75TH SEASON

ERTS

DECEMBER 11, 2016 • NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
PROGRAM

4:00 • West Building, West Garden Court

Tempesta di Mare Chamber Players

Gwyn Roberts and Heloi'se Degrugillier, flute and recorder

Emlyn Ngai, Edmond Chan, and Mandy Wolman, violin

Daniela Giulia Pierson, viola

Lisa Terry, viola da gamba and cello

Heather Miller Lardin, viola da gamba and bass

Richard Stone, theorbo

Adam Pearl, harpsichord

Winter: A Cozy Noel

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)

Concerto Grosso in G Minor, op. 6, no. 8,

"for Christmas Eve"

Vivace, Grave

Allegro

Adagio, Allegro, Adagio

Vivace

Allegro

Largo: Pastorale

Christopher Simpson (c. 1606-1669)

Winter

Fantasia

Ayre 

Galliard

Giovanni Antonio Guido 

(c. 1675-after 1728)

Concerto in B-flat, op. 3, no. 3, "Winter"

Largo: the season of chills

Prestissimo: cruel Aquilon declares 

war on us

Adagio: take care of your days

Vivace: soldiers' march 

Allegro: joyful celebrations

Prestissimo: let the winds roar 

Allegro, Prestissimo, Allegro:

banish sadness

Intermission

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Violin Concerto in F Minor, op. 8, no. 4,

"Winter"

Allegro non molto

Largo

Allegro

Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708-1763)

Sonata da Camera in E-flat, op. 6, "in the 

manner of a recitative"

Andante/Recitativo

Allegro

Allegro moderato: Tempo di

polacca, Lento

Michel Corrette (1707-1795)

Symphony of Carols IV in D Minor

Moderato: Une jeune pucelle 

Allegro

Adagio: Chretien qui suivez I'Eglise

Allegro: Nous sommes en voie

Largo: German carol

Allegro: American carol

New carol on an old tune by Mr. Lully

75th Season • 3
The Musicians

Fanfare magazine recently hailed Tempesta di Mare for its "abundant energy, immaculate

ensemble, impeccable intonation, and an undeniable sense of purpose." Led by directors

Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone with concertmaster Emlyn Ngai, Tempesta performs baroque

music on baroque instruments with a repertoire that ranges from staged opera to chamber

music. The group performs all orchestral repertoire without a conductor, as was the practice 

when this music was new.

Tempesta's Philadelphia Concert Series, noted by the Philadelphia Inquirer for its "offthe-grid chic factor," emphasizes creating a sense of discovery for artists and audience alike.

Launched in 2002, the series has included thirty-one modern "world premieres" of lost or 

forgotten baroque masterpieces, leading the Inquirer to describe it as "an old-music group

that acts like a new-music group, by pushing the cutting edge back rather than forward."

Its supporters include the Pew Charitable Trusts, the William Penn Foundation, the Presser

Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In a marketplace dominated by European ensembles, Tempesta is the only American

baroque music group to record for the British label Chandos. Current releases include

Weiss: Lute Concerti (2004), Handel: Flaming Rose (2007), Scarlatti: Cantatas and Chamber

Music (2010), Fasch: Orchestral Music, vol. 1 (2008), vol. 2 (2011), and vol. 3 (2012), Bach: Trio

Sonatas, BWV 525-530 (2014), Mancini: Sonatas fora Flute, (2014), and Comedie et Tragedie:

French baroque orchestral music for the theater, vol. l (2015) and vol. 2 (2016). National

broadcasts of live performances include SymphonyCast, Performance Today, Sunday Baroque,

and Harmonia. Our concert recordings are distributed worldwide via the European Broadcasting Union, a global alliance of public service media organizations with members in

fifty-six countries in Europe and beyond.

Tempesta has appeared internationally at such venues as the Prague Spring Music

Festival, the Gottingen Handel Festival, the Mendelssohn-Remise Berlin, and the International Fasch Festival in Zerbst. Notable North American presenters have included the

Frick Collection, the Oregon Bach Festival, Abbey Bach Festival, Whitman College, Cornell

Concerts, the Yale Collection, the Flagler Museum, and the Garmany Series, Hartford. This 

season, the orchestra performs on the Miami Bach Festival.

4 • National Gallery of Art

Program Notes

How can instrumental music be "seasonal" without using words? Each composer featured

on today's concert had a different answer to this question.

Concerto Grosso in G Minor, op. 6, no. 8, "for Christmas Eve"

The Italian subtitle of Corelli's Concerto Grosso in G Minor, op. 6, no. 8, means "crafted for

Christmas Eve," and the sounds of its final movement, Pastorale, would have said "Christmas"

to any seventeenth- or eighteenth-century Italian. Such pastoral movements are thought to

be based on the music-making of Italian shepherds who came into town at Christmas to play

their bagpipes and shawms. Beginning early in the seventeenth century, Italian composers

imitated the shepherd's characteristic lilting melodies, often with some imitation of the

bagpipe's drone.

Fueled by additional associations with the story of Jesus's birth in a stable among

animals, pastorales became very popular in Italy as domestic Christmas music by the midseventeenth century. The enormous popularity of Corelli's Opus 6 Concerti Grossi, which were

reprinted and distributed widely throughout the eighteenth century, and of this Christmas

concerto in particular, helped the pastorale to catch on throughout Europe.

Other familiar examples of pastorales include the Pifa instrumental movement and

the aria "And He shall feed his flock" from Handel's Messiah, and even carols such as "Silent

Night." As the genre spread, the characteristics of the pastorale —alternately called "siciliana"—

came to signify salvation or hope in a more general way, as a means for opera composers to

telegraph the purity and virtue of a (usually female) character by giving her a pastorale aria.

Recorders were extremely popular in eighteenth-century Britain, so much so that

the London publisher John Walsh issued a number of publications of famous concert arias 

and instrumental pieces arranged to include one or more recorders, which were just called 

"flutes" in the day. Walsh used the marketing ploy of advertising these pieces as "curiously

fitted to two flutes" for this and other adaptations. Here, the "fitting" of flutes refers to the

two solo violins in Corelli's original orchestration, which Walsh reset for a pair of recorders.

Winter

Christopher Simpson's Winter comes from The Seasons, published in 1660, which was followed

six years later by another set of pieces for the same instrumental group called The Monthes.

His four Seasons have three movements each, and the Monthes are all single-movement

pieces, bringing each set to a total of twelve movements. Apart from this linkage with the

annual passage of time, there is nothing particularly seasonal symbolized in the music. Rather,

Simpson's intent here is to continue the demonstration he began in The Division Viol (1659),

teaching musicians to improvise variations against a repeated bass pattern. In all three publications, Simpson writes out his ornaments with extraordinary specificity for his day, notating

every alternation of every trill rather than using the common symbol "tr" above the note.

75th Season • 5
Simpson was himself a virtuoso gamba player, but the specific ensemble called for

here is unusual: one treble viola da gamba (or violin) and two bass violas da gamba make up 

the solo group, accompanied by basso continuo. Following the opening Fantasia, both the

Ayre and the Galliard display his variation technique, which he describes as follows in The

Division Viol: "Breaking the Ground (the repeated bass pattern against which the variations

are set) is the dividing of its notes into more diminute notes."

Concerto in B-flat, op. 3, no. 3, "Winter"

Giovanni Antonio Guido's "Winter," published in Versailles around 1716-1717, was part of his 

Opus 3, which he titled Scherzi armonici sopra le quattro stagioni dell'anno (musical effects on 

the four seasons of the year). Printed in the front of the score is a cycle of four poems, Les

caracteres des Saisons (the characters of the seasons), and excerpts from these poems appear

throughout the music, indicating where the images in the poem are musically depicted.

Vivaldi did something similar in his Four Seasons. It is worth noting, however, that Vivaldi's

seasons were published in 1725, and were thought to have been written in 1723, making it

very possible that Guido's earlier set inspired Vivaldi's use of the same conceit.

Guido himself was an Italian violinist who worked in Paris in service to the Duke of

Orleans, who became regent of France when the child king Louis XV ascended to the throne

in 1715. While the duke's musical taste favored Italian music, Guido's seasons contain both

Italian and French elements, reflected in the French poems that inspired them as well as the

mixed musical style that became popular after the death of Louis XIV. Following along with

the poem, printed and translated as follows, you will notice poetic touches similar to Vivaldi's,

but using a different musical vocabulary.

The opening movement uses repeated, short chords to depict wintry chill and blocks

of ice, with wispy gusts of wind fluttering through — not so different from what Vivaldi later

did at the start of his own "Winter." Next, the winds whip up to a furious howl as Aquilon,

the north wind, declares war on the earth, urged on by the wind god Aeolus. In the following

Adagio, we feel the chill in our old, creaky bones. The mood changes as the mid-winter

holidays march in to brighten things up, and the final movements alternate between

whipping winds and festive partying.

1

La saison des frimas attriste la nature;

le soleil affaibli se derobe a nos yeux.

La terre aux animaux n'offre au lieu de pature

que neiges et glacons qu'ils trouvent en tous lieux.

The season of chills saddens nature;

the weakened sun disrobes before our eyes.

The earth and the animals in the pasture are only

offered the snow and ice that they find everywhere.

6 • National Gallery of Art

2

Le cruel Aquilon nous declare la guerre

quels affreux sifflements mugissent dans les airs!

Eole furieux pour ravager la terre

de ses sujets mutins, a-t-il brise les fers?

Cruel Aquilon (the North Wind) declares war on us

what horrible whistlings howl in the air!

Aeolus (Ruler of Winds), furious to ravage the earth of its mutinous

subjects: has he broken his chains?

3

Prenez soin de vous jours, 0 tremblante vieillesse, 

le souffle de Boree est funeste pour vous.

A peine la chaleur de la verte jeunesse

peut-elle prevenir I'effet de son courroux.

Take care of your days, oh trembling old age,

the blast of Boreas (North Wind) is deadly for you.

The warmth of green youth barely manages 

to prevent the effects of his rage.

4 5

Cependant nos guerriers dans de brillantes fetes au millieu de I'hiver

amenent les beaux jours.

Tout promet a leurs voeux les plus belles conquetes

ils en ont pour garant la mere des amours.

All the while our warriors, the brilliant holidays in the middle of winter

bring beautiful days.

Their best wishes promise the most lovely conquests

that they have in order to protect the mother of love.

6,7

Laissons grander les vents, bannisons la tristesse.

Les dieux les plus charmants previennent nos desirs.

Livrons nous aux festins, aux jeux, a la tendresse.

L'hiver qui glace tout, ranime les plaisirs.

Let us ground the winds, banish sadness.

The most charming gods foresee our desires.

Deliver us to feasts, to games, to tenderness.

Winter, which freezes everything, reanimates pleasure.

75th Season • 7
Violin Concerto in F Minor, op. 8, no. 4, "Winter"

The four concertos that constitute The Four Seasons, the most recorded pieces of classical 

music ever, form the opening third of Antonio Vivaldi's 1725 collection of twelve violin

concertos titled II Cimento dell' armonia e delT invenzione, which loosely translates to "the

demonstration of music and rhetoric” and published as Opus 8. "Winter" appears fourth

in the book.

Of the three nouns in the title — cimento, armonia, and invenzione — only "harmony"

translates unambiguously from eighteenth-century Italian. Ancient metallurgists used cimento

for a compound or procedure to analyze the purity of precious metals. By extension, it means

a proof, trial, or challenge that reveals worth. By "invention," Vivaldi is referencing rhetoric,

the craft of persuasive and moving speech. The ancient Roman politician and philosopher

Cicero labeled the thought process for discovering the topic for an oration inventio, his first

canon of rhetoric.

With this in mind, it becomes clear that the title of Vivaldi's Opus 8 concerns a proof

of music paired with the Ciceronian craft of persuasion, that is, a demonstration (cimento)

attesting to the power of music (shorthand armonia) as rhetorical craft (shorthand invenzione).

Baroque composers were obsessed with bringing something akin to human speech

into instrumental music, and rhetoric provided a perfect vehicle. Bach's two-part inventions,

for instance, are so titled because they demonstrate, in his own words "a plain method...

not only how to come upon good inventions [i.e., musical topics or themes], but then how 

to develop them well"

Vivaldi has included an illustrative (dimostrativo) sonnet with each of his seasons,

possibly in the spirit of giving weight to his idea of proving harmony together with invention.

Vivaldi marked each of these depictive moments inline with the music throughout the

published partbooks. For instance the line "Agghiacciato tremar tra nevi algenti” (shivering,

chilled in the icy snow) appears at the beginning of the first movement of "Winter," and in

all parts: soloist, first violin, second violin, viola, basses, and continuo. These are not mere

descriptions for what Vivaldi is depicting: they serve as guidance for the fifth canon of

rhetoric: delivery.

Our musicians will introduce and demonstrate these elements from the stage prior

to the performance of the concerto so that you can follow along.

Illustrative Sonnet on the Concerto Titled "Winter"

Allegro non molto

Agghiacciato tremar tra nevi algenti

Al severo spirar d'orrido vento,

Correr battendo i piedi ogni momento;

E pel soverchio gel batter i denti

Shivering, chilled in the icy snow,

into the harsh breath of the horrid wind 

running, ever stamping one’s feet

and chattering teeth from excessive ice.

8 • National Gallery of Art

Largo

Passar al foco i di quieti e contenti 

Mentre la pioggia fuor bagna ben cento.

Passing the day at the fire, calm and contented

While the rain outside wettens ceaselessly.

Allegro

Caminar sopra il ghiaccio, e a passo lento

Per timor di cader girsene intend;

Gir forte sdrucciolar, cader a terra

Di nuovo ir sopra'I ghiaccio e correr forte 

Sin ch'il ghiaccio si rompe, e si disserra;

Sentir uscir dalle ferrate porte

Scirocco, Borea, e tutti i venti in guerra

Quest' e 'I verno, ma tal, che gioia apporte.

Walking on ice, in slow steps,

turning attention, now fixed on the fear of falling;

turning fast and slipping, falling down;

Or now going onto the ice and running hard

until the ice breaks and splits open;

Hearing bolt from their hardened gates

the sirocco, boreal, and all other winds at war:

That is Old Man Winter, but might it bring some joy.

Sonata da Camera in E-flat, op. 6, "in the manner of a recitative"

Johann Gottlieb Janitsch's Sonata da Camera in E-flat "in the manner of a recitative" is not

seasonal, but it includes a rather unusual example of instrumental music "speaking" as if there 

were text. The first movement of this quartet by one of the finest mid-eighteenth-century

Berlin composers is an operatic recitativo accompagnato alternating with a few arioso

passages. It is operatic except for one detail: the vocal line is "sung" by a flute. Just imagine

that there are words, and it absolutely works.

This quartet comes from the personal collection of the remarkable Jewish salonniere

Sara Itzig Levy (1761-1854), one of the wealthy eighteenth-century ladies who opened their

homes for gatherings of thinkers and doers. She was a professional-level harpsichordist,

and her salon focused on music — especially music of the Bach family, and works by other

composers who stayed stylistically rooted in the idioms of her youth. Levy commissioned

many works from Janitsch, often featuring the flute, which her husband played. During

World War II, her music collection, which she gave to the Berlin Sing-Akademie throughout

her lifetime as she needed to make room for ever more material, was swept away by the

Red Army and eventually found its way to Kiev. Lost for half a century, it was rediscovered 

in 2000 and subsequently repatriated to Berlin.

75th Season * 9
Symphony of Carols IV in D Minor

In his Symphony of Carols IV in D Minor, Michel Corrette takes perhaps the most common

approach to seasonality by using popular Christmas tunes, noels in French, as his thematic

material. He names some tunes, especially the most common ones, but indicates others

more generally, by country of origin, or not at all. Many of these noel tunes are treated to

the same sort of variation technique that Simpson used in his "Winter," but with a French

accent. You'll hear a tune played simply once. Then, the accompaniment is repeated, with

the tune elaborated, taken by one or another of the instruments.

Two of the noels that Corrette features deserve special mention. The melody of the

German carol is the Lutheran hymn "Mit Ernst, o Menschenkinder" (In earnest, o children of 

man). The tune for the American carol, however, remains a mystery. We have been unable 

to identify the tune, and others who have written about it seem similarly puzzled. So let's 

crowdsource the question. Do you recognize it? If so, please tell us what it is.

Program notes by Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone

lO • National Gallery of Art

Upcoming Events of the Seventy- General Information

Fifth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Xaverian High School

Holiday Caroling

December 17,1:30 and 2:30

Rotunda

Danu

A Christmas Gathering: Feile Na Nollag

December 18, 2:00 and 4:00

West Building, West Garden Court

Curtis on Tour

Complete Violin Concertos of Mozart

January 8,12:30 and 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Carlos Rodriguez, pianist

Peter Burroughs, tenor

Musical Migration

"Washingtonians on Wednesdays"

January 18,12:10

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission to the National Gallery of Art

and all of its programs is free of charge,

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equipment

during the performance is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic

devices are turned off.

Concerts are made possible in part

through the generosity of donors to the

National Gallery of Art through The Circle. 

Reserved seating is available in recognition

of their support. Please contact the

development office at (202) 842-6450 or

circle@nga.gov for more information.

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The department of music produced these

program notes. Copyright © 2016 Board of

Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Cover Flora Bond Palmer and Nathaniel Currier

(publisher), American Winter Scenes: Morning

(detail), 1854, National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Back cover West Building, Constitution

Avenue entrance, viewed from Sixth Street NW,

1941, National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Gallery Archives