Concerts at The National Gallery of Art

Under the Direction of George Manos

December 1997

7 Todd Crow, pianist Schubert: Sonata, D. 960

Bartok: Dance Suite

Haydn: Sonata in C Majo/

14 Dunsmuir Piano Quartet Brahms:

Haydn:

Piano Quartetin C

Minor

Piano Trio in F

Major

Robert Helps: Quartetfor Piano,

Violin, Viola,

and Cello

21 Columbia Collegiate Chorale Christmas Concert

James Bingham, conductor

28 Gottlieb Wallisch,/warn/

January 1998

4 National Gallery Orchestra

George Manos, conductor

11 The Pelerinage Duo 

Jerry Wong and Shi-yu

Cheng, duo pianists

Beethoven: Sonata, Opus 3113

Debussy: Estampes

Chopin: Sonata No. 2

Gala Viennese New Year Concert

Rachmaninoff: Suite No. 2

Schubert: Fantasie in FMinor

Stravinsky: Sonata

Milhaud: Scaramouche

18 Hakan Hagegard, baritone

Warren Jones, pianist

Schubert: Songs from

Schwanengesang

Rave1: Don Quichotte a

Dulcinee

Songs by Hugo Wolf

The use ofcameras or recording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30pm.

The Fifty-sixth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

E LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery ofArt

2248th Concert

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

GEORGE MANOS, conductor

Sunday Evening, November 30, 1997

at Seven O’Clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission Free
Giacomo Puccini

(1858-1924)

PROGRAM

Preludio sinfonico

(1876)

Vincent Persichetti

(1915-1987)

Serenade No. 5

Opus 43 (1950)

Prelude

Poem

Interlude

Capriccio

Dialogue

Burla

Georges Bizet

(1838-1875)

Suite No. 1 from “Carmen”

(1875)

Prelude

Aragonaise

Intermezzo

Seguedille

Les dragons d’Alcala

Les toreadors

INTERMISSION

Carl Maria von Weber Symphony No. 1 in C Major

(1786-1826) (1807)

Allegro con fuoco

Andante

Scherzo: Presto

Finale: Presto

Giacomo Puccini was an aspiring student organist-composer at

the Giovanni Pacini Music Institute in his home town of Lucca,

Italy when he wrote his Preludio sinfonico. The work was performed

once by his fellow students at the Institute, but was not performed

again until it was published in 1977. The eighteen-year-old Puccini

had already made up his mind that some day he would go to Milan

and study opera, but for the time being he had to fulfil the expectations ofhis family and follow in the footsteps ofhis father, Michele,

who had been the organist ofthe Church of San Martino in Lucca.

From time to time, the young organist would startle those priests

and parishioners who were listening carefully to his improvisations

by including themes from some of his favorite Verdi and Donizetti

operas. He was finally able to enter the Milan Conservatory in

1880 at the age of twenty-two, thanks to a scholarship instituted

by Queen Margherita for talented sons of poor Italian families.

Vincent Persichetti cited two main currents within his creative

disposition: one graceful and the other “gritty.” It was the former

side of his musical personality that came to the fore when he wrote

his fifteen Serenades, most ofwhich are for piano solo. One is scored

for ten wind instruments and several are for various chamber ensembles, but the SerenadeNo. 5 is the only one he wrote for orchestra. A native of Philadelphia, Persichetti lived and taught in that

city until he was appointed to the faculty of New York’s Juilliard

School of Music in 1947.

The arias and choruses from Bizet’s Carmen are so popular today

that it is difficult to believe that the work was ill-received by the

public and panned by the critics when it was introduced in 1875 at

Paris’ Opera Comique. The work satisfied neither the opera establishment, who found the music disjointed and the plot scandalous,

nor the avant-garde, who looked for the influence ofWagner in every

new opera. Stunned by the rejection ofwhat he rightly sensed was

his masterpiece, Bizet slipped into acute depression from which he

never recovered. He died of a heart attack on June 1, 1875, before

Carmen had even completed its first short run of performances.

Although better known as a composer of opera and overtures,

Carl Maria von Weber was also adept at writing symphonies, as is

evidenced by his two works in this genre. Influenced by Beethoven,

who had composed his first symphony in C major seven years before, von Weber chose that key for his own first symphony. The

tempo indication of the first movement, Allegro confuoco, gives advance notice of the vigorous and dramatic mood that will prevail 

throughout most of the work.