CONCERTS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

Under the Direction of George Manos

April 1998

12 No Concert

19 Stefan Vladar, pianist

26 Nelson Fxcuc, pianist

J. S. Bach: Goldberg Variations

Brahms:

Chopin:

Schumann:

Sonata No. 3

Scherzo No. 4

FMinor Fantasy

Papillons

May 1998

THE FIFTY-FIFTH AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

MAY 3 THROUGH 31, 1998

National Gallery

Orchestra

George Manos, conductor

Copland: Appalachian Spring

Robert Ward: Symphony No. 3

Sotireos Vlahopoulos: Ode

(World premiere)

10 National Gallery Vocal

Arts Ensemble

George Manos, artistic

director

Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

Beverly Benso, contralto

Samuel Gordon, tenor

Robert Kennedy, baritone

Francis Conlon.pianist

Charles Ives:

D. Waxman:

Nancy Daley:

Ned Rorem:

In the Mornin

The Collection

Slow March

Karen

Four Songs

ofthe Seasons

Five Amusements

(World premiere)

Four Madrigals

17 Upper Valley Duo 

Tim Schwarz, violinist

Dan Weiser, pianist

Wm. G. Still:

Amy Beach:

W C. Handy:

Suitefor Violin

andPiano

Sonatafor Violin

andPiano

St. Louis Blues

American Spirituals

and Gospel songs

artistic director

Fredericka King, pianist

24 New England Spiritual Ensemble

Vincent Dion Stringer,

The Fifty-sixth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery ofArt

2266th Concert

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

GEORGE MANOS, conductor

JASON STEARNS, baritone, guest artist

Sunday Evening, April 5, 1998

at Seven O’Clock 

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission Free
PROGRAM

Presented in honor of the Exhibition: Degas at the Races

(12 April through 12 July, 1998)

Emmanuel Chabrier

(1841-1894)

Suite pastorale

(1888)

Idylle

Danse villageoise

Sousa bois

Scherzo valse

Claude Debussy

(1862-1918)

Trois ballades de Frangois Villon

(1910)

I. Ballade de Villon a s’amye

(Ballad ofVillon to His Beloved)

II. Ballade que Villon feit a la requeste de

sa mere

(Ballad written by Villon at the Request of

His Mother)

III. Ballade des femmes de Paris

(Ballad of the Women of Paris)

INTERMISSION

Camille Saint-Saens Symphony No. 2 in A Minor, Opus 55

(1835-1921) (1859)

Allegro moderato

Adagio

Scherzo presto

Prestissimo

Baritone JASON STEARNS has recently enhanced his already 

established reputation as one ofWashington’s premiere singers 

by joining the roster of the NewYork City Opera. In addition to

singing Lehar’s The Merry Widow in New York, Mr. Stearns has

recorded the baritone solos in John Corigliano’s OfRage andRemembrance, which won a 1997 Grammy Award. He has appeared

in leading baritone roles with Opera Camerata of Washington, 

the Opera Theater of Northern Virginia, and the Summer Opera Theater. Also much in demand as an oratorio singer, Mr.

Stearns has appeared with the Reston Chorale, the National

Chamber Orchestra, and the Cathedral Choral Society. As Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army Chorale, he sings regularly at

state and military ceremonies throughout the countiy. The bicentennial of the birth of Gaetano Donizetti finds him appearing as soloist in that composer’s Requiem, as well as in the operas 

Mario Falliero and Maria di Rohan. An avid sailor and gardener, 

Jason Stearns resides in McLean, Virginia with his wife Suzanne

and their son Aaron.

The four movements making up Chabrier’s Suitepastorale are

orchestrations of pieces from his Dix pieces pittoresques for solo

piano, written in 1880 and published the following year. Chabrier

began his professional life as a civil servant, but turned to music 

as his full-time occupation in the late 1870s. The Dix pieces

pittoresques were the first pieces he released for publication, and 

they earned him immediate recognition as a composer. Commenting on some of the pieces as he heard them in concert,

Cesar Franck (1822-1890) stated: “We have just heard something quite out of the ordinary run. This music is a bridge between our own times and those of Couperin and Rameau.” A

contemporary English critic, Bryce Morrison, maintained that

Chabrier’s pieces were “zigzagging recklessly between

Schumann and Offenbach, yet maintaining a peculiar individuality [with] their melodic directness and pungent rhythms [that]

are wonderfully fresh and immediate.”

Emmanuel Chabrier has the distinction of being the only composer to appear in Degas’ paintings of scenes from the Paris

Opera. He is seen peering intently out ofthe composer’s box at 

stage right in The Orchestra ofthe Opera (1868-1869).

Debussy’s Trois ballades de Franqois Villon uses texts from the

fourteenth-century poet named in the title. (The texts are on

pages 5 through 7 of the program.) The composer’s use ofmodal

harmonies is highly complementary to the ancient milieu of the

poetry, with exquisite results. In the Ballad of Villon to His Beloved, the singer is instructed to sing with “an expression as much
of anguish as of regret,” while the lover’s shifting emotions are

underscored by the changes in the orchestral accompaniment.

The second ballad, the text of which is a prayer to the Virgin,

has a simple tonal scheme that suggests a deep, reverent faith.

The third, Ballad ofthe Women of Paris, is a wry comment on a

subject in which both Villon and Debussy were well versed.

Saint-Saens’ SecondSymphony is classical in structure and concise in comparison with many of the other works he wrote in the

late 1850s and 1860s. It heralds the light, linear style of composition that eventually became the rule rather than the exception in his later works. The opening movement has two parts:

an introductory allegro marcato followed by a fugal allegro

appassionato, with the contrast being one of emphasis, rather than

tempo. The Adagio, with its pastoral solos sung by the flute and

English horn, generates a graceful swirl ofcharming themes. The

final two movements, Scherzopresto and Prestissimo, provide a contrast to the preceding gentle movement. The former presents

passages reminiscent of both Beethoven and Brahms, while the

latter, with its frenzied whirl, is a rambunctious tarantella ofgasping recklessness. Its twirling, scintillating conclusion introduces

the diabolical drive that is another of Saint-Saens’ trademarks.

-Program notes by Elmer Booze

The use ofcameras orrecording equipment during

theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30pm.

Ballade de Villon a s’amye

(Ballad ofVillon to His Beloved)

Faulse beaute, qui tant me couste

cher,

Rude en effect, hypocrite doulceur,

Amour dure, plus que fer, a mascher;

Nommer te puis de ma deffaQon soeur.

Charme felon, la mort d’ung povre 

cueur,

Orgueil musse, qui gens met au

mourir,

Yeulx sans pitie! Ne veult droict

de rigueur,

Sans empirer, ung povre secourir?

Mieulx m’eust valu avoir este crier

Ailleurs secours, c’eust este mon

bonheur:

Rien ne m’eust sceu de ce fait 

arracher;

Trotter m’en fault en fuyte a

deshonneur.

Haro, haro, le grand et le mineur!

Et qu’est ce-cy? Mouray sans coup

ferir,

Ou pitie peult, selon ceste teneur,

Sans empirer, ung povre secourir.

Ung temps viendra, qui fera

desseicher,

Jaulnir, flestrir, vostre espanie

fleur:

J’en risse lors, se tant peusse

marcher,

Mais las! nenny: Ce seroit done

foleur,

Vieil je seray; vous, laide et sans

couleur.

Or, beuvez fort, tant que ru peult

courir.

Ne donnez pas a tous ceste douleur

Sans empirer ung povre secourir.

Prince amoureux, des amans le

greigneur,

Vostre mal gre ne vouldroye

encourir;

Mais tout franc cueur doit, par 

Nostre Seigneur,

Sans empirer, ung povre secourir.

False loveliness, costing a heavy

price,

Rude, yet seeming soft and fair;

Hard love, harder than iron!

Say it, I am your captive.

Love like a thief, that steals on

one unseen,

Pride with a mask, that one dons on

pain of death;

Pitiless eyes, will you not see my

situation?

Make life no worse for a poor soul!

I would far rather have cried to you

For help that would have cheered me.

That painful act would have had no

result;

Only a hasty flight into dishonor.

Help, help, great and small!

What’s this? Must I die

without striking a single blow?

Are you a stone, devoid of pity?

Make life no worse for a poor soul!

A time will come when your bloom

will have faded,

Seared and dried your beautiful

flower of Spain:

Then I shall laugh, laugh like the

fool that I am!

But, alas, that would be the crown 

of folly.

I shall grow old; you ugly, dull,

and colorless.

So drink up, before the river goes 

dry.

Don’t spread this sorrow further.

Make life no worse for a poor soul!

Amorous prince, of all lovers the

king,

Your illness would appear incurable.

Yet all may say openly, by our Lord,

Make life no worse for a poor soul!
Ballade que Villon feit a la request de sa mere

(Ballad Written by Villon at the Request of His Mother)

Dame du ciel, regente terrienne,

Emperiere des infernaulx palux, 

Recevez-moy, vostre humble

chrestienne,

Que comprinse soye entre vox esleuz, Ce non

obstant qu’oncques riens ne 

valuz.

Les biens de vous, ma dame et ma

maistresse,

Sont trop plus grans que ne suys

pecheresse,

Sans lesquelz bien ame ne peult

merir

N’avoir les cieulx, je n’en suis 

menteresse.

En ceste foy je vueil vivre et

mourir.

A vostre Filz dictes que je suys

sienne;

De luy soyent mes pechez aboluz: 

Pardonnez-moy comme a l’Egyptienne,

Ou comme il feit au clerc 

Theophilus,

Lequel par vous fut quitte et

absoluz,

Combien qu’il eust au diable faict

promesse;

Preservez-moy que je n’accomplisse

ce!

Vierge portant sans rompure encourir

Le sacrement qu’on celebre a la

messe.

En ceste foy je vueil vivre ....

Femme je suis povrette et ancienne,

Qui riens ne s$ay, oncques lettres

ne leuz;

Au moustier voy dont suis

paroissienne,

Paradis painct ou sont harpes et

luz;

Et ung enfer ou damnez sont boulluz:

Lung me faict paour, l’aultre joye 

et liesse.

La joye avoir fais-moy, haulte

Deesse,

A qui pecheurs doibvent tous 

recourir,

Comblez de foy, sans faincte ne 

paresse.

En ceste foy je vueil vivre ....

Lady of heaven, queen of earth,

Empress of purgatory,

Receive me, your humble Christian

woman,

Among those counted as your elect.

Well do I know that I am nothing on

my own.

Your virtues, my lady and my

mistress,

Are infinitely greater than my many

sins;

Without your help, no one can hope

to rise to heaven -

This I know all too well.

In this faith I wish to live and

die.

Tell your Son that I am his;

By him have my sins been absolved:

Pardon me, as the Egyptian woman,

Or as the scribe Theophilus,

Whom you forgave and absolved

Even though he had sold his soul to

the devil.

Preserve me from such a fate!

Virgin, who carries without defect

The sacrament celebrated at the

Mass.

In this faith I wish to live and 

die.

I am an old, impoverished woman

Who knows nothing, neither reading 

nor writing.

At the monastery where I am a

parishioner, there are paintings

of paradise, with harps and lyres,

And a hell where the damned boil.

The one horrifies me, the other

gives me joy and pleasure.

Let me have the joy, exalted

Goddess,

To whom all sinners may have

recourse,

Filled with the faith, without

weakness or sloth.

In this faith I wish to live and

die.

Ballade des femmes de Paris

(Ballad of the Women of Paris)

Quoy qu’on tient belles langagieres

Florentines, Veniciennes,

Assez pour estre messaigieres,

Et mesmement les anciennes;

Mais, soient Lombardes, Romaines, 

Genevoises, a mes perils, 

Piemontoises, Savoysiennes,

II n’est bon bee que de Paris.

De beau parler tiennent chayeres, 

Ce diton Napolitaines,

Et que sont bonnes cacquetieres

Allemandes et Bruciennes;

Soient Grecques, Egyptiennes,

De Hongrie ou d’aultre pais,

Espaingnolles ou Castellannes,

II n’est bon bee que de Paris.

Brettes, Suysses, n’y sgavent 

gueres,

Ne Gasconnes et Tholouzaines;

Du Petit-Pont deux harangeres,

Les concluront, et les Lorraines,

Anglesches ou Callaisiennes,

(Ay-je beaucoup de lieux compris?) 

Picardes, de Valenciennes...

II ne bon bee que de Paris.

Prince, aux dames parisiennes,

De bien parler donnez le prix;

Quoy qu’on die d’ltaliennes,

II n’est bon bee que de Paris.

When one considers ladies of

beautiful speech:

Florentines and Venetians

Are rather suited as messengers,

As they were in ancient times.

But, be they Lombards, Romans,

Genoans, at my peril,

Piedmontese, Savoyards,

No mouths match those of Paris.

Chairs in beautiful language

are held by Neapolitan women, 

And what fine chatterers are

the German and Prussian women;

Be they Greeks, Egyptians,

From Hungary or some other country,

Spanish women or Castilians,

No mouths match those of Paris.

Bretons, Swiss, they have no answer,

Nor do Gascons or Toulousaines;

Two haranguers from Petit-Pont

Would finish them, and the ladies of

Lorriane,

England, or Calais,

(Have I included enough of them?)

Picards, women from Valenciennes... 

No mouths match those of Paris.

Prince, to the ladies of Paris

Give the prize for beautiful speech;

Say what you may of the Italians,

No mouths match those of Paris.