self-taught, and some

remain anonymous, but their accomplishments speak for themselves.

The unveiling of Masterpieces ofAmerican Furniturefrom the Kaufman

Collection, 1700-1830, at the National Gallery ofArt is a landmark moment

for the nation’s capital, which until this time has had no major presentation

of early American furniture and related decorative arts on permanent public 

view. The new installation highlights nearly 100 examples from the distinguished collection of George M. and Linda H. Kaufman, acquired over the

course offive decades and promised to the National Gallery. In addition to

unique American furniture, Chinese and European porcelains, and French

floral watercolors, the installation includes paintings from the Gallery’s permanent collection by American artists—some anonymous and some, such

as Gilbert Stuart, deservedly famous. Tire installation remains on view indefinitely on the ground floor ofthe West Building.

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The years 1700-1830 are also commonly understood to be the era during

which the fortepiano overtook the harpsichord and dominated the world of

keyboard music until it was in turn superseded by the modern piano. The

earliest reliable record of a fortepiano comes from the inventory ofthe Medici

family, who in 1700 commissioned one from the workshop ofthe Venetian 

Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731). Seeking to improve on the harpsichords

and clavichords ofhis time, Cristofori used thicker strings and stretched them

under higher tension, using a frame considerably more robust than that of

previously built keyboard instruments. Instead ofplectra he installed hammers that struck two strings at once. A more aggressive striking ofthe keys

resulted in a louder sound—hence the name for the new instrument (“loudsoft” in Italian).

In order to honor the Kaufman collection of early American furniture and

enhance the visitors’ experience ofit, the Gallery music department has plans

to continue the series “Music from the Era ofthe Fortepiano, 1700-1830,”

using whenever possible the West Building Lecture Hall as the venue.

Program notes by Stephen Ackert, head, music department,

National Gallery ofArt

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Upcoming concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Jennifer Lane, soprano

Kenneth Slowik, fortepianist

“Music from the Era ofthe Fortepiano, 1700-1830”

Presented in honor of

Masterpieces ofAmerican Furniture

from the Kaufman Collection, 1700-1830

December 23, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

National Gallery ofArt Vocal Ensemble

Music by Brahms, Haydn, Lehar, Strauss,

and other Viennese composers

December 30, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court