hearing of the overture: “In this work we see a strong hero battling with

an iron and relentless fate; passing hopes of victory cannot alter an

impending destiny. We do not care to inquire whether the composer had

a special tragedy in his mind, or if so, which one; those who remain

musically unconvinced by the unsurpassably powerful theme would not

be assisted by a particular suggestion.”

Faure’s Masques et bergamasques was commissioned by the

librettist Rene Fauchois for a new opera to be performed at the OperaComique in Paris. Its movements functioned as incidental music between

scenes of spoken dialogue in the comic opera. For the original

performance, a choral Pavane and an orchestral version of Faure’s piano

piece, Clair de lune, were added to the four movements on this program.

The atmosphere surrounding the music reflects the ambience of a time

long past. However, musicologist Edward Cole contends that the music

is looking both backward and forward; “[Faure] is invoking elegant 

dance and song forms of the past and tinting them with just enough

modem color to spice them palatably in a contemporary way.”

Unlike Schubert’s other symphonies, his fifth was heard in his

own lifetime, but only once. The concert was performed at a private

house in 1816, and Schubert’s friends made up both the audience and the

orchestra. After his death, the manuscript for this symphony was lost. It

was not rediscovered until 1873, thanks to the research of two

Englishmen, Sir George Grove and Sir Arthur Sullivan. Schubert’s

Fourth Symphony is an experiment in Sturm und Drang, a tendency

toward passion that had a large following in all of the arts in the early

romantic period, but the Fifth Symphony is notable for its enchanting

grace and lightness of spirit. In his book entitled The Lives ofthe Great

Composers, the late Harold C. Schonberg (1915-2003) wrote: “It is

amazing how consistently Schubert managed to avoid the influence of

his titanic contemporary [Beethoven]. Haydn was much more of an

influence, and the Fifth Symphony, elegant and lightly scored, is a

throwback to the Haydn style.”

Program notes on Vlahopoulos, Brahms, and Schubert

by Stephen Ackert

Program notes on Faure by Elmer Booze

The Sixty-second Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2470th Concert

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

GEORGE MANOS, conductor

Presented in honor ofthe 25th anniversary ofthe East Building

ofthe National Gallery of Art

Sunday Evening, 2 November 2003

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Sotireos Vlahopoulos

(b. 1926)

Program

Chorale Prelude Paraphrase

(In Homage to Johann Sebastian Bach)

(1985)

Johannes Brahms

(1833-1897)

Gabriel Faure

(1845-1924)

“Tragic” Overture in D Minor

Op. 81 (1880)

Masques et bergamasques

Op. 112(1919)

Overture

Menuet

Gavotte

Pastorale

Intermission

Franz Schubert

(1797-1827)

Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major

D. 485 (1816)

Allegro

Andante con moto

Menuetto: Allegro molto

Allegro vivace

The use ofcameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell

phones, pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

The Conductor

Conductor, composer, and pianist George Manos has been director of

music at the National Gallery of Art and conductor ofthe National Gallery

Orchestra since 1985. He is also artistic director of the American Music

Festival and of the National Gallery vocal and chamber ensembles, which

he founded. Manos’ career as a performing pianist and teacher has

included several years on the faculty of The Catholic University of

America in Washington, DC, where he taught piano, conducting, and

chamber music. In addition, he held the directorship of the Wilmington,

Delaware, School of Music, presenting an annual jazz festival and clinic.

Maestro Manos founded and directed for ten years the renowned Killarney

Bach Festival in the Republic of Ireland and was the music director of the

1992 Scandinavian Music Festival in Kolding, Denmark.

Program Notes

Sotireos Vlahopoulos is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, and a graduate of

the American Conservatory in Chicago, the State University of New York,

and Indiana University. His teachers included Roy Harris and Virgil

Thomson. Vlahopoulos taught at Daemen College in Amherst, New York,

Manhattan’s New School for the Performing Arts, and the Washington

Conservatory of Music, where he holds the title of professor emeritus. In

April 1997 he was honored by the American Hellenic Foundation with a

lifetime achievement award. Vlahopoulos’ Chorale Prelude Paraphrase

for string orchestra was composed in 1985 and dedicated to George Manos

and Ireland’s Killarney Bach Festival Orchestra on the occasion of the

300th anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach. It received its

Washington premiere performance at the National Gallery in 1986.

Brahms composed his “Tragic” Overture, Op. 81, in the summer

of 1880, during the first of many visits to the resort town of Bad Ischl in

Upper Austria, which became his favored retreat in his last years. The

first public performance took place on 26 December of that year, when

the Vienna Philharmonic included the overture in its fourth concert ofthe

season. One of Brahms’ friends, Hermann Deiters, wrote after his first
The National Gallery and the members of the

National Gallery Orchestra extend their thanks to

Peter Wilson, who agreed to guest conduct this

concert when George Manos became ill this week.

This is the second time that Maestro Wilson has

come to the aid of the Gallery Orchestra. He also 

stepped in as guest conductor on short notice on the

occasion of the Gala New Year Concert in January 

2003. A graduate of Northwestern University and

The Catholic University of America, Wilson is an

experienced conductor, violinist, chamber musician, 

and clinician. A twelve-year veteran of “The 

President’s Own” United States Marine Band, he

has performed often at the White House as violin

soloist, chamber musician, and section leader.

Please note the following program changes:

The Vlahopoulos Chorale Prelude Paraphrase has

been replaced by Samuel Barber’s Adagio for

Strings, Opus 11.

The works will be performed in the following order:

The Brahms Overture, the Barber Adagio, the Faure 

Masques, and, after the intermission, the Schubert 

Symphony.