have been begun earlier and finished after he moved to Leipzig. All slight

chronological questions aside, the sonatas give ample evidence of having

been conceived as a single, unified set.

The ItalianConcerto revealsyet anotherbrilliantfacet ofBach’s compositional

output. While he was in the employ ofthe Duke ofWeimar (1708-1717),

he had access to a number of scores of concertos by Vivaldi that enjoyed

widespread popularity throughout Europe. The experience was a seminal

one for Bach, since he was to incorporate features ofthe concerto form into

manygenresofhisownmusic.The immediate resultofthecontact,however,

was a series of keyboard transcriptions of concern by Vivaldi, Benedetto

Marcello, Georg Philip Telemann, and the son ofhis patron, Prince Johann

Ernst of Weimar. Bach’s original composition in the form of an Italian

concerto forsolo harpsichord came some years later (1735), but draws on the

experience he had gained from those transcriptions.

Bach’s first major biographer, Johann Nicolaus Forkel, quotes Carl Philip

Emanuel Bach as saying that his father “played the violin cleanly and

penetratingly, thus keeping the orchestra in better order than he could have

done from the harpsichord. He understood perfectly the possibilities of all

stringed instruments. This is evidenced by his unaccompanied solos for the

violin and the violoncello. One ofthe greatest violinists once told me that he

had seen nothingmoreperfectforlearningtobeagoodviolinist.. .than thesaid

violin soloswithout bass.”The SonatainAMinot', BWV1014follows the classic 

Italiansonatadachiesasuccessionofmovements,slow-fast-slow-fast. Numerous

chords and double stops highlight the continuous counterpointofthework, in

which Bach and the performerwork togetherto create in the listener’s mind

a complete polyphonic composition ofthe highest order.

Program notes by Kenneth Slowik

The use ofcameras or recording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

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

Selectionsfrom concerts atthe Gallery

can be heard on WGMS-FM, 103.5, on the

second Sunday ofeach month at 9:00p.m.

During the months ofJanuary, February, andMarch,

recentperformances by the

National Gallery Orchestra can be heard

on IVETA-FM, 90.9, on Wednesdays at 9:00p.m.

The Fifty-eighth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2333d Concert

MARILYN MCDONALD, violinist

KENNETH SLOWIK, harpsichordist

Sunday Evening, 23 January 2000

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
PROGRAM

Music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Sonata inC Minor, BWV 1017

Siciliano

Allegro

Adagio

Allegro

Sonata inA Minor, BWV 1003

Grave

Fuga

Andante

Allegro

INTERMISSION

Italian Concerto inF Major, BWV 971

Adagio

Fuga

Siciliano

Presto

Sonata inA Major, BWV 1014

Adagio

Allegro

Andante

Allegro

Violinist Marilyn McDonald has toured worldwide asa member ofthe

Castle Trio, the Smithson String Quartet, the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble,

and Ensemble Pierrot, a group specializing in contemporary music. She has

appeared as soloist with the Milwaukee and Omaha Symphonies, and has 

played recitals at the Caramoor Festival, Yale University, the Metropolitan

MuseumofArt,AliceTullyHall, the LibraryofCongress, theMostlyMozart

Festival, and the renowned Utrecht Early Music Festival in Holland. In

addition toa visiting professorship at the Eastman School of Music, she

holds faculty positions at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, the

Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, and the Colorado College Summer

Conservatory and Festival. She is concertmaster of the Peninsula Music

Festival Orchestra. McDonald has recorded for Vox, the Smithsonian

Collection of Recordings, Gasparo, Decca, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi,

and Virgin Classics.

HarpsichordistKenneth Slowik is artisticdirectorofthe period instrument

chamber music program at the National Museum of American History.

Asa cellist and viola da gamba player, he wasa founding member of the

Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Axelrod Quartet, the Smithson String

Quartet, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and the Castle Trio.A

frequent performer with Anner Bylsma’s Ensemble fArchibudelli and

at festivals throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States, Slowik

is increasingly in demand asa conductor of opera and oratorio. His solo,

conducting, andensemble appearanceshave led tomore than fiftyrecordings, 

manyofthemprizewinners. Hisrepertoire includesworksfrom Monteverdi

and Bach toSchoenbergand Richard Strauss. Slowik’s linernotes accompany

over half of his recordings and have been critically praised. Currentlya

member of the University of Maryland faculty, Slowik is, in addition,

artistic director of the Baroque Performance Institute at the Oberlin

College Conservatory of Music and conductor of the Santa Fe, New

Mexico, Bach Festival.

In company with thousands of other events planned for the year 2000, 

this evening’s concert celebrates the 250th anniversary of the death of

Johann Sebastian Bach, conductor, organist, instrument inventor, practical 

acoustician, harpsichordist, and string player extraordinaire. The program

choices reflect his excellence in the two latter categories, and include two

solo works and two duos. As one might expect, each work stands as one of

the greatest examples ofits type.

The distinguished Bach scholar Robert Marshall has offered the following

assessment of the importance of Bach’s activities in these fields:“With

the sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin and the suites for

unaccompanied cello, Bach was not only the first composer in history to

cultivate the genre extensively, [but] he also exhausted it for all time. With

his sonatas for melody instmment and harpsichord, especially the six for

violin, he virtually created, made viable, and brought to its first perfection

the form of the modem duo sonata.” The two duo-sonatas included in

this program belong toa set of six that is traditionally assigned to Bach’s

years as the court Kapellmeister in Cothen (1717-1723). They may in fact