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Music Department

National Gallery of Art

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The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,936th Concert

Danielle DeSwert Hahn, pianist

with Members ofthe Phillips Camerata

April 7, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

From Suite Italienne (1933)

Introduzione

Serenata 

Tarantella

Finale: Minuetto

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)

Duettofor Cello and Bass

Benedikt Brydern (b. 1966)

Bebopfor Beagles

Hoover’s Holiday

Cookies In Space

Purzelbaum

Roosevelt’s Sun Shower

Flea Control: Mission Impossible

Kitchen Blues

Bebop for Beagles

INTERMISSION

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Concerto no. 3 in C Minorfor Piano and Orchestra

(Arranged for piano and string quintet by Franz Paul Lachner)

Allegro con brio

Largo

Rondo: Allegro

The Musicians

DANIELLE DESWERT HAHN

Based in Washington, DC, Brussels-born pianist Danielle DeSwert Hahn has 

worked as a freelance pianist and coach for over fifteen years. As an opera

repetiteur, she has collaborated with the Ash Lawn Highland Opera Festival,

New York Opera Society, and the Chautauqua, Indianapolis, Kentucky, North

Carolina, Portland, Sarasota, and Washington National Opera companies.

From 2004-2006 she was the principal repetiteur with the Baltimore Opera

Company and Washington Concert Opera. She performed on two Western

Opera Theater tours, formerly part ofthe San Francisco Opera Center. In the 

fall of 2003, she was the assistant conductor for the world premiere ofThea

Musgrave’s opera Pontalba, presented by the New Orleans Opera Association.

DeSwert regularly performs in chamber music and voice recitals,

partnering with members ofthe National Symphony Orchestra, the

Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, and opera singers. In the DC area, she 

has performed at the Arts Club ofWashington, the Belgian ambassador’s

residence, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, the

Kennedy Center, the Mexican Institute ofCulture, the National Gallery

ofArt, the Russian Embassy, and at the White House. She is a principal

pianist with Inscape Chamber Music Project and has been an adjunct

faculty member at American University. Recent highlights include concert

performances and recordings of new music by composer D.J. Sparr with 

contemporary ensemble New Music Raleigh, and an invitation by the Rotary

Club Paris Academies to be the accompanist for a concert commemorating

the fiftieth anniversary ofthe death of Francis Poulenc.

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DeSwert holds a master ofmusic degree from the University ofMichigan, 

Ann Arbor, where she studied with Martin Katz, and a bachelor ofmusic

degree from the University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara. Additionally, she

studied with Warren Jones and Anne Epperson at the Music Academy ofthe

West, and was an apprentice coach with the Washington Opera, working

with Placido Domingo. Since 2006, DeSwert has held the position ofmusic

program specialist at the National Gallery ofArt, where she helps to program and coordinate the concerts and musical programs. She performs

with members ofthe resident orchestra as part ofthe National Gallery 

Chamber Players.

PHILLIPS CAMERATA

Founded in 2011, the Phillips Camerata appears in various combinations of

instruments to suit the demands of a wide variety of chamber music. Comprised ofsixteen leading instrumentalists from the Baltimore, New York,

Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, areas, and under the artistic direction of

Phillips Collection music director Caroline Mousset, the Camerata performs

the first and last Sunday concerts of each season at the Phillips Collection

and offers additional performances at other chamber music venues. It made

its inaugural guest appearance at the National Gallery ofArt in 2012, playing

music written between 1890 and 1921 in honor ofthe exhibition Picasso’s

Drawings, 1890-1921: Reinventing Tradition. Members ofthe ensemble participating in tonight’s concert are:

Karen Johnson, violin

Olivia Hajioff, violin

Marc Ramirez, viola

David Teie, cello

Jeffrey Weisner, bass

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Program Notes

This is the third offive concerts planned collaboratively by Stephen Ackert, 

head ofthe music department at the National Gallery ofArt, and Caroline

Mousset, director ofmusic at the Phillips Collection, with the aim of presenting, in the space of a few weeks, all five piano concertos by Ludwig van

Beethoven. Taking advantage of a cadre ofmusicians who are in residence

at the two institutions, they have assembled a string quintet to perform the

concertos as they were arranged by Franz Paul Lachner (1803-1890) in

chamber music formation. Piano Concerto no. 1, op. 15, was performed on

March 24 at the Phillips Collection by Irina Nuzova and members ofthe

Phillips Camerata; Concerto no. 2, op. 19, was performed on March 27 at the

Gallery by Edvinas Minkstimas and members ofthe National Gallery of Art

String Quartet, National Gallery ofArt Orchestra, and Phillips Camerata;

and Concertos nos. 4 and 5 will be performed, respectively, by pianists Thomas Pandolfi (April 14 at 4:00 pm at the Phillips Collection), and Mykola Suk 

(April 21 at 6:30 pm at the Gallery). In each case, the pianists and members

ofthe ensembles will offer additional music to complete the programs.

Igor Stravinsky’s career blossomed in 1910, when the Ballets Russes

performed his Russian folktale ballet The Firebird. After World War 1, the

interests of Sergei Diaghilev, impresario and director ofthe Ballets Russes,

changed. The aesthetic shifted toward ballets with modern, everyday qualities, or ballets inspired by “old Italian” music of Domenico Scarlatti and

Giaocchino Rossini. Diaghilev asked Stravinsky to assist with one ofthese

“old Italian” ballets, Pulcinella (1920), based on music attributed to Giovanni

Pergolesi (1710-1736). (The music that forms the basis of Stravinsky’s score

was incorrectly attributed; some is by Pergolesi, but four other composers

are also represented.)

Staying close to the older music chosen for the ballet, Stravinsky added

lively orchestrations and the spiky rhythms and dissonances that characterized his Russian-themed work. In the first performance of Pulcinella, the

music was identified as composed by Pergolesi and “arranged by” Stravinsky;

for later performances, Stravinsky was identified as the composer, with

Pergolesi as a source ofmaterial. When Stravinsky returned to the music of

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Pulcinella for his concert piece Suite Italienne (1933), he published the music

simply under his own name. Nonetheless, what one hears in the Suite Italienne is older music, gently retouched by a great modernist. In the ballet and

the Suite, the contrast between old and new creates music ofsheer joy, with

a unique sparkle.

By his mid-thirties, Giacchino Rossini was an internationally famous

opera composer commanding enormous sums for musical services. By age

37, he essentially retired from composing though he continued to lead a

lavish and notorious life to well into his seventies. Known primarily for his

operas—and their overtures, which enjoyed a life oftheir own in the

concert hall— Rossini nonetheless penned a small cache of chamber works,

notably his precocious string sonatas (at age thirteen), and various commissioned works sprinkled throughout his life. Rossini’s Duettofor Cello and

Bass was commissioned in 1824 by amateur cellist Sir David Salomons for a

soiree featuring a duet with the famous bass virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti

(who once performed a sonata with Beethoven at the piano). Rossini’s duet

is one ofthe most curious pieces in all of chamber music history.

Outstanding concert string duets are rare. Here, Rossini delivers a gem,

even with the improbable choice of cello and bass. The instruments reveal 

a new world of color, tone, and surprisingly for an ensemble, satisfying

breadth. The introductory first movement becomes animated through turns

witty and rich, revealing the supple virtuosity of each instrument through

deft repartee. The second movement utterly convinces with a soulful aria

complete with dramatic swell, florid reprise, and truly beautiful singing.

The finale is a triumphant romp ofvirtuosity, finally obliterating any doubt

that cello and bass are perfectly capable ofmaking as much good music as 

any two fiddles ever could, at least with the help of Rossini’s unmistakable

dramatic flair.

Benedikt Brydern’s “mini-suite” for violin and viola, Beebopfor Beagles,

consists ofseven movements. The viola kicks off “Hoover’s Holiday” with a

swingy and driving melody, picked up by the violin and developed into a

“big band style” arrangement. “Cookies in Space” might be the ultimate dog 

fantasy—slow motion rotating sweet treats. “Purzelbaum” is the German

word for “Somersault” and this piece plays around with meter changes and

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overjoyed gestures in double stops and melodic lines. “Roosevelt’s Sun

Shower” represents the importance ofsunbathing in a dog’s day. In the

fifth movement, “Flea Control: Mission Impossible,” a very fast 5/4 meter

groove sets the pace and supports virtuosic melodic lines for both players. 

The quest for a bone or something good to eat is examined in the next

movement, “The Kitchen Blues,” when an open refrigerator can make all

the difference in a dog’s day. The final movement, “Bebop for Beagles,”

connects with the first in its “swing-music-like” nature and drive and brings

the piece to a rousing conclusion.

Beethoven earned the reputation of a revolutionary in every genre in 

which he composed, and his piano concertos are no exception. Already with 

his first two concertos, composed in the 1790s, he was surprising his listeners.

Bohemian composer Johann Tomaschek (1774-1850), who heard Beethoven 

play both works, wrote: “I admired his powerful and brilliant playing, but his

frequent daring deviations from one motive to another, whereby the organic

connection, the gradual development ofidea was put aside, rudely awakened

the unbiased listener from his transport. The singular and original seem to be

his chief aim in composition.”

With his Third Piano Concerto, op. 37, Beethoven moved into even more

singular and original territory, parting the curtain for what eventually came

to be known as his “second period.” Opening with an abrupt, commanding

subject, the concerto strikes an impassioned and heroic attitude, which it

maintains throughout the first movement. The solemn, luxurious second

movement recalls the slow movements ofsome ofthe great piano sonatas

from the composer’s first period, such as the “Largo e mesto” from op. 10,

no. 3, or the famous “Adagio cantabile” from op. 12 (“Pathetique”). The joviality

and rondo form ofthe third movement, marked “Allegro,” are not new, but

the composer sets a new standard for dynamism in a piano concerto finale.

It is interesting to note that this concerto, written in 1800, marks the

first time that Beethoven’s music for orchestra reaches the depth of emotion

and richness oftexture that his music for piano solo had already achieved

in several sonatas. With the concerto, he seems to have found his stride in

writing for orchestra; his next symphony, no. 3 (“Eroica”), would give even 

fuller expression to the music ideas set forth in the concerto.