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 ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

www.nga.gov

The Seventieth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,875th Concert

The Phillips Camerata

Olivia HajiofFand Marc Ramirez, violin and viola

Karen Johnson, violin

Steven Honigberg, cello

Irina Nuzova, piano

Presented in honor of Picasso’s Drawings, 1890-1921: Reinventing Tradition

February 19, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Joaqum Turina (1882-1949)

Piano Quintet in G Minor, op. 1 (1907)

Fuga lenta 

Anime

Andante-scherzo

Finale

INTERMISSION

Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)

Piano Quintet no. 2 in C Minor, op. 115 (1919-1921)

Allegro moderato

Allegro vivo

Andante moderato

Allegro molto

The Musicians

THE PHILLIPS CAMERATA

Fresh from its fall 2011 debut at its home institution, the Phillips Collection’s

first resident ensemble makes its inaugural guest appearance at the National

Gallery ofArt. Comprised ofsixteen leading instrumentalists from the New

York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, areas, and under the 

artistic direction of Phillips Collection music director Caroline Mousset, the 

Phillips Camerata performs the first and last Sunday concerts of each season 

at the Phillips Collection and offers additional performances at other chamber music venues. Performing in various combinations to suit the demands

of a wide variety of chamber music, the Phillips Camerata has chosen for

this concert in honor of Picasso’s Drawings, 1890-1921: Reinventing Tradition

to focus on piano quintets written in the period between those years. Members ofthe ensemble performing this evening are:

Olivia Fiajioff, violin and viola

Marc Ramirez, violin and viola

Karen Johnson, violin

Steven Honigberg, cello

Irina Nuzova, piano

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Program Notes

Acknowledged as the greatest draftsman ofthe twentieth century, Pablo

Picasso (1881-1973) not °nly broke ground and set standards in several

important movements in art history, but also interacted with and influenced

a number of composers. The exhibition Picasso's Drawings, 1890-1921:

Reinventing Tradition presents the development ofthe artist’s drawings over

a thirty-year period—from the precocious academic exercises of his youth

in the 1890s to the virtuoso works ofthe early 1920s, including the radical 

innovations of cubism and collage. Drawing served as an essential means of

invention and discovery in Picasso’s multifaceted art, and provided a means

for spontaneous portraits, including a 1917 portrait ofIgor Stravinsky—

included in the exhibition—which he drew during a brief encounter with

the composer in Rome. The exhibition remains on view in the Ground Floor

galleries ofthe West Building until May 6, 2012.

Among the composers who were privileged to interact with Picasso were

Francis Poulenc and Ned Rorem, as well as Manuel de Falla, Erik Satie, and

Igor Stravinsky, with whom he collaborated in productions for the Ballets

Russes. A particular claim to fame on the part ofthe latter three composers

is that each is the subject of at least one Picasso portrait.

Born in Seville, Joaquin Turina learned to play the accordion as a child.

At age twelve, he had already studied harmony and counterpoint, and was

ready to undertake his first compositions. Upon completion of his studies in

Spain, he traveled to Paris to study with composer Vincent D’Indy and pianist

Moritz Moszkowski. In 1907 he completed the first work to which he assigned an opus number—the piano quintet with which the Phillips Camerata begins this program. The first performances took place in Paris and 

Barcelona, played by Turina and the Parent Quartet, led by violinist Armand

Parent. The composer provided the following program notes for the quintet: 

The Quintet in G Minor is a work emphasizing form. Its construction is based on Beethovenian models. It is, moreover, a cyclical

work, which is to say, built over one theme; that theme is from the 

fugue. The fugue is true but completely free, and in its episodes all

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ofthe work’s themes appear successively. The Allegro is in sonata

form. The Andante-Scherzo is the reunion oftwo pieces in one:

the Andante begins, then right to the Scherzo, and in the end both

sound simultaneously. The finale is a rondo as Beethoven redefined the form-in other words, a combination ofrondo and sonata 

form... (The Quintet) is completely Franckian in form and concept...

ultimately it is an impersonal work.

The quintet sits stylistically apart from most ofTurina’s subsequent

compositions. From its cyclical form to its French Impressionist tendencies,

it reflects the French musical values that he was attempting to master at the

time. Not long after the successful premiere ofthe Quintet in G Minor,

Turina came into contact with Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz, who urged

him to seek inspiration in Spain’s own music, particularly Andalusia’s

popular music. Having finished his studies in France, Turina moved to

Madrid to teach and compose for the remainder of his life.

Gabriel Faure earned a reputation as a composer whose music encapsulated the French style. Remembering him on the occasion ofhis centenary

in 1945, Leslie Orrey of The Musical Times wrote: “[He was] more profound

than Saint-Saens, more varied than Lalo, more spontaneous than D’Indy,

and more classic than Debussy.” As a young composer, Faure drew his 

inspiration primarily from the great composers who preceded him, including Mozart, Chopin, and Schumann. Under the influence of Saint-Saens,

he made careful study of Liszt and Wagner, and composer and pedagogue 

Gustave Lefevre (1831-1910) introduced him to progressive harmonic ideas.

As his long career unfolded, Faure expanded freely beyond the generally 

conservative compositional principles ofthe “French style.” He composed 

his best works for chamber ensembles. Unlike most of his contemporaries,

he did not view the symphony orchestra as the ideal vessel for communicating his musical ideas. Quite capable ofpresenting clarity' and unity in his

works using limited instrumentation, he thought oflarge orchestration and

tone coloration as compensation for an absence of creativity.

Faure served as head ofthe Paris Conservatory from 1905 until 1920,

when he retired (at age seventy-five) due to increasing deafness and frailty. It

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was right around the time of his retirement that he composed the Piano

Quintet no. 2 in C Minor, op. 115, and dedicated it to Paul Dukas. Critics 

immediately contrasted it with his first piano quintet, which he had completed in 1894, and which was more adventuresome. Harmonically, the later

quintet is more conservative than many ofhis other late works, and its

melodies are clearly rooted in classical technique. Aaron Copland, then a

young admirer of Faure, was one of only a few who maintained that the C

Minor Quintet was Faure’s greatest masterpiece. Copland found it to be “a

pure well ofspirituality...extremely classic, as far removed as possible from

the romantic temperament.”

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

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Upcoming concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Roger Wright, pianist

Music by Balakirev, Debussy, Griffes, Ravel, and other composers

February 26, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Pascal and Ami Roge, duo pianists

Music by Debussy

Presented in honor ofthe reopening ofthe

Nineteenth-century French galleries

March 4, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Carmen Balthrop, soprano

Jose Caceres, pianist

Music by Dvorak, Greenleaf, Tchaikovsky, and other composers

March 11, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court