combined a plaintive cantabile and a scherzo in a single movement. But

in the sonata as a whole, Barber has achieved the unity of a selfconsistent and original, though highly recognizable style.”

Strauss’ Sonata in F Major, Op. 6, reflects but does not imitate the

German legacy set forth by Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms. It 

retains the old structures, while giving a glimpse of “a young man in the

midst of a dynamic development” (Ingvar Lidholm). The first movement

(Allegro con brio) projects a marked intensity that carries with it a

conspicuous lyricism. After a brief introduction, the daring and blithe

main theme is announced. A second theme, of equivalent temperament,

is designated grazioso. The two themes are united deftly at the coda. The

second movement (Andante ma non troppo) is Schumannesque in

character, morose, and reflective, while the Finale (Allegro vivo), with

its buoyant opening theme, spins forward as the cello gains greater

emotional warmth. A contrasting second subject, reminiscent of

Mendelssohn’s style, is introduced by the cello. As stated by James

Lyons, editor of The American Record Guide, “[These elements] are

mingled with uncommon virtuosity....There is more to be heard in this

Finale than the rote learning of an especially dutiful student. They were

to be among the stylistic hallmarks of a master composer, who was

already such a thoroughgoing Musikant that soon there would be no one

[from whom] he could learn anything except Richard Strauss.”

Poppers’s Hungarian Rhapsody, Op. 68, epitomizes the magnetism

and wizardry of the nineteenth-century virtuoso. Popper is on a plane

with such celebrated composer-performers as Liszt and Paganini in

regard to writing music that is idiomatic, descriptive, and virtuosic.

Canadian cellist, writer, and teacher Claude Kenneson says of the work:

“In the style of the czardas [a fast and fashionable Hungarian dance of

the nineteenth century in duple meter], it alternates melancholy gypsy

melodies, played in a highly embellished manner, with breathtaking

cellistic pyrotechnics.” Popper gave the premiere performance of the

Rhapsody on 4 April 1893 in Budapest.

Concerts in December 2000 and January 2001

Under the Direction of George Manos

Sundays at 7:00 p.m. in the West Building, West Garden Court

PERFORMERS

December 2000

17 Columbia Collegiate Chorale

James Bingham, conductor

24 No concert

31 No concert

January 2001

7 National Gallery Orchestra

George Manos, conductor

14 Borromeo String Quartet

with Gary Graffman, pianist

PROGRAMS

Christmas Concert

Gala Viennese New Year

Concert

Schnittke: Piano Quintet

Beethoven: Quartet, Opus 95

Bach/Brahms: Chaconne

Korngold: Suitefor Piano, Left

Hand, and Strings

The use ofcameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed.

For the convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30 p.m.

Selectionsfrom concerts at the Gallery

can be heard on the second Sunday ofeach month

at 9:00 p.m. on WGMS, 103.5 FM.

The Fifty-ninth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

aia isj&feiii

2365th Concert

SHAUNA ROLSTON, cellist

BERNADENE BLAHA, pianist

Sunday Evening, 10 December 2000

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Programs notes by Elmer Booze

Admission free
PROGRAM

Claude Debussy 

(1862-1918)

Sonata for Violoncello and Piano

(1915)

Prologue: Lent; sostenuto e molto risoluto 

Serenade: Moderement anime

Finale: Anime

Olivier Messiaen Louange a l’eternite de Jesus

(1908-1992) from Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941)

Samuel Barber 

(1910-1981)

Sonata in C Minor 

Op. 6 (1932)

Allegro ma non troppo 

Adagio

Finale: Allegro appassionata

INTERMISSION

Richard Strauss 

(1864-1949)

David Popper 

(1843-1913)

Sonata in F Major 

Op. 6 (1880-1883)

Allegro con brio

Andante ma non troppo

Finale: Allegro vivo

Hungarian Rhapsody 

Op. 68 (1894)

The appearance ofShauna Rolston and Bernadene Blaha

at the National Gallery has been made possible in part by a grant

from the Embassy ofCanada.

Canadian cellist Shauna Rolston has been captivating audiences 

worldwide since the age of two and has been called the successor to

another outstanding cellist, Jacqueline DuPre (1945-1987). Since her

spectacular Town Hall debut in New York City at age sixteen, she has

performed regularly on four continents, appearing in recital and concerto

engagements in the prestigious halls of Tokyo, Seoul, Jerusalem, Tel

Aviv, Sao Paulo, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Washington, London,

Paris, Amsterdam, Budapest, and Rome. She earned a bachelor of arts

degree in art history from Yale University and a master of music degree

from the Yale School of Music, where she studied cello under Aldo

Parisot and served as Parisot’s teaching assistant. While still a graduate 

student, she was the artistic director of music at the Yale Club in New

York City. A member of the faculty of music at the University of

Toronto, Shauna Rolston appears at the National Gallery by arrangement 

with Colwell Arts Management of New Hamburg, Ontario.

A native of Brantford, Ontario, pianist Bernadene Blaha has been

heralded for her brilliant command of the piano throughout North

America, Europe, and Mexico, and in Bermuda and Jamaica. As a

chamber musician, her gifts have been acknowledged in several 

prestigious competitions, including the first place award in the duo

category (with cellist Elizabeth Dolin) of the City of Florence 

International Chamber Music Competition. Bernadene Blaha was a

scholarship student of Boris Berlin at the Royal Conservatory of Music

in Toronto, where she graduated with a master of music degree in 1981.

She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, pianist Kevin

Fitz-Gerald, and their son, Sean.

In 1915, in spite of his failing health and the uncertainties of World 

War I, Debussy made plans to write a series of six small sonatas for

various instruments. Only three sonatas were completed, one of which is

his Sonata for Cello and Piano, his only published work in this genre.

The Prologue takes inspiration from medieval music. A melismatic vox

principalis (a voice that carries the melody in the flowing style of

Gregorian chant) is assigned to the cello, while the piano imitates an

accompanying vox organalis (a medieval innovation that features two

voices singing in parallel fifths). Debussy’s original subtitle for the

sonata was Pierrot Angry with the Moon. The Serenade can be heard as a

forlorn lovesong to the moon on the part of Pierrot (a comic character 

from ancient French pantomime), as he accompanies himself on a

mandolin. The Finale, following without a break, briefly reiterates 

material from the Serenade and the work’s opening movement. Gregor 

Piatigorsky, who premiered the sonata in 1919 and played it throughout 

his long career, pronounced the work “exciting, original, and...

challenging....I still marvel at its subtle descriptiveness, compactness 

of form, and translucent beauty.”

Louange a Veternite de Jesus (Praise to the Eternity of Jesus) is the

fifth movement from Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet

for the End of Time). Messiaen wrote the quartet during World War II,

when he was a prisoner of war in Silesia. He scored it for violin,

clarinet, cello, and piano, so that he and fellow musicians among the

prisoners could play the first performance in the camp. Writing later

about the fifth movement, a monologue for cello and piano, he said:

“Jesus is considered here as the Word. A long and infinitely slow phrase

for the cello magnifies with love and reverence for the eternity of this

gentle and powerful Word, which the years will never efface.

Majestically, the melody unfolds in a kind of tender and lofty distance.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

Word was God.”

Barber’s Sonata in F Major, Op. 6, had its beginning in the summer of

1932 during a nine-day walking tour in Austria, for which Barber was

joined by his friend, Gian-Carlo Menotti. This youthful sonata gives an

example of Barber’s melodic sensitivity and skill in counterpoint, both

of which were influenced by Menotti and by Barber’s teacher and

mentor at the Curtis Institute, Rosario Scalero. Cellist Gordon Epperson,

noting that the sonata is essentially a melodious work, writes: “The three

movements of this sonata exhibit a sectionalism of structure, reminiscent

of through-composed art songs in which there are dramatic (and

sometimes sudden) changes of mood and color. The Adagio, for

example, is interrupted by a fast Presto [with the result that] Barber has