Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death ofInfants) is a collection ofmore

than four hundred poems oflamentation by the German poet Friedrich

Ruckert (1788-1866). Extractingfive poemsfrom the collection, Mahler,

a masterat expressingelegiac emotions in music, reached glorious heights

in his settings. The first three ofthe five were set to music in 1901 and

the last two in 1904. The orchestration ofMahler is large, with emphasis

on the horns, woodwind, strings, and harp. It is one ofthe bitter ironies

of music history that Mahler was warned by his wife, Alma, to stay away

from the Ruckert poems, which she saw as a bad omen. Mahler persisted,

responding to an inner compulsion to continue with the work.Just three

years after its completion, their elder daughter died ofscarlet fever, just

as the child mourned by the Ruckert poems.

Mendelssohn wasjust twenty-four years old at the time he completed

his fourth symphony, known as the Italian, after his visit to Italy in 1830.

From a letter written on 10 October 1830, he exclaimed: “This is Italy!

What I have been looking forward to all my life as the greatest happiness

is now begun, and I am basking in it!” Though the sketches for the

symphonywere laid out in Italy, Mendelssohn completed the score upon

fas return to Berlin. The premiere performance took place in London in

1833, but the revised and final version, as it stands today, was completed

four years later. The first movement {Allegro vivace) exudes the happy

atmosphere that surrounded him on his first visit to Italy, as echoed in

his October 1830 letter. The second movement {Andantecon moto), with

its lugubrious mood, suggests his encounterwith a pilgrims’ march in the

city of Naples. The third movement (Con moto moderato), a smooth and

elegant classical minuetwith trio, is the consummateMendelssohn in one

of his most exquisite musical expressions. The finale {Saltarello: Presto)

capitalizes on one of Italy’s oldest dance forms, the sixteenth-century

sakarelb, a jovial, frisky dance utilizing a bouncing motif in triple time.

There are two saltarello themes, as well as a third, a tarantella, gracefully

executed in triplets.

Program notes by Elmer Booze

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

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

The use ofcameras orrecording devices

during theperformance is not allowed.

The Fifty-eighth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery ofArt

2325th Concert

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

GEORGE MANOS, conductor

BEVERLY BENSO, contralto

guest artist

Sunday Evening, 28 November 1999

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
PROGRAM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(1756-1791)

Overture to

“The Marriage of Figaro”

K. 492 (1786)

Gustav Mahler Kindertotenlieder

(1860-1911) (1901-1904)

1. Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n!

2. Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen

3. Wenn dein Miitterlein tritt zur Tiir herein

4. Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen!

5. In diesem Wetter, in diesem Braus

INTERMISSION

Felix Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 in A Major (“Italian”)

(1809-1847) Op. 90 (1831-1833)

Allegro vivace

Andante con moto

Con moto moderato

Saltarello: Presto

Conductor, composer, and pianist George Manos has been director

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

Gallery Orchestra since 1985. He is also artistic director oftheAmerican

Music Festival and ofthe National Galleryvocal and chamber ensembles,

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

included severalyears on the facultyofCatholic University inWashington,

DC, where he taught piano, conducting, and chamber music. In addition,

he held the directorship of the Wilmington, Delaware, School ofMusic,

where he presented an annual jazz festival and clinic. Maestro Manos

founded and directed for ten years the renowned Killamey Bach Festival

in the Republic of Ireland, and was the music director of the 1992

Scandinavian Music Festival in Kolding, Denmark.

Contralto Beverly Benso is a favorite ofWashington conductors and

audiences as an oratorio and concert soloist. She is often invited to sing

outside the Washington area as well, and has sung at the Akron, Ohio,

ChamberMusic Series, the Salzburg Festival inAustria, and the Rheingau

Festival in Germany. In March she sang with fellow members of the

National Gallery Vocal Arts Ensemble at the invitation of the SchloB

Belvedere Museum in Vienna, in a concert ofAmerican music presented

in connection with the exhibition, America: Die neue Welt in Bildern des 19.

Jahrkmderts. Benso has performed as solo recitalist atthe Gallery and with

the National Gallery Orchestra under George Manos, singing Elgar’s Sea

Pictures, Brahms’ A/toRhapsody, and Richard Bales’ASetofJade.

Two of Mozart’s operas, Der Schauspieldirektor and Idomeneo, were so 

pleasing to Emperor Joseph II that he commissioned Mozart and his

librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, to produce another opera. He suggested

thatit be based on the good-humored comedyLemarriagedeFigaro by the

French dramatist Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799).

The comedy took a sardonic poke at the ruling class and, as a result,

encountered considerable censorship. Nevertheless, Mozart’s cleverly

composed operatic version premiered in Vienna on 1 May, 1786, and

was triumphantly received. While the opera’s success was a revelation to

Mozart, itwas a source ofconsternation to his adversaries, court composers

Righini and Salieri. These Italian opera composers had failed to gain

popularitywith theVrennese public through the introduction oftheirown

Italian operas the year before. For them, The Marriage ofFigaro provided

one more reason to bejealous ofMozart; for him, it was a triumph to have

succeeded where his Italian rivals had failed.