Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Marcus Thompson, violist

Judith Gordon, pianist

Music by J. S. Bach, Enescu, Lee, and Schumann

Presented in honor ofAfrican-American History Month

February 13, 2011

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm 

West Building, West Garden Court

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.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

www.ng;a.sov <D O

COVER: Paul Cezanne, Landscape near Pans, c. 1876,

National Gallery ofArt, Washington, Chester Dale Collection

The Sixty-ninth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,823rd Concert

Janice Martin, violin

Michael Ricchiuti, piano

John Wohlstetter, guest lecturer

Februaiy 9, 2011

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Admissionfree
Program

Music by George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Three Preludes

Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

Andante con moto e poco rubato

Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

“Someone to Watch Over Me”

“It Ain’t Necessarily So”

“Summertime”

An American in Paris

“Nice Work IfYou Can Get It”

“Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”

Cadenza from Concerto in F

Commentary on and performance of Rhapsody in Blue

This concert is made possible by support from the

Billy Rose Foundation.

The Musicians

JANICE MARTIN

Violinist, pianist, and soprano Janice Martin’s multiple talents have entertained

and inspired audiences attuned to classical and popular music as well as jazz.

A native of Racine, Wisconsin, Martin is a graduate ofIndiana University and

The Juilliard School ofMusic. Her numerous honors include a career award 

grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and top prizes at both the

Washington International and the Young Artist International Competitions.

In recognition ofher musical achievements, the Stradivari Society made the

1708 Burstein/Bagshawe Stradivarius violin available for her personal use in

concerts for five years.

Since her successful debut at Carnegie Hall, Martin has played with the

Atlanta, Edmonton, Houston, Milwaukee, Portland, Seattle, and Victoria

symphony orchestras; the European Union Chamber Orchestra and tire New

York Symphonic Ensemble; and has performed in some ofthe most celebrated

concert halls in the world, including New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, Paris’

Bastille Opera House, Prague’s Rudolfinum, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.

A former member ofthe United States Army Band, Martin has collaborated with jazz artists Larry Willis and David Bixler and has had pieces

composed for her by Charlie Barnett, Bixler, Bob Goldstone, Steven Stuckey,

Brandon Terzic, and Uli Geissendoerfer. In 2009 she appeared on the nbc

Series America's Got Talent with her aerial violin performance—playing an

electric violin while performing acrobatics on a silk trapeze—and her playing 

has been featured on television projects for the Discovery and History Channels as well as in the Miramax film Paperclips.

Today’s concert includes music from a show Martin created titled Dear

Mr. Gershwin. It is one of a number oftouring show's that include new w'ays

ofperforming old standards, often exploring classical and non-classical

genres together.

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MICHAEL RICCHIUTI

An emerging artist with a refreshing contemporary approach to his playing

and writing, keyboardist Michael Ricchiuti is grounded in the jazz piano 

tradition, drawing upon a wide variety ofinfluences, including the music of

Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, and Stevie Wonder. Born in Brooklyn, Ricchiuti began taking piano lessons at age seven. As a young boy he studied 

classical music, but Billy Joel was his musical hero. In his late teens he 

enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with Jeff

Covell, Herb Pomeroy, and Ray Santisi, among others. In 1991 Ricchiuti

returned to New York City to embark on his career, while continuing to

study with Fred Hersch and Kenny Werner.

Ricchiuti has toured Europe and the United States as organist with the 

legendary7 funk saxophonist Maceo Parker and played in the house band 

for the “I Love ny” benefit concert held at the Beacon Theater in New York

City for victims ofthe World Trade Center tragedy. He has also worked with 

Chris Botti, Michael Brecker, Peabo Bryson, Gloria Estefan, Bill Evans,

David Foster, Steve Gadd, Omar Hakim, James Ingram, Will Lee, and John

Patitucci. Most recently Ricchiuti has been on a world tour with Grammy

award-winning singer Patti Austin as her keyboardist and musical director,

promoting her latest recording, Avant Gershwin, Other recent performances

include appearances on nbc’s The Today Show and cbs’s The Early Show

as a member of Sting’s orchestra, and concerts to celebrate Quincy Jones’

seventy-fifth birthday. Ricchiuti s recording credits include When I’m With

You with Chuck Loeb, A New Kind ofBlue featuring Randy Brecker, and

tracks with Spyro Gyra, Bob James, and Eric Marienthal. Ricchiuti performs

with his own band and has produced a solo CD, The Way I See It.

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JOHN WOHLSTETTER

Author, commentator, and patron ofthe arts John Wohlstetter has been 

fascinated by the music of George Gershwin since he was a young piano 

student. He has made a special study ofthe Rhapsody in Blue, uncovering

details about the background ofthe work that have not heretofore been 

published. A member ofthe board of directors ofthe National Symphony

Orchestra and Washington Bach Consort and a trustee ofthe Billy Rose

Foundation, the Hudson Institute, and the National Foundation for Facial

Reconstruction, Wohlstetter is a senior fellow at the Discovery' Institute,

author of T)\e Long War Ahead and the Short War Upon Us, and founder of

the issues blog “Letter from the Capitol.”

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Program Notes

Chester Dale (1883-1962) was an astute businessman who made his fortune

on Wall Street in the bond market. He thrived on forging deals and translated much ofthis energy and talent into his art collecting, a passion that

was encouraged by his wife, Maud, who was the daughter of an artist. Dale

acquired a magnificent collection of French and American paintings from

the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which he bequeathed

in 1962 to the National Gallery of Art. From Impressionism to Modernism:

Tire Chester Dale Collection remains on view through January 2, 2012.

The Dales were active New York socialites who attended and sometimes

hosted the most fashionable parties held on the Upper West Side. One

ofthe few musicians who also frequented those gatherings was George

Gershwin, who by 1925 had achieved sufficient fame and wealth just from

the publication and frequent performance ofhis Rhapsody in Blue to afford 

a townhouse in the same neighborhood and the social life that went with it.

Gershwin and Dale were acquaintences, and it was Gershwin’s encounter

with the art in Dale’s apartment at the Park Lane Hotel that inspired him to 

collect art himself and develop his skills as a painter. An incident from one

oftheir meetings is recorded in notes that Dale left behind, which were

edited and reproduced in an autobiography by John Walker, who was the

director ofthe National Gallery ofArt when it received the Dale bequest:

I bumped into George somewhere I can’t remember now. He said,

“Oh, Chester, I understand you got a lot ofswell pictures. I’d like

to see them.” I said, “It’s OK with me, George, come over any time

it’s convenient for you....” So George, and 1 think his brother and

somebody else, I don’t remember, came in for cocktails. Just where

we were in the morning room there happened to be a Cezanne

right near the door called Estaque.... George said, “My God, that’s

a wonderful picture!” I said, “What the hell do you know about

pictures?” “Well,” he said, “It’s a Cezanne, isn’t it?” I said, “Sure, it’s

a Cezanne.... Are you interested in art outside ofyour great art?” He

said, “Yes, Chester, I’m crazy about pictures....” And he proceeded

to tell me some things about Cezanne that even 1 didn’t know.

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I said, “Now look, George, if you feel that way, why don’t you go

to the piano and play me a Cezanne?” So he went to the piano.... I

haven’t got any more idea than the man in the moon what he 

played, but emotionally, there was Cezanne to the both of us. (John

Walker, Self-portrait with Donors: Confessions ofan Art Collector, 1974,

Boston, Little, Brown & Co.)

As a songwriter, George Gershwin worked in a medium that did not

encourage innovation, but he found a distinctive personal style and created

songs that remained popular even as fashions changed. From his exposure

to jazz musicians and his own work as a jazz pianist, he developed an

affinity for eight-bar phrases and an aggressive, swinging beat, with accents

occurring on weak and strong beats alike. His personal touches included

more frequent modulations than were normally heard in improvised jazz,

occasional extreme modulations to distantly related keys, and chromatic

melodies. Some ofthe music in this program was already written when

Gershwin became acquainted with Chester Dale. “Someone to Watch Over 

Me” may well have been among the songs Gershwin played at the parties

both men attended in the late 1920s.

Program notes by Stephen Ackert, head ofthe music department,

National Gallery ofArt

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