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.

For the convenience of concertgoers the Garden Cafe

remains open until 6:00 pm for light refreshments.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

www.nga.gov

COVER: Hans Baldung Grien, Madonna and Child, 1515/1517, woodcut on

laid paper. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons’ Permanent Fund

The Sixty-ninth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,799th Concert

Gesangverein Hofbieber 

Matthias Dickhut, conductor

October 13, 2010

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)

Audite nova

Leonhard Lechner (1553-1606)

Gott bhiite dich

Heinrich Isaac (1450-1517)

Innsbruck, ich muji dich lassen

Thoinot Arbeau (1519-1595)

Pavanc

Lasso

Bonjour, mon Coeur

Jacob Clemens non Papa (1510-1556)

Es gingen zwei gespielen gut

Es steht tin Lind injenem Tal

Je neJusjamais si aise

Lasso

Madonna ma pieta

Landesknecht-Standchen

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)

Audite silete

Adrian Willaert (1490-1562)

O Bene mio

Pierre Certon (1510-1572)

Je ne Lose dire

Pierre Attaignant (c. 1494-c. 1552)

Tourdion
The Musicians

Since the Middle Ages, German towns large and small have had singing

societies (Gesangvereine). Professional guilds encouraged cohesiveness

and group spirit among their members by organizing singing groups.

Dating to 1882 and named after the region around the German city of Fulda, 

the Gesangverein Hofbieber has provided a musical outlet for residents of

Fulda and its suburbs ever since. In honor ofthe National Gallery of Art's

outstanding collection ofGerman Renaissance art, the ensemble has

included selections from its repertoire of Renaissance choral music in its

current tour ofthe eastern United States.

Since 2004 Mathias Dickhut has conducted the Gesangverein Hofbieber. 

From 1996-2002 he was the conductor ofthe Washington Saengerbund and

choral instructor at the German School in Potomac, Maryland. During that

period he conducted numerous public concerts in Washington, including a

performance of Haydn’s The Seasons at Washington National Cathedral. He 

studied choral conducting with Helmuth Rilling, David Thorson, and Martin

Behrmann. Dickhut has founded several choirs in his career, including the

Frankfurter Vokalisten and the Ricarda Huch Choir, both ofwhich were

recorded and broadcast by major radio networks and received prizes from

the British Broadcasting Corporation and Hessischer Rundfunk. Known 

for his skill as an oratorio conductor, Dickhut has conducted the Frankfurt

Radio Orchestra, the Mainz Chamber Orchestra, and the Washington Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

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Program Notes

The visual arts in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Germany and Austria were

as lively and accomplished as the musical arts. The National Gallery ofArt has

one ofthe finest collections of German Renaissance paintings in the United

States. The Habsburg family ofAustria ruled the German-speaking provinces 

from 1440 through the middle ofthe sixteenth century. The German language

was the source ofunity among these disparate regions. Because ofthe large 

number ofGerman-speaking provinces in central Europe, German painting

has a strong regional character focused on such cities as Cologne, Nuremberg,

and Vienna. Some ofthe greatest and best-known artists of all time were

sixteenth-century Germans: Albrecht Dtirer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and

Hans Holbein the Younger, as well as Matthias Griinewald, whose Small

Crucifixion (Gallery 35) is a masterpiece ofreligious intensity.

The works of art produced in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in

what is now Belgium, The Netherlands, and part of France testify to the

economic and cultural vitality ofthe region. The fluorescence ofpainting

in the Netherlands in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries that

resulted in the astonishing realism ofJan van Eyck’s Annunciation (Gallery

39) finds some parallels in the polyphony of Guillaume Dufay and Gilles

Binchois, composers who worked for the Burgundian court. Their music

was marked by an approach to notation and voice leading that was more

regulated that than ofprevious generations of composers. Jan van Eyck

was court painter to Philip the Good, Duke ofBurgundy For most ofthe

fifteenth century the city of Bruges was a center for commerce, banking,

and the production of art and luxury goods. Italian merchants and bankers

resided in the city. Evidence oftheir patronage can be seen in Petrus Christus’

portraits ofdonors who are members ofthe Lomellini and Vivaldi families

ofGenoa and Hans Memling's Saint Veronica, which probably belonged

to Bernardo Bembo ofVenice or Verona in the early sixteenth century (both 

in Gallery 39).

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Ofspecial interest to musicologists is the large and splendid Mary, Queen

ofHeaven (Gallery 40) by the Master ofthe Saint Lucy Legend. Painted by an

artist active in Bruges, the picture was commissioned for a convent in Spain. 

The title comes from the Marian antiphon “Ave Regina Caelorum” sung by

the angels on either side ofthe Virgin's head. The music resembles a motet

by the English composer Walter Frye, whose compositions were popular at 

the Burgundian court.

By the early sixteenth century Antwerp had replaced Bruges as the

mercantile and financial hub of northern Europe. The city was home to the

bourse, or stock market, and merchants bought and sold a wide variety of

goods from Europe and Great Britain as well as Asia and the New World. One

could say that modem capitalism began in Antwerp. Artists and musicians

flocked to the prosperous city. Jan Gossaert, Joos van Cleve, and Quentin

Massys are among the artists based in Antwerp who are represented by

outstanding paintings in the National Gallery ofArt’s permanent collection 

(Gallery 41). In the sixteenth century there was an increased demand for 

secular subjects. For example, Massys' Ill-Matched Lovers treats a theme that

can be traced back to antiquity, but also represents the kind ofmoralizing

satire found in the writings of Erasmus, Massys’ contemporary. The musical

landscape in Antwerp was equally varied, with compositions written for 

performance in church, the court, or a domestic setting. Music published in

Antwerp in today’s concert includes Orlando di Lasso’s “Bonjour, mon cceur”

and Heinrich Isaac’s “Innsbruck, ich muji dich lassen.”

Program notes by John Hand, curator ofNorthern Renaissance Paintings,

National Gallery ofArt

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Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

New York Opera Society

Max and Moritz: A Cartoon Opera in Seven Pranks

by Gisle Kvemdokk 

World Premiere Performance

Presented in honor of Edvard Munch: Master Prints

and in conjunction with “Norway Comes to Washington”

October 17, 2010

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

Music by Ravel and Saint-Saens

Presented in honor of From Impressionism to Modernism:

The Chester Dale Collection

October 20, 2010

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall