Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

200ob South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,501st Concert

National Gallery Chamber Players

Wind Quintet

Sara Nichols, flute

Ronald L. Sipes, oboe

James Bryla, clarinet

Philip C. Munds, French horn

Danny K. Phipps, bassoon

with Jeffrey Chappell, piano

20 June 2004

Sunday Evening, 7:00 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
The use of cameras or recording equipment during the

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones, pagers,

and other electronic devices are turned off.

For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30 pm.

2,501st Concert

20 June 2004, 7:00 pm

Franz Danzi (1763-1826)

Quintet No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 56

Allegretto 

Andante con moto

Minuetto: Allegretto

Allegro

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)

Suite: La cheminee du Roi Rene

(1939)

Cortege

Aubade

Jongleurs

La Maousinglade

Joutes sur l’Arc

Chasse a Valabre

Madrigal-Nocturne

Albert Roussel (1869-1937)

Divertissement for Winds and Piano

(1906)

Intermission

William Grant Still (1895-1978)

Summerland (1936)

Arranged for wind quintet by

Adam Les Lesnick (1995)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Prelude No. 22 in B-flat Minor,

bwv 891, from The Well-Tempered

Clavier

Arrangedfor wind quintet by Mark Popkin

Fugue in G Minor, bwv 578

Arranged for wind quintet by

Mordecai Rechtman

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano

(1930-1932, revised 1939)

Allegro vivace

Divertissement: Andantino

Finale: Prestissimo
The Musicians

NATIONAL GALLERY CHAMBER PLAYERS WIND QUINTET

Since the enthusiastic public reception ofits first concert in 1995, the

National Gallery Chamber Players Wind Quintet has become a regular

feature ofthe Gallery’s popular Sunday evening concerts. Founded

by former music director George Manos, the ensemble explores and

presents masterpieces of chamber music that are not often heard,

as well as the standard classics for wind quintet.

SARA NICHOLS

Sara Nichols is the principal flutist ofthe Baltimore Opera and is currently appearing with the Opera Theater of Saint Louis and the Saint

Louis Symphony Orchestra. In addition to frequent appearances

with the National Gallery Orchestra, she performs at WolfTrap, most

recently in the premiere ofJoseph Musto’s Volpone. She was acting

assistant principal flutist ofthe Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for two 

seasons. Nichols is a member of Quintigre, the wind quintet at Towson

University in Towson, Maryland, which took first prize at the 2004

Montpelier Recital Competition. She is a member ofthe music faculty

ofthe Baltimore School ofthe Arts.

RONALD L. SIPES

Oboist Ronald L. Sipes studied with Marc Lifschey and received the bachelor and master of music degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory

of Music. He has played principal oboe in the Orquesta Sinfonica de 

Castille y Leon (Valladolid, Spain), the New World Symphony, and the

Orquesta del Estado de Mexico. Since moving to the Northern Virginia

area in 1994, Sipes has played with numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the National Gallery Orchestra, the Washington Opera,

and the Theater Chamber Players.

JAMES BRYLA

Clarinetist James Bryla, a former pupil of Sidney Forrest, received the

bachelor and master of music degrees from the Catholic University

of America, where he also served on the faculty. He made his solo 

debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at age twenty-one as the

winner ofthe 1987 Young Soloist Competition. In addition, he has

won numerous other awards, including the Milton W. King Memorial

Certificate, the Presser Scholar Award, and the International Clarinetist

Competition (both in 1986 and 1987). Bryla is currently the principal

clarinetist ofthe National Gallery Orchestra, the Alexandria Symphony,

and the East Wind Consort.

PHILIP C. MUNDS

Philip C. Munds occupies the chair of assistant principal French horn

in the Baltimore Symphony. A native of Napa, California, and a graduate ofthe San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he performed with the

San Francisco Symphony and as principal hornist ofthe Santa Cruz,

Modesto, and Berkeley, California, symphony orchestras. From 1989

to 1997 he was associate principal horn ofthe United States Air Force 

Band. He has also played with the National Gallery Orchestra, the

Richmond Symphony, and the Alexandria Symphony.

3
DANNY K. PHIPPS

Retired Senior Master Sergeant Danny K. Phipps was the principal

bassoonist with the United States Air Force Concert Band at Bolling

Air Force Base for twenty years. A graduate ofthe Curtis Institute

of Music in Philadelphia, Phipps received the master of music and

doctor of musical arts degrees from the Catholic University of America.

Currently an active performer and teacher in the Baltimore/Washington

area, he is the principal bassoonist with the National Gallery Orchestra

and the National Gallery Chamber Players as well as the Annapolis

Chamber Orchestra. Fie is the instrumental division chairman and

professor of bassoon and bassoon literature at Shenandoah University, 

where he has been a faculty member since 1987.

JEFFREY CHAPPELL

Pianist Jeffrey Chappell has performed throughout the United States,

Europe, Asia, and Latin America in recital, as a chamber musician, and

as a soloist with major symphony orchestras. He attended the Curtis

Institute and the Peabody Conservatory of Music and is currently on the

faculties of Goucher College and the Levine School of Music. Chappell

appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with chl Artists of

Beverly Hills, California.

4

Program Notes

All three quintets of Franz Danzi’s Op. 56 reveal his effectiveness in

blending the unusual sound offive woodwind instruments in a composition that is spiced with judicious harmonic hues. Intrinsic to the

works are such notable qualities as craftsmanship, pleasant idiomatic

melodies, and a conservative formulaic approach to the quintet genre.

Danzi’s harmonic language was mildly adventurous at the outset of

his career, with unexpected cross-relations and diminished sonorities

resulting from chromatic part-writing and a fondness for starting

movements away from the tonic key. This combination of harmonic

adventurousness with a rigid, classical approach to traditional forms

was a hallmark ofthe emerging romantic style, to which Danzi made

a modest contribution at the outset ofthe nineteenth century. The

Quintet, Op. 56, No. 1, is dedicated to Danzi’s colleague, Anton Reicha

(1770-1836), a teacher of both Berlioz and Liszt, who also composed

numerous wind quintets between the years 1810 and 1820.

Darius Milhaud’s La cheminee du Roi Rene (The Chimney ofKing

Rene) was originally intended to be incidental music to a film entitled

Cavalcade d’amour. The film was a failure and never reached production, but fortunately Milhaud withdrew the score and rewrote it as a

suite ofseven movements for woodwind quintet. Milhaud’s intimate

knowledge of medieval songs and dances enabled him to pay appropriate homage to his birthplace, Aix-en-Provence, a medieval town in the

South of France and the seat of King Rene (1409-1480), a popular and

much revered monarch. The title ofthe work is derived from the nickname ofthe king’s favorite resting place in the town, a spot called “the

king’s chimney” that was known for its warmth. Milhaud chose the title

for each movement with equal care and subtlety: Cortege (Retinue or

Procession): the steady beat is meant to call to mind the king’s soldiers

5
as they march; Aubade (Morning Serenade); Jongleurs (Jugglers): a

common sight in medieval towns, especially when the king and his

court were present; La Maousinglade: the section of Provence where

Milhaud’s home was located—the name literally means “badly 

arranged”; Joutes sur I’Arc (Jousts on the Arc): the Arc, a tiny river close 

to Aix-en-Provence and the site of Cezanne’s famous Baigneuses. Jousts

were nautical tourneys that took place on the river in medieval times;

Chasse a Valabre (Hunting at Valabre): Valabre is a small castle near

Aix-en-Provence where King Rene usually attended hunting parties;

and Madrigal-Nocturne: a poetic reverie combining the seemingly contradictory characteristics of a madrigal and a nocturne.

Albert Roussel wrote Divertissement, Op. 6, during his tenure as

a professor of counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum in Paris (1902-

1914). It is one of a number of Roussel’s works that were influenced by

the music of his teacher, Vincent d’Indy, who had founded the Schola 

in 1894. A man ahead of his time, Roussel employed exotic rhythms

and unconventional combinations ofinstruments. An example

is the addition ofthe piano to the established wind quintet in his

Divertissement. Melodically and harmonically, this early work was too 

modern and unsettling for the Schola Cantorum, but it did provide

a window offuture expectation for French music. Edward Hoornaert,

in The Music ofAlbert Roussel, writes: “This music [Divertissement]

is generally cheerful, rhythmic in a cocky sort of way, transparently

scored, and above all unpretentious. [These are] traits that defined

much of his chamber music in the years to come.”

Summerland, by William Grant Still, is the second ofthree pieces

in a suite for piano entitled Three Visions. The title Summerland, according to Still’s wife, Verna Arvey, comes from the name for the peaceful

heaven ofthe spiritualists. It is a work ofserene beauty, suggesting

the quality oflife presumed to be found in the hereafter. The composer

6

arranged Summerland for both small and full orchestra. Since his death,

the work has also been arranged for violin, flute, viola, cello, and harp,

and most recently by Adam Les Lesnick for wind quintet.

The keyboard works ofJohann Sebastian Bach have invited transcription almost from the moment they were published, since they

present so many contrasting textures. Among the most famous transcriptions are those of Bach himself. Other composers who could not

resist the impulse to transcribe Bach’s keyboard works include Franz

Liszt, Ferrucio Busoni, Leopold Stokowski, Arnold Schoenberg, and

Ward Swingle, founder ofthe Swingle Singers. In every case, the transcriber and the performers face a number of challenges. Bach regularly

exploited the full range ofthe keyboard instruments of his time, a

range much larger than that of any other single instrument. As a result,

a single line of counterpoint is often passed from one instrument to

another, or even to a third, before it comes to rest. Some phrases from

the keyboard works are so long that they exceed the breath capacity of a

wind player, necessitating further adjustments. Nevertheless, the result

of a knowledgeable transcription coupled with a skillful performance is

always satisfying, since Bach was one ofthe great masters of “absolute”

music—music that transcends the medium for which it was originally

written. In the case ofthe preludes and fugues of The Well-Tempered

Clavier, that original instrument is presumed to have been the clavichord; in the case ofthe Fugue in G Minor, bwv 578, it is the organ. The

fugue bears the nickname “Little” to distinguish it from a longer Bach 

organ fugue in the same key.

7
Poulenc’s Sextet for wind quintet and piano is one of his most popular chamber works. Poulenc was initially unsatisfied with the sextet, 

which occupied him off and on between 1930 and 1932. The urge to

improve the quality ofthe work led him to rewrite it seven years later.

The 1939 version proved to be a revelation, particularly for the wind

instruments, as it reflects his penchant for tonal grandeur. According to

Poulenc’s biographer, Henri Hell, “This sextet is marvelously written

for the wind instruments it uses. Each ofthem plays its part with airy 

perfection in its most favorable register, where its voice is most comfortable, most effective, and most expressive. From the point of view of

technique alone, the Sextet is a success ofrare quality.” In addition, the

idiomatic piano part highlights the keyboard mastery ofthe composer,

who was known to be a skillful pianist. A three-movement work, the

Sextet has two robust outer movements (Allegro vivace and Finale:

Prestissimo). The bewitching center movement (Divertissement:

Andantino) is tinged with a hint of Mozart.

Program notes by Elmer Booze

8