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 ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,726th Concert

Geringas Baryton Trio

April 26, 2009

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Josef Haydn (1732-1809)

Baryton Trio in A Major, H. 11/108

Moderato

Menuet

Finale: Allegro assai

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Duetfor Viola and Cello, WoO 32 (“Eyeglasses”)

Allegro 

Minuetto

Haydn

Baryton Trio in B Minor, H. 11/96

Largo

Allegro 

Menuet

INTERMISSION

Anton Kraft (1752-1820)

Sonata in G Majorfor Two Violoncelli, op. 1, no. 2

Moderato

Adagio

Finale: Rondo con variationi; allegretto

Haydn

Baryton Trio in D Major, H. 11/113

Adagio

Allegro di molto

Menuet

Finale: Presto

The Musicians

The Geringas Baryton Trio is made up of cellist and conductor David Geringas, 

who is one ofthe leading international performers on the baryton; cellist and

former student of David Geringas, Jens Peter Maintz; and violist Hartmut

Rohde. All three artists are professors at Berlin’s Musikhochschulen and have

been chamber music partners for a number ofyears. With successful solo

careers oftheir own, they are also winners ofmajor competitions and have

received numerous awards. They present this concert ofmusic by Haydn and

German composers in tandem with a concert ofmusic by Haydn and Italian

composers, which they performed at the Library ofCongress on April 24,

2009. The Geringas Baryton Trio appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Shupp Artists Management of Port Jefferson, New York.

DAVID GERINGAS

David Geringas studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where his teacher and

mentor was Mstislav Rostropovich. Since winning the first prize at the

Tchaikovsky Competition in 1970, Geringas has performed as soloist with

the Chicago, National, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, as well as

with many major orchestras worldwide. In addition, he recently made his

conducting debut with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.

Geringas has received numerous awards for his recordings including the

1994 Diapason d’Or, for a recording of chamber music by Henri Dutilleux,

and the Grand Prix du Disque, for a recording oftwelve cello concertos ofLuigi

Boccherini. A recording ofthe cello concertos of Hans Pfitzner was honored

in 1994 with the prize ofthe Deutsche Schallplattenkritik. Geringas received

Lithuania’s highest honors for his worldwide contributions to his native 

country’s music, and German President Horst Kohler awarded Geringas the

Verdienstkreuz erster Klasse for his achievements as musician and ambassador

for German culture. Since 2000 he has taught at the Berlin Hochschule fur

Musik, and also serves as honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory 

and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.

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HARTMUT ROHDE

Hartmut Rohde, winner ofthe Naumburg competition, is one ofEurope’s

most sought-after violists. He is a founding member ofthe Kandinsky String

Trio and a member ofthe Mozart Piano Quartet, with which he appeared at

the National Gallery in 2006. In addition to his numerous radio recordings

for major European networks, Rohde has also recorded for Arte Nova, Decca,

emi Classics, the Freiburger Musikforum, mdg, and Naxos. He won the 2003 

Echo Klassik prize and the 2004 Supersonic Award. Since 1993 he has been a

professor at the University ofthe Arts in Berlin. He also acts as guest professor

for viola and chamber music at the Royal Academy of London, which recently 

awarded him its prestigious honorary membership.

JENS PETER MAINTZ

In 1994 Jens Peter Maintz became tire first cellist in seventeen years to win

the ard International Competition, which is open to all instrumentalists. He

won the 1997 Echo Klassik prize for his Sony Classical recording ofsolo works 

by J. S. Bach, Dutilleux, and Zoltan Kodaly. His recording ofcello concertos 

by Isang Yun with the Deutsche Sinfonieorchester Berlin was released on the

Capriccio label in 2003. He has also recorded works ofTchaikovsky for cello

and chamber orchestra under the direction of David Geringas. In 2004 Maintz 

accepted a professorship for cello at the University ofthe Arts in Berlin.

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Program Notes

To commemorate the 200th year ofJoseph Haydn’s death, the Geringas

Baryton Trio has undertaken a world tour with his seldom-heard works

written for the baryton trio, consisting ofbaryton, viola, and cello. The

baryton is a stringed instrument similar to the bass viol that has six bowed

strings and up to forty sympathetic strings, which resonate with the main

strings as they are played. Some ofthe sympathetic strings can be plucked

from behind by the left thumb. It was due to the love for this instrument on

the part of Haydn’s patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, that Haydn composed a total of 126 baryton trios between 1765 and 1774. Esterhazy learned

to play the baryton, which had not been widely played since the middle of

the seventeenth century, and he commissioned Anton Neumann (c. 1720-

1776) and Luigi Tomasini (1741-1808), to write for the instrument. Because

the baryton is extremely susceptible to changes oftemperature and humidity,

the Trio opted to play the overseas concerts on the tour on modern instruments, rather than exposing tire barytons to the risks and rigors of air travel.

Beethoven composed his “Eyeglasses” duo for cello and viola around

1796-1797, most likely for his patron and good friend, Nikolaus Zmeskall.

A skilled amateur cellist and secretary to the Hungarian Chancellery,

Zmeskall was one ofthe friends of Beethoven who dared to tease him and

did not mind being teased in return. In one letter Beethoven writes to

Zmeskall, “Je vous suis bien oblige pour votre faiblesse des votre yeux”

(I am most obliged for the weakness of your eyes). This would explain the

nickname Beethoven gave to the duet, which he probably wrote for the two

ofthem to play together. The minuetto is not only charming and gentle,

but it also includes a canon between the two instruments.

Although Austrian composer and cellist Anton Kraft originally moved

from his hometown of Rokitzat to Vienna to pursue a career in law, he

quickly found employment playing the cello in the Imperial Court Orchestra.

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He left Vienna in 1778 to play in the court orchestra of Prince Nikolaus

Esterhazy when it was under Haydn’s direction, and used the opportunity to

study composition with the master composer. After Haydn left the Esterhazy

court in 1790, Kraft continued his career as a composer, performer, and 

teacher. Haydn’s famous Cello Concerto in D Major was written for him, as

was the cello part in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. Kraft’s own contributions

as a composer include several sonatas for cello, various string duos, and a

concerto for cello and orchestra.

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Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Alexandria Symphony

Kim Allen Kluge, conductor

With

Alessandra Marc, soprano

Music by Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner

May 3, 2009

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court