For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the 

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phone

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Please note that late entry or reentry of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000b South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,640th Concert

National Gallery Orchestra

Alan Heatherington, guest conductor

Cyrus Forough, violinist

October 7, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 77 (1878)

Allegro non troppo 

Adagio

Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace

INTERMISSION

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) 

Symphony no. 6 (“Pastoral”) (1808)

Allegro ma non troppo 

Andante con moto 

Allegro; allegro; allegretto

The Musicians

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

The National Gallery Orchestra was founded in 1943 and initially consisted 

of approximately twenty-five players drawn from the National Symphony

Orchestra. Gradually growing in numbers, the Gallery Orchestra eventually

reached the size and status of a large chamber orchestra. The ensemble has 

undertaken the full range of chamber and symphonic repertoire and has 

frequently presented first performances ofworks by American composers, 

most notably the 1953 premiere of Charles Ives’ Symphony no. 1, under the

direction of Richard Bales, and the 1990 premiere of Daniel Pinkham's

Symphony no. 4, under George Manos.

ALAN HEATHERINGTON

Alan Heatherington has built his career in the Chicago metropolitan area as

an orchestral and choral conductor, violinist, concertmaster, and educator.

In 2004 the Chicago Tribune named him Chicagoan ofthe Year, and in

2005 the Illinois Council of Orchestras awarded him Conductor ofthe Year.

Heatherington is the founder and music director ofthe Ars Viva Symphony

Orchestra, which is composed primarily ofChicago Symphony Orchestra 

musicians. Since 2000, Heatherington has been music director ofthe Lake

Forest (Illinois) Symphony. In addition, he is music director and conductor 

ofthe 140-voice Chicago Master Singers and the 40-voice Chicago Master

Singers Chorale.

Heatherington was the artistic director and conductor ofthe annual

Innsbruck International Choral Festival for four years and has conducted 

choral concerts in many ofthe major cultural capitals of Europe, including

Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, Salzburg, Vienna, and Zurich. He continues

his commitment to education through regular engagements as guest 

conductor and clinician with university and community orchestras.

3
CYRUS FOROUGH

A former pupil of Arthur Grumiaux, David Oistrakh, and Josef Gingold,

violinist Cyrus Forough is a laureate ofthe Tchaikovsky International

Competition, first prize winner ofthe Milwaukee Symphony Violin Competition, and with his wife, pianist Carolyn McCracken, winner ofthe United

States Information Agency’s National Violin and Piano Duo Competition. 

Representing the United States as artistic ambassadors, the Forough/

McCracken Duo concertized and gave master classes in the Far East and

South America. Forough’s recital and orchestra appearances throughout

eastern and western Europe, Russia, and the Middle East have received

unanimous praise from both the critics and the public. He has performed

with the Alabama Symphony, the Belgian National Radio Orchestra, and the

Milwaukee Symphony. His live and recorded performances have been broadcast on radio and television on four continents.

Cyrus Forough is professor of violin at both Carnegie Mellon University

in Pittsburgh and Roosevelt University’s College of Performing Arts in

Chicago. He is much in demand as a teacher, and his students include

prizewinners in many national and international competitions, as well as

members ofthe Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the New

World Symphony, and the symphony orchestras ofCalgary, Houston, and

Milwaukee, among others. During the summer of 2005, Forough joined 

the faculties ofthe Academie Internationale de Musique de Montpellier in

France and the Beverly Hills International Chamber Music Festival.

4

Program Notes

In preparing his only violin concerto, Johannes Brahms spent many hours

in consultation with his friend Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), the highly 

revered Hungarian-born German violinist. Both men agreed that the work 

should be symphonic throughout and not just a vehicle for the virtuosic 

soloist. In a few places, however, Brahms created passages that are brusque

and unsuited to the violin. Joachim and all the violinists who have subsequently studied the work have come to acknowledge the validity of Brahms’

expression ofturbulent emotion.

The symphonic character ofthe concerto is firmly established by the

long introduction that goes on for 100 measures. It serves as an overture 

to the rest ofthe movement, introducing each subsequent theme. As the

introduction draws to a close, the strings herald the entrance ofthe soloist 

with robust marcato chords. The soloist plays the first theme over the

orchestra, but then the orchestra takes over again with the second theme,

and the soloist steps back to the secondary role of playing embellishments.

The second movement ofthe concerto is an idyllic song, with the first 

theme introduced by the oboe, then repeated by the solo violin with variations. The soloist goes on to introduce the second theme, a soulful melody.

Both the oboe and the solo violin revisit the first theme before the movement draws to a close.

The finale, a rondo marked Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace, is a

Hungarian dance in the form of abacadae. The soloist presents the rondo

in double stops and receives an answer from the full orchestra. With each 

recurrence, the rondo becomes more complex and exciting. The same can 

be said for each ofthe subsidiary sections, or episodes, between the rondo

recurrences. The last ofthese (E) is transformed into a feverish tarantella

by Brahms’ use oftriplets.

5
Although best known for its graphic musical representation of a storm, 

Beethoven’s Symphony no. 6 (“Pastoral”) is in fact a humanistic response to

the pastoral environment. The printed program for the first performance of

the symphony contained—presumably with Beethoven’s authorization—a

subtitle for each change oftempo and mood:

Allegro ma non troppo—pleasant feelings that awake upon arriving

in the country

Andante con moto—scene by the brook

Allegro; allegro; allegretto—jovial assembly ofthe country folk...

thunder and storm... shepherd’s song: happy and thankful 

feelings after the storm.

Although the symphony is replete with motives imitating sounds of

nature, Beethoven took pains to assure his audience that he was not a

programmatic or pictorial composer. In the same program notes he added 

the statement that his music was “more an expression offeeling than of

painting.” Although Beethoven did not welcome the equation of music with

painting, there is an interesting parallel between his place in the history of

music and the place in the history of art occupied by Joseph Mallord William

Turner (1775-1851), the subject of a current exhibition at the National

Gallery. Both men began their creative lives in the classical tradition, fully

embraced the romantic movement, and in their late works presaged postromantic developments in their respective arts.

Program notes by Stephen Ackert

6

Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Voices ofLondon

18th- and 19th-Century English Music by

Attwood, Cooke, Crotch, Hook, and Webbe

Presented in honor ofJ. M.W. Turner

October 14, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court