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

cover: After Joan Miro, woven by Josep Royo, Woman, 1977, wool and cotton tapestry,

National Gallery ofArt, Washington, Gift ofthe Collectors Committee and George L. Erion

The Seventieth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,894th Concert

Cuarteto Quiroga

Aitor Hevia and Cibran Sierra, violin

Josep Puchades, viola 

Helena Poggio, cello

Presented in honor ofthe exhibition

Joan Miro: The Ladder ofEscape

May 20, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Eduard Toldra (1895-1962)

Vistes al mar (1920)

La ginesta (Allegro con brio)

A les llunyanies (Lento)

La mar estava alegre aquest migada (Molto vivace)

Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970)

String Quartet no. 2 (1961-1962)

INTERMISSION

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)

String Quartet “no. 0” in D Major (1897)

Allegro molto

Intermezzo. Andante grazioso

Andante con moto

Allegro

This program is made possible in part by supportfrom the Embassy ofSpain.

The Musicians

One ofthe most dynamic quartets ofits generation, Cuarteto Quiroga has

won international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for its distinctive

personality, as well as its bold and original approach to the string quartet

repertoire. The group takes its name from the great Galician violinist Manuel

Quiroga, who along with Pau Casals and Pablo Sarasate is one ofthe most

important string players in the history of Spanish music.

Top prizewinner ofseveral major international string quartet competitions (Barcelona, Paolo Borciani, Bordeaux, Geneva, Paris), the Quartet performs regularly in major halls and festivals of Europe and South America,

including Quintessence Aachen, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Auditori

de Barcelona, Philharmonie Berlin, Davos Festival, Kaisersaal Frankfurt,

Heidelberger Fruhling, Orlando Festival Holland, Wigmore Hall London,

Auditorio Nacional Madrid, Teatro Solis Montevideo, Les Invalides Paris,

de Doelen Rotterdam, and Nybrokajen Stockholm. Awarded the Spanish

National Radio Culture Prize (Ojo Critico) in 2007, the ensemble has collaborated with artists J.E. Bagaria, Tobias Carron, Valentin Erben, David

Kadouch, Dario Marino, Alain Meunier, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Jeremy

Menuhin, Javier Perianes, choreographer Hideto Hesiki, theater director 

Peter Ries, and Spanish actor Jose Luis Gomez.

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The Quartet has studied with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) at Madrid’s

Escuela Reina Sofia; Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet) at the Musikakademie

of Basel; and with Hatto Beyerle at the European Chamber Music Academy.

Other important influences include Andras Keller, Johannes Meissl, Eberhard

Feltz, and Ferenc Rados.

Currently the quartet in residence at the Fundacion Museo Cerralbo in

Madrid, the ensemble teaches yearly at the International Summer Academy

of Llanes (Asturias), and holds the string quartet faculty chair at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Aragon, Zaragoza. During the 2011-2012 season the Quartet replaced the Jerusalem Quartet as the ensemble in residence

at the Miguel Delibes Auditorium.

Cuarteto Quiroga recently released Statements, a recording ofmusic by

Haydn, Webern, and Sollima on the Dutch label Cobra. The ensemble appears

at the National Gallery by arrangement with Schupp Artists Management,

www.schuppartists.com.

Cibran Sierra, with the other members ofthe Quartet, thanks the heirs of

Paola Modianofor the generous opportunity to play, in her memory, the 1682

Nicold Amati violin “Rose.”

4

Program Notes

Born near Barcelona in Vilanova i la Geltru, Spain, Eduard Toldra was a

prominent Catalan composer and a primary representative ofCatalonia’s

early twentieth-century cultural movement, the Noucentisme. The Noucentisme,

a counter to popular Bohemian, Modernist, and Avant-garde ideologies,

marked a return to Apollonian classicism and advocated for a spirit of

Catalan nationalism in the arts and politics. Toldra helped to define the aesthetic identity ofCatalonia with his versatile musical gifts. Trained as a

violinist from a young age, Toldra revitalized the region’s musical landscape

as the first director of Barcelona’s Municipal Orchestra after World War 1.

He won the Fundacio Rabell prize in 1921 for Vistes al mar (“Vistas ofthe Sea”),

his most emblematic composition. Originally composed for string quartet

and later transcribed for chamber orchestra, this work in three movements

is based on poems by the Catalan writer, Joan Maragall (1860-1911).

Catalonian composer Roberto Gerhard developed a singular musical

language by employing serial composition techniques while continuing to 

embrace tonality and the Spanish musical tradition. A disciple ofArnold

Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School from 1922 to 1929, Gerhard

returned to Barcelona as a teacher and advisor to the Catalan Minister of

Fine Arts. Gerhard began to receive wide recognition for his compositions in

the 1930s, but civil war forced him to flee to England in 1938. He worked at 

Cambridge on a research scholarship, earning an inconspicuous living by

composing television, film, theater, and radio scores. Although he remained

virtually unknown outside the British musical community, the premiere of

his First Symphony in Baden-Baden in 1955 brought a stream ofinternational

recognition: from i960 until his death in 1970 Gerhard traveled the world as

a guest artist and composer-in-residence at festivals and universities. Gerhard’s

Second Quartet, a single movement in seven parts, favors repeated and developed motives instead ofthemes to differentiate its sections. Each section is

based on a distinct texture, and most the piece features percussive pizzicato

gestures intended to imitate characteristic Iberian rhythms.

5
The String Quartet in D Major was Arnold Schoenberg’s first large-scale

work, and its private premiere for the Vienna Composers’ Society in 1898

was Schoenberg’s first major success among Vienna’s musical elite. Schoenberg’s friend and mentor, composer Alexander von Zemlinsky, offered his

support and constantly critiqued the piece during its composition. Zemlinsky

even presented a draft ofthe piece to Johannes Brahms shortly before the

master’s death; Brahms expressed his approval, a rare occurrence at the end

of his life. Schoenberg modeled much of his work after Brahms with respect

to structure and motivic development, but Schoenberg’s quartet revealed an

unprecedented freedom ofthematic expression. Sometimes named “Quartet

number zero” for predating Schoenberg's numbered quartets, the Quartet in

D Major contains enough Classical and Romantic era techniques and forwardlooking elements to stand firmly in the crossroads between nineteenth and

twentieth century composition.

Schoenberg structured the first movement ofthe String Quartet in D

Major in sonata form without an introduction. The Intermezzo presents the

primary tune in the viola followed by a varied repetition in the violins. The

active, aggressive middle section contrasts the beginning ofthe Intermezzo,

and the original material returns with altered orchestration in a fashion

similar to the first movement’s recapitulation. The third movement consists

of a theme and six variations, and the piece concludes with a vivacious rondo.

Presented in honor ofthe Joan Miro exhibit, The Ladder ofEscape, on

display in the East Building until August 12, this evening’s program features

works closely related to Miro’s artistic heritage in Catalonia. Born three years

apart, Miro and Roberto Gerhard were good friends who held each other’s

work in high esteem. They both supported the Spanish Republican government and left their homeland when Francisco Franco’s fascist regime

prevailed in 1938. Schoenberg lived in Barcelona for a number ofmonths

in 1932 as a guest of Gerhard, his friend and protege. Surrounded by the art

of Dali, Gaudi, Miro, and Picasso, Schoenberg’s presence contributed to a

musical boom in Catalonia that Gerhard and Eduard Toldra sustained long

after the Viennese master’s departure.

Program notes hy Michael Jacko, concert aide, National Gallery ofArt

6

Upcoming concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Jack String Quartet

and Student Musicians from the

University ofCalifornia in DC

Music by Reynolds 

and other composers

June 3, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium

Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

William Sharp, baritone

Music by Barber, Boulanger, 

and other composers

June 10, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court