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

umnv.nga.gov © ©

COVER: Canaletto, The “Giovedi Grasso” Festival before the

Ducal Palace in Venice, c. 1765, National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Paul Mellon Fund

The Sixty-ninth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,826th Concert

The Vivaldi Project

Presented in honor of Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals

February 20, 2011

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Program

“Venice: Vivaldi and His Rivals”

Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682)

Sinfoniafor Violin and Cello (c. 1670)

Dario Castello (c. 1590-1650)

Sonatafor Solo Instrument and Continuo in "Stil Moderno” (1621)

Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690)

Sonata a tre, op 2, no. 1 (1655)

From La Comara, Libro Primo

Allegro; adagio; allegro

Legrenzi

Sonata a tre, op. 10, no. 2 (1673)

From La Comara, Libro Quarto

Allegro; allegro; adagio; allegro; adagio

Joseph Gascho (after George Frideric Handel and Domenico Scarlatti) 

Ottoboni’s Contest

Antonio Vivaldi (1687-1741)

Sonata no. 4 from Suonate da camera a tre, op. 1 (1705)

Largo

Allegro

Adagio

Allemanda: Largo

Sarabanda: Largo

Giga: Allegro

INTERMISSION

Domenico Gabrielli (1659-1690)

Ricercar no. 5for Cello Solo (c. 1689)

Antonio Caldara (1670-1736)

Sonata da camera a due violini con il basso continuo, op. 2, no. 4 (c. 1699) 

Allemanda: Largo

Corrente: Allegro 

Giga: Allegro 

Gavotta: Allegro 

Ciaccona in B-flat Major

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Trio Sonata no. 7 in F Major (c. 1707-1709)

Andante

Allegro

Adagio

Allegro

Vivaldi

Sonata no. 12 from Suonate da camera a tre, op. 1 (1705) “Folia
The Musicians

THE ENSEMBLE

A premier period instrument ensemble dedicated to presenting seventeenthand eighteenth-century string repertoire, the Vivaldi Project takes its name

from the composer who inspires the group’s core repertoire. Antonio Vivaldi,

the most influential Italian composer ofhis generation, cultivated a distinctive 

musical style and made innovative contributions to repertoire for string instruments, the concerto genre, and programmatic orchestral music. He is

a pivotal figure between earlier baroque composers and later classical composers. The Vivaldi Project often juxtaposes his works with those ofAntonio

Stradella, Giuseppe Torelli, and Arcangelo Corelli, as well as music by German

and Austrian composers who revered his music—Johann Sebastian Bach and

his sons, as well as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. More information about

the ensemble is available at www.thevivaldiproject.org.

ELIZABETH FIELD

Founder and director ofthe Vivaldi Project Elizabeth Field is the concertmaster ofthe Bach Choir of Bethlehem. She has served as concertmaster for 

Opera Lafayette and the Washington Bach Consort as well as acting as both

concertmaster and historical performance practice coach for the National

Philharmonic Orchestra, Princeton Pro Musica, and the Washington

Chamber Symphony. Currently a member ofthe chamber ensemble ArcoVoce, with which she has appeared several times at the National Gallery,

Field is a frequent guest artist with the 4 Nations Ensemble, Harmonious

Blacksmith, and Hesperus. Outside the Washington area, she has performed

with some ofthe nation's leading period instrument ensembles, including

the Classical Band, the Handel & Haydn Society, and the New York State 

Early Music Association. A former member of Brandywine Baroque and the

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and a founding member ofthe Van Swieten

Quartet, Field has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Dorian, Hungaroton, and Naxos. Along with cellist Stephanie Vial, she directs the Modern

Early Music Institute, a course in historical performance practice for players

4

ofmodern instruments. She is currently working on a collaborative dvd

with fortepianist Malcolm Bilson, exploring the historical performance

practice of eighteenth-century violin and piano repertoire. Equally at home

with the modern violin, Field performs frequently with the Washington

National Opera. An adjunct professor at George Washington University, she

has held professorships at Sacramento State University and the University

ofCalifornia at Davis.

STEPHANIE VIAL

Cellist Stephanie Vial performs a broad repertoire on both period and modem

instruments with such groups as ArcoVoce, the Apollo Ensemble, the Atlanta

Baroque Orchestra, and Les Violons du Roy. As a baroque cellist, she has

recorded for Centaur Records, Dorian, Hungaroton, and Naxos. Vial holds

a doctor ofmusical arts degree in eighteenth-century performance practice 

from Cornell University. Her book, The Art ofMusical Phrasing in the Eighteenth Century: Punctuating the Classical “Period,” was released in 2008 by the

University of Rochester Press. A former faculty member at Duke University,

Vial codirects the Modem Early Music Institute and serves on the adjunct

music faculty at the University7 ofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill.

JOSEPH GASCHO

Conductor and harpsichordist Joseph Gascho enjoys a varied career as baroque

keyboardist; soloist and collaborative chamber musician; conductor ofoperas, 

orchestras, and choirs; editor and arranger; and lecturer. The winner of

numerous grants and prizes, he took first prize in the 2002 Jurow International Harpsichord Competition. He appeared at tire National Gallery in 2009

with the ensemble Harmonious Blacksmith, and his European credits include

his activity as claveciniste-repetiteur and director of a chamber music program

at the Academie d’Art-Lyrique in Aix-en-Provence, France. A recipient in

2010 ofthe doctor ofmusical arts degree in music at the University of Maryland, Gascho teaches at the George Washington University and the Baroque 

Performance Institute oftire Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

5
ALLISON GUEST EDBERG

One ofthe preeminent performers on baroque and modem violin, Allison

Guest Edberg has been praised by The Chicago Sun Times as “impeccable, with

unerring intonation and an austere beauty.” Currently the concertmaster of

the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, a founding member oftire early music

ensemble Olde Friends, and tire education director for the Lafayette Symphony

Orchestra, she has performed throughout North America with Apollo’s Fire,

Chatham Baroque, Ensemble Galilei, the Foundling Baroque Orchestra, La

Monica, the Washington Bach Consort, and the Vivaldi Project. Frequently 

featured at tire Bloomington Early Music Festival and the Indianapolis Early

Music Festival, Edberg has served on the faculty ofthe Interlochen Arts Camp

as well as those of DePauw University, Indiana State University', Lawrence 

University, and Ohio State University. A student of Stanley Ritchie at the

Indiana University7 Early Music Institute, Edberg received a bachelor ofmusic

degree from the Peabody Institute ofthe Johns Hopkins University and a

master ofmusic degree from the University ofMichigan, where she studied

with Camilla Wicks.

WILLIAM SIMMS

An active performer of early music, William Simms appears regularly with 

Apollo’s Fire, the Bach Sinfonia, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra ofColorado,

the Folger Consort, and Harmonious Blacksmith. He has been heard with the

American Opera Theatre, the Baltimore Consort, the Cleveland Opera, Opera 

Lafayette, tire Washington Bach Consort, and Washington National Opera at

the Barns at WolfTrap, the Corcoran Gallery ofArt, the Kennedy Center, the

Library ofCongress, and Washington National Cathedral. Simms received a

bachelor ofmusic degree from the College ofWooster and a master ofmusic

degree from the Peabody Institute. Formerly on the faculty at the Interlochen

Arts Camp, he currently teaches at Mount St. Mary’s University and Hood 

College, where he founded and directs the Hood Early Music Ensemble. He 

has recorded for the Centaur, Dorian, and Electra labels.

6

Program Notes

By the eighteenth century, Venetians could claim a heritage ofmore than two

hundred years of glorious music and illustrious composers. Looking back to 

the sixteenth century, they could point to Adrian Willaert (1490-1562) and

his pupils Andrea (1532-1585) and Giovanni (1554-1612) Gabrieli, all ofwhom

served as music director at the Cathedral of Saint Mark. From the seventeenth

century, they could boast ofClaudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Francesco 

Cavalli (1602-1676), and Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690). During the course

ofthe eighteenth century, the era ofAntonio Vivaldi, Tomaso Albinoni, and

tire superstar castrato Carlo Broschi, popularly known as Farinelli, the city’s

vibrant cultural life also inspired a school of cityscape painters whose achievements are among the most brilliant ofthe period. The exhibition Venice:

Canaletto and His Rivals celebrates tire rich variety ofthese painted view's of

Venice, known as vedute, through nrasterworks by Giovanni Antonio Canal

(1697-1768), popularly known as Canaletto, and his rivals, including Michele

Marieschi (1710-1743), Francesco Guardi (1712-1793), and Bernardo Bellotto

(1720-1780). Responding to an art market fueled largely by tire Grand Tour,

these gifted painters depicted the famous monuments and vistas ofVenice in

different moods and seasons. This evening’s program brings together w'orks

by some ofthe city’s most illustrious resident and guest composers, proriding

a vivid and at times licentious look behind the scenes depicted in the vedute.

Remaining on view in the East Building until May 30, 2011, the exhibition

will be complemented by three additional concerts, performed by Red Priest

(February 27), the National Gallery ofArt Vocal Ensemble (March 13), and

the Venice Baroque Orchestra (April 10).

One ofthe most versatile Italian composers ofhis day, Alessandro

Stradella produced more than three hundred works, some ofwhich are

now7 lost. His innovations in the concerto grosso style appear to be the

model for Corelli’s famous Concetti Grossi, op. 6. Arriving in Venice in

1677—after leaving Rome in haste to avoid punishment for nefarious

money schemes— Stradella was hired to teach music to a nobleman’s

mistress, Agnese Van Uffele. As might be expected, Stradella w7as shortly

7
involved with her, and had to flee when their liaison was discovered. The

nobleman hired a gang ofthugs to follow him and kill him, which they

narrowly failed to do. (In one account, they heard him in performance and 

forgave him for the sake ofhis talent.) Stradella went next to Genoa, where 

he wrote operas and cantatas. Once again he was involved in an affair with

a poorly chosen woman, and this time a hired killer caught up with him at

the Piazza Banchi in Genoa and stabbed him to death. Stradella’s Sinfonia

for Violin and Cello is dramatic, passionate, tricky, and flirtatious — much

like the man.

Not a great deal is known about composer and wind player Dario

Castello, except that by 1621 he held posts as leader of a wind ensemble and 

musician at the Cathedral of Saint Mark. As is the case with his Sonatafor

Solo Instrument and Continuo in “Stil Moderno,” many of his manuscripts

do not specify the solo instrument. In this case, the virtuosic writing is

well suited to the violin, if not entirely idiomatic. The compositional style

is dramatic, juxtaposing sections of contrasting tempo and affect, which

is typical ofthe stil moderno.

Giovanni Legrenzi w'as one ofthe most important composers ofthe latter

half ofthe seventeenth century, and a powerful force in the development of

the late baroque style in northern Italy for both vocal and instrumental music.

Known to have been living in Venice by 1670, in 1681 he ultimately attained

the much sought-after post of maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Saint

Mark. Considered to be his most forward-looking works, the opus 10 sonatas

use through-composed forms, as opposed to tire sectional dance forms that 

prevailed in seventeenth-century instrumental music, and well-developed

functional harmony. They are seen as precursors ofthe sonata da chiesa: a

four-movement work with both tire fast and slow movements ofsuch gravity

as to be suitable for performance in church. Legrenzi’s innovative handling 

ofstructure exerted a strong influence on the sonatas and concertos ofTorelli,

Vivaldi, and Johann Sebastian Bach, wdio transcribed one ofhis fugues for

the organ.

A student of Legrenzi, the Bolognese composer Domenico Gabrielli

was a fine composer of vocal music in his own right. He wrote a number of

operas for performance in Venice, but he is most famous for championing

the violoncello, an instrument that was new at the time. Bolognese string

makers developed a new technique ofwrapping gut strings in metal, making possible an instrument with the lower octave range and power of a bass

violin, but without long thick strings, which would have inhibited virtuoso 

playing. Gabrielli advocated the use ofthis instrument in place ofthe bass

viol, and composed his first pieces for it in 1687. His seven ricercars for

unaccompanied cello demand great technical facility, maintaining at the 

same time a harmonic bass line and a clear melodic line. His output might

well have been even more significant, had he not died in 1690 at the age

ofthirty-one.

It is very likely that Gabrielli helped introduce the cello to the prolific

Venetian composer and cellist, Antonio Caldara, who, like Gabrielli, is

presumed to have studied under Legrenzi. Caldara’s instrumental music

dates from the 1690s, when he made his living as cellist and freelance 

composer in Venice. His trio sonatas reveal his indebtedness to Corelli’s

da camera sonatas—sonatas consisting of a suite ofseveral small pieces

suitable for dancing, designed for domestic entertainment. They are unique

in their intense moods and varying instrumental textures, ranging from

closely integrated voices to overtly virtuosic passages for the first violin.

There is anecdotal evidence of a meeting between the great baroque 

keyboardists Domenico Scarlatti and George Frideric Handel at the Carnival

of Venice in 1707. The Roman Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, a great patron of

the arts, supposedly invited them to a friendly competition, where they

were judged as equals on the harpsichord. Inspired by this story, Ottoboni’s

Contest by Joseph Gascho is a light-hearted set of variations based on Handel’s Air with Five Doubles from the Suite in E Major, hwv 430 —popularly

known as The Harmonious Blacksmith. Interspersed with Handel’s original 

variations are newly composed variations in the style of Scarlatti. Some of

9
Gascho’s variations begin with an exact repetition of Handel’s original

theme, but with right and left hands reversed, a technique Scarlatti enjoyed. 

Other variations expand the hand-crossing technique, extend the range of

the original with arpeggiated figures, transform the theme to the minor

mode, or employ a flurry ofrepeated notes.

In addition to the alleged contest with Scarlatti, Handel visited Venice

on a number of occasions. He may have been following the soprano Vittoria 

Tarquini, who often performed in Venice, and who was the object of his

attentions during much ofhis time in Italy (1707-1710). It was during those

years that he composed his Trio Sonata no. 7 in F Major, a tour de force for 

all instruments in the sonata da chiesa form.

Antonio Vivaldi was recognized throughout Europe for his innovative 

contributions to string writing, the concerto genre, and programmatic orchestral music. His opus 1 sonatas are firmly in the da camera style, although by his

time such distinctions had become increasingly less important—dances were 

often included in church sonatas and expressive adagios in chamber sonatas. 

Vivaldi was one of a number ofItalian composers, dating back to Corelli, who 

composed variations on the wild Portuguese dance La Folia (a mad or emptyheaded person).

Like Handel, Vivaldi was an unabashed musical borrower and an

improviser, often reusing his own material and modifying it for new purposes. His work was constantly evolving and changing, and each performance was most likely unique, responding to the nature ofthe room, the

reactions ofthe audience, and the whims and passions ofthe performers.

The exciting challenge for the Vivaldi Project and other contemporary

performers is to recapture the spirit ofVivaldi and his exuberant age.

Program notes based on material provided by Stephanie Vial

10

Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Sara Stem, flutist,

Lisa Emenheiser, pianist

Music by Jongen, Liebermann, and Schoenfeld

February 23, 2011

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

East Building Auditorium

Red Priest

Music by Vivaldi and other composers

Presented in honor of Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals

February 27, 2011

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court