Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive 

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

For events at the Library ofCongress,

advance reservation oftickets is recommended.

Tickets are distributed by Ticketmaster (202-397-SEAT).

The tickets are free, but there is a service charge

for the reservation.

www.loc.gov/concerts

cover: Carl Joseph Begas, Felix Mendelssohn

Bartholdy, 1821, Private Collection

Mendelssohn on the Mall

January 11-February 27, 2009

Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of

the birth of Felix Mendelssohn

(February 3,1809-November 4,1847)

Presented by the Library of Congress,

the National Academy of Sciences, and the

National Gallery ofArt under the gracious patronage

of His Excellency Dr. Klaus Scharioth, Ambassador

of Germany to the United States

Admission isfree
Mendelssohn on the Mall

January 11-February 27, 2009

Concerts and Events

JANUARY

11 Ma’alot Wind Quintet

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer

Night’s Dream, transcribed for

wind quintet; music by Ligeti,

Barber, and Piazzolla

Preceded at 6:00 pm by a

preconcert lecture: Mendelssohn

and the Visual Arts

SUNDAY, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

18 Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio

with guest artists Amadi Hummings

and Sel Kardan, violas, and Kurt

Muroki, bass

Mendelssohn: Sextetfor Piano

and Strings, op. 87; music by Sheng

and Smetana

Sunday, 3:00 PM

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

18 National Gallery Orchestra,

Kenneth Slowik, guest conductor

Mendelssohn: “Italian” Symphony;

Schubert: Symphony in C Major

(“Great”)

Sunday, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

25 Fine Arts Quartet

Mendelssohn: Quartets, opp. 12

and 44/1

Sunday, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The calendar of concerts and events

continues on the inside back cover.

The Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell

and F. Lammot Belin Concerts

National Gallery of Art 

2,707th Concert

February 22, 2009

Mendelssohn Piano Trio

Peter Sirotin, violin

Fiona Thompson, cello

Ya-Ting Chang, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Piano Trio, op. 70, no. 2

Poco sostenuto; allegro ma non troppo

Allegretto

Allegretto ma non troppo

Finale: Allegro

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Adagio “Nottumo,” op. posth. 148, D. 897

INTERMISSION

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)

Piano Trio in D Minor, op. 49, no. 1

Molto allegro agitato

Andante con moto tranquillo

Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace

Finale: Allegro assai appassionato
The Musicians

In 1997 three talented musicians formed a chamber music ensemble under

the tutelage ofviolinist Earl Carlyss and pianist Ann Schein. In searching for 

a name, they came upon a nineteenth-century composer whose versatility

they greatly admired, and the Mendelssohn Piano Trio was born. The Trio’s

extensive repertoire embraces works from all periods ofthe genre’s history.

The Washington Post described the group’s performances of piano trios and

piano quartets by Brahms, as presented by the Embassy Series, as “unfathomably beautiful,” “transcendent,” and “electrifying.” Pianist Ya-Ting

Chang (from Taiwan), violinist Peter Sirotin (from Russia), and cellist Fiona 

Thompson (from England) are superb soloists in their own right, each

having enjoyed a diversified musical career that transcends international

boundaries. Performances range from solo appearances with orchestras

to chamber music collaborations with such artists as Natalia Gutman,

Ronald Leonard, and Igor Zhukov.

The ensemble has performed and given master classes in a variety of

venues nationwide and abroad, including universities, colleges, art academies, and music festivals as well as an international broadcast on Voice of

America. Highlights ofthis, the Trio’s tenth season, include performances

for the Embassy Concert Series as well as concerts at the Black Rock Center

for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland; National Concert Hall in Taipei,

Taiwan; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Its fourth and fifth 

CDs will be released in the coming months on the Centaur label, with music

of Mendelssohn, Smetana, and Suk. Both the American Record Guide and

Fanfare Magazine have praised the Trio’s recordings released on Centaur

Records. The Trio’s 2005 performance at the National Gallery was broadcast

on Public Radio International’s Performance Today program.

The Mendelssohn Piano Trio appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with the Anderson Performance Agency of Baltimore, Maryland.

4

Program Notes

Felix Mendelssohn was bom on February 3,1809. With “Mendelssohn on the

Mall,” the Library ofCongress, the National Academy of Sciences, and the 

National Gallery of Art join musical presenters around the world in celebrating the bicentennial ofthe birth of a composer whose works have become

essential to the Western canon. Art historians and cultural historians alike are

fascinated by Mendelssohn because he was a “Renaissance man” who developed skills in many areas to a highly sophisticated level, including drawing

and painting, sports, and writing. He was lionized in his own time as a

composer, conductor, and performer, and the world mourned his untimely

death in 1847 at age thirty-eight.

In the autumn of 1808, Ludwig van Beethoven joined several friends,

including Prince Karl Lichnowsky, for a few months’ sojourn at the Vienna 

residence ofCountess Anna Maria Erdody, a Hungarian aristocrat who was

an amateur pianist and a friend ofthe composer. While at her home, he

composed the two piano trios ofopus 70 and played them for his hostess and

her guests at Christmastime. A friend ofthe composer, Johann Reichardt, 

was present and later recalled that he was carried away by the trios. They 

contained “such a heavenly songlike movement as I have never heard from

him before. Indeed, it is the loveliest and most graceful music I have ever

heard—it uplifts and melts my soul every time I remember it.”

The introduction to the E-flat Major Trio, marked Poco sostenuto, features a

sedate melody that moves upward and downward by steps, passing sequentially from instrument to instrument. The subsequent Allegro ma non troppo

presents an opening theme that is more lyrical than forceful. A second

subject, in the same tempo, nevertheless seems much slower, as each instrument spins out the melody in a reworking ofthe introduction. The emotional

temperature rises a bit in the development, followed by a coda that is interrupted by a final recollection ofthe introduction.

5
In place of a true slow movement there follows a graceful dance-like 

Allegretto. Two musical ideas contend for attention—the first elegant and

delicate, the second loud and blustery with strong offbeat accents. Beethoven 

varies the themes alternately until the coda, where he finally combines the two

melodies together. The third movement, Allegretto ma non troppo, displays little

ofthe brilliance that we associate with a typical scherzo. The main theme,

marked cantabile, is borrowed with little change from Beethoven’s Piano

Sonata, op. 26. It has a folk-like purity, with perfectly symmetrical phrases and

a simple setting. The second subject, a tit-for-tat dialogue between strings and

piano, reveals a hint ofpain and suffering toward the end ofthe section, as we

hear what seem to be repeated musical sighs. The violent runs that open the

Finale are interrupted by interjections in the strings that appear to be derived 

from the introduction to the first movement ofthe trio. A lyrical first subject is

followed by a forceful and incisive ascending second theme. A rhythmically

vivacious third theme concludes the exposition, as all three thematic groups

return in the recapitulation. The movement concludes with a spacious coda.

The provenance of Schubert’s Nottumo in E-fiat Major, D. 897, is uncertain,

despite much musicological investigation and the survival ofthe composer’s

manuscript. Two theories place the creation ofthis short work in 1826 or 1827.

The first, which holds sway among most Schubert scholars, assumes that

the piece was originally intended as the slow movement for the Piano Trio in

Bfiat Major, D. 898, but that Schubert then replaced it with another one that

pleased him better. The other theory originates from the Austrian spa town of

Gmunden, where Schubert spent six weeks in 1825. It is said that while there

the composer came upon a group of pile drivers and used the work song they

sang in time to their hammering as a theme in this composition.

6

The title Nottumo appears nowhere on Schubert’s manuscript, though

it was with that appellation that the music was first published in 1845. It is

not inappropriate to the slow tempo and lilting rhythms ofthe piece, which

suggest the character of a nocturne. The piece is written in a broad A-B-A

format, a design that Schubert favored for the slow movements ofhis

instrumental works late in his life. The melody ofthe central section is the

putative workers’ song from Gmunden.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was described in a recent newspaper essay

dedicated to the 200th anniversary ofhis birth as “a thoroughly modem

musician’’ who stood solidly in the present while remaining strongly focused

on the music ofthe past. His Piano Trio no. 1 in D Minor, op. 49, was composed

during the summer of1839, while the composer was spending time in Frankfurt am Main with his wife’s family. It was a relaxed time that he described in

a letter to a friend as “refreshing.” Among Mendelssohn’s chamber compositions, this trio has become one ofthe most popular. The first movement,

Molto allegro ed agitato, is in sonata form and features two clearly defined broad

themes, both given to the cello. The main theme is an elegiac melody with a

long arch, reminiscent ofsimilar long melodies ofBrahms. The second theme,

in A major, features a development section with extremely brilliant scoring. In

the recapitulation, the violin introduces a charming counterpoint to the main

theme. Mendelssohn biographer R. Larry Todd, whose February 19, 2009,

lecture at the Library ofCongress was a major event in “Mendelssohn on the

Mall,” concludes: “If a Mozartean grace suffices the whole, there are nevertheless signs that mark the work as modem and romantic.”

The second movement (Andante) begins as a gende “song without words”

for solo piano, answered by a duet for violin and cello. The contrasting middle

section, in a parallel minor key, introduces a new theme and accompaniment

in more insistent triple chords. The original melody returns, as the piano

pauses long enough to allow violin and cello to execute two “vocal” cadenzas.

The strings then take up the accompaniment, leaving it to the piano to draw

this enchanting movement to a murmuring close.

7
Both the third and fourth movements employ rondo formats. The

puckish Scherzo, marked Leggiero e vivace, is short but extremely demanding

of all the players. Set in the key of D major, the impish seven-bar introductory figure divides into three plus four, injecting an element of playful 

whimsy that takes us into the fairy world ofA Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Mendelssohn frequently returned to that imaginary world for some of his

finest effects.

The Finale has the tempo marking Allegro assai appassionato and is based

on a dance theme, twice interrupted by a yearning melody. Todd contends

that that the finale’s main function is to summarize the composition as a

whole: “This is a masterful trio with subde relationships between the

movements, and a psychological curve that incorporates the agitated brooding ofthe first, [the] subdued introspection ofthe second, and the playful

frivolity ofthe third. The finale combines all three modes, before reconciling

them in the celebratory D-major ending.”

Program notes by Louis J. Reith, Georgetown University Library

Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Leon Bates, pianist

Music by Dett, Matheny, Walker, and other composers

Presented in honor ofAfrican American History Month

February 25, 2008

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

East Building Auditorium

Ellen Hargis, soprano

Paul O’Dette, lutenist

Music by Camphuysen, Huygens, Vallet, and van den Hove 

Presented in honor of Pride ofPlace: Dutch Cityscapes ofthe Golden Age

March 1, 2009

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

9
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.

10

FEBRUARY

Exhibition of Mendelssohn manuscripts, letters, and drawings

THROUGHOUT FEBRUARY 2009

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

i Ulrich Urban, pianist

Mendelssohn: Fantasies and Caprices,

op. 16; selected Songs without Words;

Variations serieuses, op. 54

SUNDAY, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

6 Cypress Quartet

Mendelssohn: Quartet, op. 13;

music by Beethoven and Puts

FRIDAY, 8:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

8 Josef Feigelson, cellist

Peep Lassmann, pianist

Mendelssohn’s complete works

for cello and piano

Sunday, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

10 Mira Trio

Hensel: Piano Trio in D minor, op. 11;

Mendelssohn and Hensel: Songs

without Words; Mendelssohn:

Piano Trio no. 2 in C minor, op. 66

Preceded at 6:15 pm by a

preconcert lecture by Susan 

Clermont, Music Division, Library

ofCongress

FRIDAY, 8:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

15 University ofAkron Concert Choir,

Samuel Gordon, conductor

Mendelssohn: Wie der Hirsch schreit,

op. 42; Chorale Cantata: O Haupt

voll Blut und Wunden; hymn: Hor

mein bitten

SUNDAY, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

18 Trio con Brio Copenhagen

Mendelssohn: Piano Quartet in

B Minor, op. 3; Beethoven:

“Archduke" Trio

WEDNESDAY, 8:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

19 Lecture by R. Larry Todd,

Duke University

Reflections on the Mendelssohn

Bicentenary

THURSDAY, 7:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

22 Mendelssohn Piano Trio

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in D Minor,

op. 49; music by Beethoven

Sunday, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

27 Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh,

Betsy Burleigh, director

Mendelssohn: Psalm 55; Sechs

Spruche, op. 79; music by Handel, 

Haydn, and Mozart

Friday, 8:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

13 Atrium Quartet

Mendelssohn: Quartet, op. 80;

music by Shostakovich and Borodin

FRIDAY, 8:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS