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.

Please note that late entry or reentry ofthe 

East Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

For the convenience of concertgoers, 

the Garden Cafe remains open for light refreshments

until 6:00 pm on Sundays.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

uwiv.nga.gov

COVER: Aleksandr Mikhailovich Rodchenko, Untitled (detail), 1919,

National Gallery ofArt, Washington, Gift ofthe Collectors Committee

The Seventieth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell

and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,848th Concert

National Gallery ofArt Orchestra

Saint Petersburg Symphony Orchestra

Alexander Titov, conductor

Xiayin Wang, pianist

October 9, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Atrium

Admissionfree
The National Gallery of Art extends special thanks to

the Washington Conservatory of Music of Bethesda, Maryland,

for in-kind assistance that has made this concert possible.

Program

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Overture to Candida (1956)

Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Piano Concerto no. j in C Major, op. 26 (1913-1921)

Andante; allegro

Tema con variazioni

Allegro, ma non troppo

INTERMISSION

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

Kartinki s vistavki (Pictures from an Exhibition) (1874)

Promenade

The Gnome [Gnomus]

Promenade

The Old Castle [11 vecchio castello]

Promenade

Dispute between children at play [Tuileries]

The Ox-Cart [Bydlo]

Promenade

Ballet ofthe Unhatched Chicks

Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle 

Promenade

The Market at Limoges [Limoges, le marche]

The Catacombs [Sepulchrum Romanum]

Cum mortuis in lingua mortua

Baba-Yaga [The Hut on Hen’s Legs]

The Great Gate of Kiev
The Musicians

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART ORCHESTRA

The National Gallery ofArt Orchestra was founded in 1943 and initially 

consisted of approximately twenty-five players drawn from the National

Symphony Orchestra. Gradually growing in numbers, the Gallery orchestra

eventually reached the size and status of a large chamber orchestra. The

ensemble has undertaken the full range of chamber and symphonic repertoire and has frequently presented first performances ofworks by American

composers, most notably the 1953 premiere ofCharles Ives’ Symphony no. 1

under the direction of Richard Bales; the 1990 premiere of Daniel Pinkham’s

Symphony no. 4 under George Manos; and the 2007 premiere ofJohn Musto’s

Later the Same Evening: An opera inspired byjive paintings ofEdward Hopper;

under guest conductor Glen Cortese. Other guest conductors who have

appeared with the orchestra in recent years include Bjarte Engeset, Vladimir

Lande, George Mester, Otto-Wemer Mueller, and Jose Serebrier.

SAINT PETERSBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1967 by three masters ofthe Leningrad conducting school, the

Saint Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra, was dubbed early in

its history the “Orchestra ofAncient and Modern Music.” The founders—

Karl Eliasberg, Edward Grikurov, and Nikolai Rabinovich—departed from the

established practice ofother Soviet orchestras in that the ensemble specialized

in performing seldom-played works, music from various musical styles and

nations other than Russia, and music ofliving composers. In the 1970s, under

the baton ofconductor Edward Serov, the orchestra traveled to hundreds of

cities ofthe Soviet Union, recorded dozens of LPs for the Melodiya label,

participated in prestigious festivals, and firmly took its place as Leningrad’s

third orchestra, after the city’s two famous philharmonic orchestras, the Saint 

Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mariinsky Orchestra.

4

Since 1988 the orchestra has been instrumental in reviving concerts in

the Mirror Hall in the famous Princes Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace in the

heart of Saint Petersburg, where it now concertizes regularly. Under the baton

ofAlexander Titov, artistic director and chief conductor since 2007, the Saint 

Petersburg Symphony Orchestra launched a series of CD recordings ofworks

by Russian composers created during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

In 2008 Vladimir Lande became the orchestra’s principal guest conductor.

ALEXANDER TITOV

A prize winner at the 1988 International Conductors’ Competition in Tokyo,

Alexander Titov holds the title of Honorable Artist ofthe Russian Federation. 

In addition to conducting the Saint Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, he is

guest conductor ofthe Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg and conductor

ofthe Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, and guest conductor ofthe bbc Scotland 

Orchestra. He has appeared as guest conductor in China, Columbia, Finland, 

Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the

United Kingdom, and the United States. He has conducted the bbc’s London 

and Scotland orchestras, at La Scala (Milan), La Fenice (Venice), the Metropolitan Opera (New York), Covent Garden (London), and the San Francisco Opera.

Since 1987 Titov has been a teacher ofoperatic and symphonic conducting

at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He is the author ofnumerous publications, including the articles “Piano Music from 1914 to 1927” and “Piano 

Music ofArthur Lurie” and many annotations for compact discs. For his work

as an opera conductor in the theatrical seasons 2000-2001 and 2001-2002,

he was awarded the Gold Soffit, St. Petersburg’s top theatrical prize, and the

Gold Mask prize. A regular participant in the international festivals “Stars of

White Nights” and “From Avant-garde to Our Days” as well as the Mariinsky 

Ballet Festival and the Petersburg Musical Spring, Titov has recorded over

eighty compact discs.

5
XIAYIN WANG

Appearing at the National Gallery fresh from her September 2011 London

recital debut at Cadogan Hall, pianist Xiayin Wang has achieved a high

level ofrecognition for her commanding performances. In the 2010-2011

season, she was heard in concert at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with

the Fine Arts Quartet, earning praise from Allan Kozinn of The New York

Times, who wrote, “Ms. Wang proved an ideal chamber player.... She gave

nuanced, spirited, crisply articulated and occasionally assertive readings.”

Wang returned to Alice Tully Hall in May 2011 for a solo recital, and in

June appeared in Vienna’s Mozart-Saal, performing Richard Danielpour’s

Concertofor Piano and Orchestra No. 4 with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra

under the baton of Philippe Entremont.

In 2010 Wang released a recording ofthe piano music of Earl Wild,

including his celebrated Gershwin arrangements, on the Chandos label.

The recording was welcomed by journalist Scott Noriega, who wrote: “[Wild’s

pieces] require the type ofpianistic abilities that he himselfpossessed....

Thankfully, pianist Xiayin Wang brings with her these qualities and then

some” (Fanfare). Wang's other CD releases include a disc of Franck and

Strauss sonatas with violinist Catherine Manoukian; “The Enchanted Garden,”

Preludes Books 1 and 11, by Richard Danielpour; solo piano works by Bach,

Gershwin, Mozart, Ravel, and Scriabin; and a highly praised recording of

Brahms’ quartets for piano and strings with the Amity Players. Xiayin Wang 

appears at the National Gallery courtesy ofInternational Performing Artists.

6

Program Notes

Leonard Bernstein’s Candide is a comic operetta based on the eponymous

work by Voltaire. Intended as a hybrid between opera and musical theater,

Candide was a box-office failure when it opened on Broadway in 1956—it

closed after only seventy-three performances. In 1959 it made its London

premiere, with a few adaptations, and ran for only sixty performances. Beginning in the 1970s, a series of Broadway revivals of Candide reached the stage. 

These adaptations continued to appear intermittently until 2006, when the

Theatre du Chdtelet in Paris celebrated the operetta’s fiftieth anniversary, with

sub-sequent productions in London, Milan, Chicago, and Washington, DC.

Despite lackluster reviews ofthe operetta’s initial performances, the

overture was immediately appreciated and frequently played on the concert

stage. Bernstein reorchestrated it and premiered the new version with the

New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1957, after which it became an almost

instantaneous orchestra and concert band staple. With a feverish excitement

that begins with an exuberant fanfare, the work is quick-paced, requiring

virtuosic playing from each member ofthe orchestra.

Ofthe five piano concertos written by Prokofiev, the third has garnered the

most popularity and critical acclaim. The extended process ofits composition

began in 1913, when the composer wrote a theme with variations for piano and

orchestra, which he then set aside. Although he revisited the sketches in 1916

and 1917, he did not fully devote himselfto the project until 1921. Prokofiev was

the soloist for the premiere on December 16,1921, with the Chicago Symphony

Orchestra conducted by Frederick Stock. Due to a tepid reception, the concerto

had to wait until 1922 to be confirmed in the twentieth-century canon, after 

Serge Koussevitzky conducted a lavishly praised performance in Paris. The

first Soviet performance occurred on March 22,1925, when Samuel Feinberg

played the concerto with the Orchestra ofthe Theatre ofthe Revolution under

Konstantin Saradzhev.

7
The concerto radiates a crisp vitality that illustrates Prokofiev’s inventive

prowess in punctuating lyrical passages with witty dissonances, while maintaining a balanced partnership between the soloist and orchestra. Unlike the

examples ofpiano concertos set by many of Prokofiev’s romantic forebears,

the orchestra rises above subsidiary accompaniment to collaborate and enter

into discourse with the pianist.

The long, lyrical clarinet solo that opens the first movement is a signature feature ofthe work, as are the difficult passages for the pianist, including a moment halfway through the movement when several lines of octaves,

interspersed with close tones either above or below (in a triplet rhythm), 

move up and down the keyboard, with one hand often on top ofthe other.

The middle movement is a theme and five variations that presents

Prokofiev’s slightly sarcastic wit in musical terms. The central idea is stated 

by the orchestra in a hesitant, piquant gavotte. The first variation is a broad,

slow restatement by the piano, beginning with a long trill followed by a

glissando-like run up the keyboard. The second variation is presented by the 

orchestra at a galloping pace, with the piano providing excitement with long

runs up and down the keyboard. The third variation is a heavily syncopated 

deconstruction ofthe main theme with a lumbering jazzy backbeat. The 

fourth, possibly the most famous, is a haunting, wandering meditation of

the main theme, and the fifth is another allegro romp for soloist and orchestra, starting in a sunny major key but modulating into transitional waters as

the main theme is fragmented and thrown into double-time pieces.

The third movement, which Prokofiev referred to as an “argument”

between soloist and orchestra, includes the most unabashedly virtuosic 

section ofthe concerto, which begins with a restatement ofthe main theme

in the bassoons in C major and repeats the theme against a G-major underpinning in the strings, creating a bitonal effect. The coda explodes into a

musical battle between soloist and orchestra, with dazzling piano ornamentation over the orchestra (including famously difficult double-note scales,

sometimes approximated by pianists with keyboard glissandos using the

knuckles), eventually establishing the ending key of C major and finishing

in a flourish with a fortissimo unison C.

Modest Mussorgsky and artist Viktor Hartmann (1834-1873) were

introduced to each other sometime around 1870. Devoted to the cause of

Russian art, they quickly became close friends. In 1873 Hartmann died

suddenly of an aneurism at age thirty-nine. His untimely death devastated 

Mussorgsky. The following year, art critic Vladimir Stasov arranged a

memorial exhibition of Hartmann’s work at the Russian Academy ofArts.

The paintings that Mussorgsky saw there became the basis for Kartinki s

vistavki—commonly known in English as Pictures at an Exhibition, but more

accurately translated Picturesfrom an Exhibition. Touched by the paintings

and still mourning the loss of his friend, Mussorgsky completed the entire

fifteen-movement suite ofmusical “pictures” in six weeks. The opening

Promenade and its recurrences represent the composer meandering through

the exhibition from one painting to the next. Sometimes the pace is hurried;

at other times it is relaxed and reflective.

Although much material from the 1874 exhibition has been lost, six of

the Hartmann works that inspired Mussorgsky still survive. “Ballet ofthe 

Unhatched Chicks” refers to a costume sketch that Hartmann created for a

ballet titled Trilby, which depicts dancers in egg-shaped costumes. Two scenes

from Russian Jewish life, Jew in a Fur Cap, Sandomierz and Sandomierz Jew

appear to be the source of “Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle,” and Paris

Catacombs, a dark, brooding Hartmann painting that includes a silhouette of

the artist, has its musical counterpart in “The Catacombs.” The movement

titled “Baba-Yaga [The Hut on Hen’s Legs]” refers to an illustration in the 

exhibition of a hand-made Russian clock in the shape of a hut on hen’s legs,

and “The Great Gate of Kiev” refers to Hartmann’s architectural drawing for

a proposed gate in the walls ofthat city.

Unpublished until 1886, almost six years after Mussorgsky’s death, 

Picturesfrom an Exhibition was originally written for piano solo; that version 

has become a showpiece of virtuosity for the concert pianist. It was orchestrated numerous times, most famously in 1922 by Maurice Ravel. In this

form it has become a mainstay of orchestral repertoire.

9
Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley

October 16, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium

Hanson-Kong Piano Duo

October 23, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

10