The Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,715th Concert

Egidius Kwartet

with Susan Jonkers, soprano

and Michiel Niessen, lutenist

Presented in honor of

Pride ofPlace: Dutch Cityscapes ofthe Golden Age

March 22, 2009

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
This concert is made possible in part by supportfrom

Netherlands Fundfor Performing Arts.

Program

Anonymous

Sailors' Round

i. Psalms and portly songs

Jacob Clemens non Papa (c. 1510-1555)

The First Psalm, from Souterliedekens (1540}

Claude Goudimel (1500-1572)

Psaume 2, from Psaumes de David (1580 edition)

Claude Lejeune (c. 1530-1600)

Psaume 51/69, from Psaumes de David (1601 edition)

Anonymous

‘t Zou een meisken gaen om wijn, from Pratum musicum (1584)

Hubert Waelrant (1517-1595)

Als ik u vinde, from Pratum musicum (1584)

Giacomo Gastoldi (c. 1550-c. 1622)

Floogher Doris, from Balletti (1594)

11. The art of lute playing

John Dowland (1563-1626)

A Fantasia (“Chromatic”)

hi. From Nederlandtsche Gedenck Clanck (1626)

Robert Johnson (c. 1583-1634)

On the Twelve-year Treaty (1609)

Anonymous

Song ofthe Dutch Seafarers
iv. French chansons

Pierre de Mancicourt (c. 1510-1564)

Chanson spirituelle, from Le Rossignol (1598)

Andreas Pevernage (1542-1591)

fe suis tellement amoureux, from Livre second de chansons (1590)

Philip Van Wilder (c. 1500-1554)

Jefile quand Dieu me donne, from Le Rossignol

INTERMISSION

v. English psalms

John Dowland

The Old Hundredth, from A Pilgiim’s Solace (1612)

William Byrd (c. 1540-1623)

Psalm 12, from Psalms e[ Sonnets (1588)

vi. The Antwerp connection

Noe Faignient (c. 1540-c. 1600)

Musica alderzoetse const, from Livre septieme (1608)

Emanuel Adriaensen (c. 1550-1604)

Fiamenga Freda, from Pratum musicum

Primum Potum, from Pratum musicum

Faignient

Rijckdom en haven, from Chansons (1568)

vii. The art oflute playing

Gregorio Huet (c. 1550-c. 1610)

A Fantasiefior the Lute (161.0)

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viii. Songs oftire concurrent: England

John Jenkins (1592-1678)

A Boat, a Boat, from Catch That Catch Can (1652)

John Hilton (1599-1657)

March Bravely on, Boyes, from Catch That Catch Can

ix. Dutch pride

Cornelis Schuyt (1557-1616)

Bewaert Heer Holland, (Lord, save Holland)

from Primo libro de madrigali (1600)

Gastoldi

West Indies Company Song, from Nederlandtsche Gedenck Clanck

x. A pious ending

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)

From Psaumes de David (1621)

Psaume ijj

Psaume 149

Anonymous

The Seaman’s Answer
The Musicians

The Egidius Kwartet was founded in 1995 by four members ofTon Koopman’s

Amsterdam Baroque Choir with the aim of performing Renaissance and

contemporary music from the Low Countries, including Belgium, northwest

Germany, and Holland. The Quartet was named after Egidius, an elegiac 

character from one ofthe most beautiful Middle Dutch poems contained in

the so-called Gruythuys Manuscript. The members ofthe Quartet are Peter

de Groot, alto, Marco van de Klundert, tenor, Hans Wijers, baritone, and

Donald Bentvelsen, bass. They are joined for this concert by lutenist Michiel 

Niessen and soprano Susan Jonkers.

At the heart ofthe ensemble’s repertoire lies music written during the

period when the Spanish Habsburgs ruled the Low Countries (1518-1581).

With their research, recordings, and concerts, including their previous

appearance at the National Gallery in March 2006, the Egidians have

uncovered the work offorgotten masters such as Cornelius Canis, Gheerkin

de Hondt, and Nicolas Payen. Their 2006 recording ofthe Songbook of

Lauweryn van Watervliet received critical praise, as did the CD Lamentatio

Jeremiae Prophetae, a recording oflamentations by Agricola, Arcadelt, Lassus, 

and Morales, released last year.

In addition to performing Renaissance music, the Egidius Kwartet is an

ambassador of new music from The Netherlands. Its first twentieth-century

program, Egidius Sings Egidius, was introduced in 2005 and consists of pieces

by Dutch and Flemish composers set to the words ofthe Middle Dutch

poem about Egidius. The following year, a special-edition CD ofworks written

for the quartet by Daan Manneke was released. Since then, many composers

have written new pieces for the ensemble. Occasionally deviating on purpose from its primary mission, the Quartet enjoys performing the music of

Franz Schubert, Jean-Baptiste de Lully, Henry Purcell, and Kurt Weill.

6

The Quartet has been heard at the Ambronay Festival, the Festival de

Saintes, the Festival des Cathedrales de Picardie, and the Festival de Musique

Ancienne a l’lnstitut Neerlandais in France; the Flanders Festival in Belgium;

die Holland Early Music Festival in The Netherlands, and the Radovljica

Festival in Slovenia, among many others. The Egidius Kwartet is also a

regular guest at Ton Koopman’s Itineraire Baroque Festival in the Perigord

region of France. The Quartet has given workshops in ensemble singing at 

the Hochschule fur Musik in Heek, Germany, and at the Early Music Festival

in Hoorn, the Enschede Conservatory, the Haarlem Choral Biennale, and

the Traces Festival of Voices in Tilburg, all in the Netherlands.

Lutenist Michiel Niessen studied at the Royal Conservatory ofThe Hague

widi Toyohiko Satoh. He plays regularly with the Apollo Ensemble, Ensemble

Contrepoint, and Musica ad Rhenum, and numerous baroque orchestras

including Collegium Musicurn Groningen, Florilegium Musicurn Den Haag, 

and La Stagione Frankfurt. He is known for expanding the boundaries ofhis

instrument by moving into amplification, crossover styles, electronic influences, and ethnic and proto-ethnic instrumentation. He plays exclusively on 

instruments made for him by Richard Berg of Ottawa, Ontario.

Soprano Susan Jonkers studied with Gerda van Zelm and Lenie van den

Heuvel at the Royal Conservator)- ofThe Hague. She has participated in

master classes with Michael Chance and Dame Malvina Major as well as

Tonu Kaljuste, the chief conductor ofthe Netherlands Chamber Choir. She 

has appeared in a performance of Steve Reich’s Musicfor Eighteen Musicians,

conducted by the composer, and has collaborated with the Camerata Trajectina 

and Lux Aeterna as well as the Egidius Kwartet.
The Program

2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Henry' Hudson’s exploration of the 

New World on behalf ofthe Dutch nation and the beginning ofthe colony

known as New Amsterdam. The first Dutch colonists were mainly adventurers, peasants, hunters, fortune seekers, and former criminals. It is therefore

unlikely that they would have brought a significant amount of Dutch cultural and musical heritage to the New World. Because of this, the Egidius

Kwartet has chosen repertoire from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth

centuries that might have been found in the travel chests and memoirs of

Hudson and those French- and Dutch-speaking pioneers—psalms, old tunes, 

“portly” (sailor) songs, and just a smattering offancy songs.

A great many ofthe songs ofthe period deal with themes that are depicted

in the genre paintings that are included in the exhibition Pride ofPlace: Dutch

Cityscapes ofthe Golden Age currently on view in the West Building: celebration ofthe good things in life, family ties, love of nature, and pride of place.

Earthier and more comic themes as well as political controversy also appear

frequently in both Dutch painting and music, and they are represented in

this program, even though they are not represented in the exhibition. Like

the paintings, the songs and the instrumental pieces are intimate in scale.

They were commonly played by the Dutch middle class, frequently as background music for banquets or as entertainment in taverns, but also in the 

context ofhouse concerts. The popularity ofthis music lasted for well over

one hundred years, through the Golden Age and beyond.

A significant surviving document from the Golden Age in The Netherlands is a historical account of the eighty-year war between The Netherlands 

and Spain titled Nederlandtsche Gedenck Clanck (The Sound of Dutch Memories), from which three ofthe pieces on this program have been drawn. The 

account was completed in 1625 by the Dutch historian, writer, and poet 

Adrianus Valerius (c. 1575-1625). By setting his own lyrics to old songs and

to many popular tunes and compositions ofhis time, he made Nederlandtsche

Gedenck Clanck a virtual encyclopedia ofsixteenth- and seventeenth-century

Dutch taste and culture. Many ofthe tunes Valerius included in the collection are still in common use today. Among them is a fifteenth-century Dutch 

tune to which he set the words “Wilt heden nu treden.” With Valerius’ new 

text, this almost forgotten melody began a successful revival. Eventually, it

entered the English tradition as a hymn tune, “Kremser,” which is commonly 

sung to the text “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing.”

Program notes by Peter de Groot

9
Next Week at the National Gallery' ofArt

New York Chamber Soloists

Music by Berger, Persichetti, Piston, arid Powell

March 25, 2009

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Alan Mandel, pianist

Music by Gottschalk, Ives, Mandel, and Siegmeister

March 29, 2009

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Both concerts are part ofthe 6 3rd American Music Festival

For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:00 pm.

Tire 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 of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000b South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

mviv.nga.gov

cover: Caret Fabritius, View in Delft, 1652,

The National Gallery, London, Presented by The Art Fund, 1922