The Fifty-sixth Season of

of paying sixpence to rent a handsome young man or woman for

one dance. The third movement, Brazileira, was inspired by

Milhaud’s travel to Rio De Janeiro, where he happened upon the

energetic festivities of an authentic Brazilian carnival. In his autobiography, Notes without Music, the composer wrote: “I remember

seeing a Negro completely carried away by the music, dancing in a

frenzy all by himself, holding in his hand a huge sherbet, which he

would lick with his pink tongue in time with the music.” Exuberance and rhythmic vitality are clearly potent factors for the success

and popularity of this movement.

The neoclassical movement first attracted Igor Stravinsky’s creative muse in 1920, with his quotation ofmusic ofGiovanni Battista

Pergolesi in Pulcinella. Premiered in 1944 by Nadia Boulanger and

Stravinsky himself, the Sonata for Two Pianos comes near the end of

his neoclassical period. Stravinsky gave this piece a neatly restrained

classical form, with the emphasis on proportion and balance, which

were held in the highest regard during the eighteenth century. He

borrowed fragments and motives of Russian folk tunes and rearranged the order of their pitches to make new pieces out of old 

material. The new melodic lines, like the folk tunes, encompass a

very small range, and the register is far less expansive than that of

many of Stravinsky’s other works. Yet another neoclassical feature

of the sonata is its harmonic language, which is blatantly diatonic.

As his contemporaries were finding ways to complete the breakdown oftonality, Stravinsky defied compositional trends by writing

a work with accessible cadences and clearly defined harmonic

rhythm.

Rachmaninoff wrote two Suitesfor Two Pianos: Opus 5and Opus 11.

Both works owe their stylistic attributes to Anton Arensky (1861-

1906), who composed five such suites. In November of 1901

Rachmaninoffand the celebrated pianist Alexander Siloti, who was 

also his cousin, presented the premiere of the Suite, Opus 11. The

Introduction (Alla marcia), a highly charged and exhilarating Russian

march, tapers offto be followed by the Waltz (Presto). The Waltz has 

two themes, the second of which quotes the medieval four-note

requiem sequence Diesirae and dies away amid the chiming oftroika

bells. The Romance (Andantino) is full ofromantic filigree treatment

and a lush, melancholic lyricism. The concluding Tarantella (Presto)

contains tightly crafted passage work that creates a brilliant whirlwind effect.

-Program notes by Jerry Wong,

edited by Elmer Booze

Concerts at The National Gallery of Art

Under the Direction of George Manos

January 1998

18 Hakan Hagegard, baritone

Warren Jones, pianist

Schubert: Songs from

Schwanengesang

Rave1: Don Quichotte a

Dulcinee

Songs by Brahms and Sibelius

25 Ursula Oppens, pianist Beethoven:

Picker:

Sonata, Opus 90

Sonata, Op. 31/2

Sonata, Opus 101

Four Etudesfor

Ursula

February

1 National Gallery Orchestra

George Manos, conductor

Mozart:

Mahler:

Korngold:

Symphony No. 41

Adagiettofrom

Symphony No. 5

Suite: “Much Ado

AboutNothing”

8 Hugh Sung, pianist Clementi:

Ravel:

Mussorgsky:

Sonata in B-flat

Major

Gaspard de la nuit

Pictures at an

Exhibition

The use ofcameras or recording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30pm.

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2234th Concert

THE PELERINAGE DUO

SHIH-YU CHENG and JERRY WONG, pianists

Sunday Evening, January 11, 1998

at Seven O’Clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission Free
PROGRAM

Witold Lutoslawski Variations ona Theme by Paganini

(1913-1994) (1941)

Franz Schubert Fantasie inF Minor

(1797-1828) Opus 103, D.940 (1828)

Allegro molto moderato

Largo

Allegro vivace

Darius Milhaud

(1892-1974)

Vif

Modere

Brazileira

Scaramouche

Opus 165b (1937)

INTERMISSION

Igor Stravinsky

(1882-1971)

Sonata

(1943-1944)

Moderato

Theme with Variations

Allegro

Sergei Rachmaninoff Suite No. 2, Opus 17

(1873-1943) (1900-1901)

Introduction

Waltz

Romance

Tarantella

The PELERINAGE DUO was formed in the summer of 1995

and made their formal debut in April of 1996 at the Peabody

Conservatory’s Thursday Noon Concert Series. In the summer of

1996 the Duo appeared in France at the American Conservatory in 

Fontainebleau, where their performance of Rachmaninoff’s Suite

No.

2 for Two Pianos, Four Hands won them the Prix-Ville de

Fontainebleau. The duo looks forward to upcoming performances

at the Johns Hopkins Midday Recital Series in Baltimore, the Fairfax

County Public Library Recital Series, and the Society of the Cin­

cinnati in Washington.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, SHIH-YU CHENG came to the United

States in 1988 to attend the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michi­

gan. The following year she won the Interlochen Concerto Com­

petition, which led to an appearance with the IAA Orchestra. She

went on to win numerous awards, including first prize in the Kawai

National Piano Competition, as well as the Kingsville International,

Haddonfield Symphony, and Association ofPianists and Piano Teach­

ers ofAmerica Piano Competitions. Ms. Cheng has performed in

France,Japan, and Taiwan, and has been featured in recital atYoung­

stown State University (Ohio), Columbia University’s Miller The­

ater, Weill Recital Hall, and in Taiwan at the Jiao-Tung University

and the National Concert Hall in Taipei. She completed her

bachelor’s and master’s degrees in performance at the Peabody

Conservatory of Music in Baltimore under the tutelage of Ann

Schein. Ms. Cheng is currently enrolled in the doctoral program at

the State University ofNewYork at Stonybrook, where she teaches

undergraduate piano and studies with Gilbert Kalish. A native ofCalifornia,JERRYWONG graduated with

a bachelor’s

degree in piano performance from Indiana University, where he

studied with Menahem Pressler. In addition to being the recipient

of the Dorothy Herriman and Theodore Presser scholarships, he

was awardeda performer’s certificate for his senior recital. Con­

tinuing his studies at the Peabody Conservatory ofMusic in Balti­

more, Mr. Wong completed the master’s degree program with Ann

Schein. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Mr. Wong participated

in the world premiere recording ofJaakko Kuusisto’s Piano Trio No.1

for Finnish National Radio and has performed chamber music re­

citals in the U.S., Finland, France, and Japan. He has won prizes in

the Young Keyboard Artists Competition, the Indiana University

Concerto Competition, the GraceWalsh Competition, and the Yale

Gordon Competition. Currently Mr. Wong is attending the Man­

hattan School of Music, where he holdsa teaching fellowship asa

doctoral student of Byron Janis. He has written liner notes for re­

cordings produced on the Music Minus One label.

Variations ona Theme ofPaganini dates from the difficult years ofthe

German occupation of Poland duringWorld War II. From his recol­

lections of the year 1939, Lutoslawski states:“When the Nazis

entered Warsaw, Polish music stopped. After the Jews and gypsies,

we Slavs were hated most by them. They took over the orchestras,

kept most of the Polish musicians, but German conductors and

repertory were imported. Poles boycotted their concerts, but we

arranged clandestine meetings in rooms during imprisonment to

play chamber music or premiere some of our things.” During this

period of his life, the young Lutoslawski found his only audiences

in local cafes. He formeda piano duo with his colleague and friend

Andrzej Panufnik, and they began to perform together regularly.

The always resourceful Lutoslawski began writing four-hand and

two-piano arrangements of many different instrumental and oper­

atic works from the standard repertoire. While Brahms and

Rachmaninoffwrote arrangements ofPaganini’s famous CapriceNo.

24 {ox solo violin, Lutoslawski (like Liszt) wrote an actual transcrip­

tion. Lutoslawski’s version captures the intoxicatingly macabre and

devilish virtuosity so closely associated with Paganini. Although

the showy variations seem designed for the salon audience, they

incorporate a number ofLutoslawski’s more innovative techniques:

parallel triads, dense chromaticism, and an exploitation of the

tritone.

Schubert’s FMinorFantasy was written during the last year of his 

life. This fantasy stands as one ofthe few great works in this form. 

The three movements, beginning with the Allegro molto moderato,

are spontaneously welded together, and the composition is unified

by three appearances ofa theme that is immediately beautiful,

memorable, and haunting in its utterance. The Largo movement

with its declamatory statement ofgrief and anguish is almost over­

whelming, while the final movement, Allegro vivace, with its monu­

mental display of contrapuntal writing, evokesa profound drama.

Scaramouche epitomizes the Brazilian influences that can be found

in Milhaud’s work, although it is not the only work of his that incor­

porates exotic rhythms ofLatin America, the West Indies, and jazz. 

The first and third movements of Scaramouche were written fora

children’s play by Henriette Pascar entitled Lemedecin volant. The

first movement suggests an atmosphere tailor-made fora jazz bal­

let. The bitonal music defies gravity with dazzling staccato runs

and capricious shifts of character. The second movement has an 

enchanting sensuality, which might recall a scene encountered dur­

ing Milhaud’s first excursion toa jazz club in London: the practice