Liszt’s SixConsolationswere completed and published between 1849

and 1850. With its sumptuous key ofD-flat major, the Consolation is

reminiscent ofChopin’s nocturne in the same key. It is considered

one of Liszt’s unofficial tributes to Chopin on the occasion of his 

death in 1849. It was and has remaineda popular favorite of stu­

dents and concert artists alike.

Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No.1 isa transcription for piano of the sec­

ond of two pieces entitled Episodesfrom [Nikolaus] Lenaus“Faust”.

With its diabolical and sorcerous flashes, it reflects the composer’s

preoccupation with the legend of Faust, as recounted in Lenau’s

poem. Although Liszt composed three otherMephisto Waltzes, none

has reached the popularity of the first. Its“bold harmonies and

vivid exploitation ofinstrumental color,” to quote music critic Patrick

Rucker, “have made it one ofthe most often played ofLiszt’s works.”

- Program notes by Elmer Booze

The use ofcameras or recording equipment during

theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30pm.

Under the Direction of George Manos The Fifty-sixth Season of

May 1998

THE FIFTY-FIFTH AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

MAY3 THROUGH 31, 1998

3 National Gallery Orchestra Copland: Appalachian Spring

George Manos, conductor Robert Ward: Symphony No.3

Sotireos Vlahopoulos: Ode

(World premiere)

10 National Gallery Vocal

Arts Ensemble

Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

Beverly Benso, contralto

Samuel Gordon, tenor

Robert Kennedy, baritone

Francis Conlon, pianist

Charles Ives: IntheMornin

The Collection

Slow March

Karen

Donald Waxman Four Songs ofthe

Seasons

Nancy Daley

Ned Rorem

Steven Weber

Five Amusements

(World premiere)

Four Madrigals

Five Nursery Rhymes

17 Upper Valley Duo

Tim Schwartz, violinist

Dan Weiser, pianist

Wm. G. Still: W C. Handy:

Amy Beach:

Suitefor

Violin andPiano

St. Louis Blues

Sonatafor Violin

andPiano

American Spirituals

and Gospel songs

artistic director

Fredericka King, pianist

24 New England Spiritual Ensemble

Vincent Dion Stringer,

31 Washington Men’s

Camerata

Thomas Beveridge,

conductor

Michael Patterson,

pianist

Randall Thompson:

Testament ofFreedom

Vincent Persichetti:

Song ofPeace

Billings: When Jesus Wept

Plus works for men’s chorus by

Copland, Virgil Thomson, and Thomas

Beveridge

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and E LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery ofArt

2268th Concert

NELSON FREIRE, pianist

Sunday Evening, April 26, 1998

at SevenO’Clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission Free
PROGRAM

Johannes Brahms Sonata No. 3 in F Minor

(1833-1897 Opus 5 (1853)

Allegro maestoso

Andante espressivo

Scherzo: Allegro energico

Intermezzo: Andante molto

Finale: Allegro moderato ma rubato

INTERMISSION

Robert Schumann

(1810-1856)

Frederic Chopin

(1810-1849)

Papillons, Opus 2

(1829-1831)

Fantasy in F Minor

Opus 49 (1841)

Scherzo No. 4 in E Major

Opus 54 (1843)

Franz Liszt Consolation No. 3 in D-Flat Major

(1811-1886) (1849-1850)

Mephisto Waltz No. 1

“Dance in the Village Inn” (1862)

Born in Brazil in 1944, NELSON FREIRE made his first public

appearance at the age offour. His teachers at that time were Nise

Obino and Lucia Branco. In 1957 he won the Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition with his performance of Beethoven’s

Emperor Concerto. The President of Brazil presented Freire with a

financial scholarship that enabled him to continue his studies with

Bruno Seidlhofer in Vienna. Seven years later, Mr. Freire won the

Dinu Lipatti Medal in London, as well as first prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition in Lisbon. He made his United

States concerto debut in 1970, playing Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic, and his New York

recital debut took place the next day. Since then he has performed

recitals in Boston, Washington, DC, and Fort Worth, Texas, and

concertos with the symphony orchestras of New York, Chicago,

Cleveland, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Denver, among others. In

addition to numerous recitals throughout Europe, Mr. Freire has

performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony,

and the Orchestre National de France under such distinguished

conductors as RudolfKempe, Pierre Boulez, Andre Previn, Gennady

Rozhdestvensky, and David Zinman. He has recorded music of

Chopin and Villa-Lobos for the SONY Classical, IPAM, London,

and Teldec labels, and his newest recording was released by Berlin

Classics in the summer of 1995. It features Franz Liszt’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 and Totentanz!Danse Macabre with the Dresden

Philharmonic, conducted by Michel Plasson. A Steinway artist,

Nelson Freire appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with

Columbia Artists Management, Inc., of New York.

Brahms composed all three of his piano sonatas early in his career. 

The third is deemed not only the most magnificent of the three,

but has been placed in the same arena ofgreatness as the mighty B

Minor Sonata of Liszt. Brahms’ early compositions were mainly

virtuosic, without a great deal of musical substance. In the Sonata,

Opus 5 we find him ripening from his early powerful expression of

emotion to a compact and more comprehensive use ofmusical forms.

His later music contains a wealth of contrapuntal devices, including canons, fugues, retrogrades, inversions, and even retrograde inversions. All are used with an uncompromising lucidity that preserves rather than obliterates the melodic and harmonic balance.

As the Belgian music critic Harry Halbreich put it: “Brahms...speaks

from his rich and dark pianistic style.... We have an almost orchestral outgrowing of the keyboard’s possibilities. Series of parallel 

thirds, octaves and above all, sixths (Brahms’ favorite and most idiomatic interval) create a sense oftruly symphonic volume. Brahms’

music calls for large hands and keeps all ten fingers busy most ofthe

time. But, massive as it may be, it never becomes obscure or opaque

as long as it is properly performed....” Schumann was sufficiently

aroused by Brahms’ music to praise him as the “young eagle [and]

he who had to come” in the Neue Zeitschriftfur Musik, a progressive

journal Schumann helped to found. He described Brahms’ early piano works as “...veiled symphonies, so orchestral are they both in 

inspiration and pianistic writing.”

Papillons, Opus2was, written shortly before Schumann permanently

injured a finger, which terminated his career as a concert pianist.

The work is a series of dances, some based on waltzes and fourhand polonaises Schumann had composed previously. He acknowledged the influence of a novel, Flegeljahre, by Jean Paul, in the conception of the work, although it has no stated program. However,

there is one marginal note in the score that refers to the final scene

in the novel, a masked ball. Next to a bizarre passage in the final 

waltz, in which six accented notes penetrate an otherwise soft, hazy 

texture, Schumann writes: “The noise of the carnival night grows 

silent. The tower clock strikes six.”

Composed in 1841, Chopin’s FMinorFantasy, Opus 49 stands along

side the fantasies of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert in importance and historical significance. James Huneker (1857-1921), in 

his introductory statements to Rafael Joseffy’s critical edition of

the Chopin ScherziandFantasy, said: “Its melodies, though restless

and melancholy, are ofsurpassing nobility and dramatic grandeur....

It is [Chopin’s] largest canvas.... The virtuoso makes way for the

poet.... The interest is not relaxed until the final bar.”

Chopin wrote six scherzi, one each for his two sonatas and four 

that were published separately, which include the ScherzoNo. 4in E

Major, Opus 54. It has been the favorite of many pianists, including

Saint-Saens, who claimed he loved it more than any other work by 

Chopin. It embodies the true concept of the scherzo as Chopin

conceived it, with its myriad trills, staccato chords, and radiantleggiero

passage-work. It is sunnier in mood than his otherscherzi, being in

the key of E Major. This scherzo contains some of Chopin’s most

fortuitous ideas, cultivated with his unique ability to use the keyboard as a chromatic paintbrush.

Inspired by the poems of Charles Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869),