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Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-fourth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,550th Concert

Awadagin Pratt, pianist

November 27, 2005

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Program

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Sonata in B-Jlat Major

Allegro

Allegro di molto

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Sonata in E Major, op. 14, no. 1 (1798)

Allegro

Allegretto

Rondo: Allegro commodo 

Beethoven

Sonata in A-jlat Major, op. no (1821-1822)

Moderato cantabile molto espressivo

Allegro molto

Adagio ma non troppo

Fuga: Allegro ma non troppo

INTERMISSION

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Nocturne in B Major, op. 62, no. 1 (1846)

Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

Moment Musical in B Minor, op. 16, no. 3 (1896)

Cesar Franck (1822-1890)

Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, op. 18

Transcribed by Harold Bauer

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor, bwv 903

Johann Sebastian Bach

Chaconne from the Partita no. 2 in D Minor for solo violin

Transcribed for piano solo by Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)

The Musician

Bom in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in Normal, Illinois, Awadagin 

Pratt began studying piano at age six and three years later took up the violin

as well. At age sixteen he entered the University of Illinois, where he studied

piano, violin, and conducting. He subsequently enrolled at the Peabody

Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland, where he became the first student in the history ofthe school to earn diplomas in three performance areas. 

In 1992 Pratt won the Naumburg International Piano Competition, and in

1994 he received an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He has played recitals at the

Kennedy Center as well as in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Los Angeles’s Dorothy 

Chandler Pavilion, and New York’s Lincoln Center. He has been the featured

concerto soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, the National Symphony, the

New York Philharmonic, the Orchestra of Saint Luke’s, and the symphony

orchestras of Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Saint Louis. Summer festivals in which

he has performed include the Aspen, Blossom, and Caramoor Festivals and

the Hollywood Bowl, Ravinia, and WolfTrap. Outside the United States, Pratt

has appeared in Braunschweig (Germany), Osaka and Tokyo (Japan), and

various venues in Israel, Italy, Poland, South Africa, and Switzerland.

A great favorite on college campuses and a strong advocate of arts education, Pratt participates in numerous residencies and outreach activities. He 

was named one offifty “leaders oftomorrow” in Ebony Magazine’s fiftieth

anniversary issue. A featured guest on radio programs such as “Performance

Today,” “Saint Paul Sunday Morning,” and “Weekend Edition,” Pratt has also 

performed on many television programs, including “Live from the Kennedy 

Center—A Salute to Slava” as well as “Good Morning, America,” “Sesame

Street,” and “The Today Show.” His recordings, all on the Angel/EMI label,

include all-Bach and all-Beethoven CDs as well as Livefrom South Africa, A

Long Wayfrom Normal, and Transformations. An assistant professor of piano

and artist-in-residence at the College Conservatory of Music at the University

of Cincinnati, Awadagin Pratt appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Cramer/Marder Artists of New York City.

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Program Notes

Joseph Haydn, one ofthe most prolific composers in Western music, created

more than fifty piano sonatas. His Sonata in B-Jlat Major (no. xvi: 41 as catalogued by Anthony van Hoboken [1887-1983]), is one ofthree that Haydn 

published in 1784. He dedicated the set to Princess Marie Hermenegild

Esterhazy (nee Liechtenstein), the bride of Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy, eldest

son of Haydn’s patron. The contrast between dotted rhythms and triplets is an

important feature ofboth ofthe sonata’s two movements. To enhance one’s

appreciation ofthis music today, one should understand that Haydn was

not composing for the modern piano. Until about 1750 the harpsichord was

the keyboard instrument of choice for most composers, and the fortepiano,

invented in 1710 by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731), was basically a harpsichord with hammers. By the end of Haydn’s life, the harpsichord had been

replaced by the fortepiano, and the latter had undergone many improvements.

But even the largest such instrument was made entirely ofwood, had a range

of no more than six octaves, and produced much less sound than the steel

and wood behemoth on today’s concert stage.

Twenty-three years elapsed between the dates of composition ofthe two

Beethoven sonatas that Awadagin Pratt has included in this program. The

Sonata in E Major, op. 14, no. 1, comes from the composer’s early period and

strongly reflects the influence of his teacher, Joseph Elaydn. Beethoven later

transcribed the sonata for string quartet, a natural transformation, as the

piano work has a fairly consistent four-voice texture from beginning to end. 

The Sonata in A-jlat Major, op. no, is one of his great late works, completed

on Christmas Day in 1821 and published in 1822. By this time Beethoven had

developed the custom of providing instructions in the tempo markings. In

addition to specifying moderato cantabile (in a moderate tempo and singing

style) over the opening bars, he indicated molto espressivo (very expressively)

and con amabilita (amiably) to encourage performers to play the music as

warmly as possible. The second movement, Allegro molto, is a scherzo with a

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trio that features a wide range of dynamics. For the final movement, Fuga:

Allegro, Beethoven turned to contrapuntal writing, in a departure from traditional sonata form. In what at first seems to be the final cadence, a quiet

major chord is repeated nine times. But it grows in strength as it is repeated

and leads into a coda based on the inversion ofthe fugue subject. The coda

gathers momentum, and the sonata builds to a triumphant ending.

Chopin was the quintessential composer/performer, a favorite ofthe

salons in his adopted home city of Paris. Almost all of his works premiered

in these informal settings, as he rarely appeared in concert halls. His nocturnes, preludes, and impromptus have a characteristic intimacy and improvisatory quality', exemplifying romantic piano music. On August 30, 1846,

Chopin delivered the manuscript for his sublime Nocturne in B Major, op.

62, no. 1, to a friend, the cellist Auguste Franchomme (1808-1884), with 

this decidedly unromantic note: “Dear friend, here are my three manuscripts for Brandus [a Paris publisher],... Deliver the manuscripts only at

the moment of payment... and tell Brandus to send me two proof-sheets

to keep.” The composer who originated the nocturne as a genre was John

Field (1782-1837), an Irishman who spent many years in Russia. His unique

style ofwriting made an impression on Chopin and Liszt, both ofwhom

heard Field during his 1832 European tour (Liszt brought out an edition of

the Field nocturnes in 1859).

Along with Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953), Bela Bartolc (1881-1945),

and George Gershwin (1898-1937), Sergey Rachmaninoffranks among the

greatest composer-pianists ofthe first half ofthe twentieth century. Pianists

hold his works in equally high regard with those of Liszt and Chopin, whose

styles he emulated. Rachmaninofffollowed the example of Franz Schubert

(I797~1^2^) in writing numerous short pieces in free form and calling them

Moments musicaux (musical moments).

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Cesar Franck first composed his Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, op. 18, as

a piano-organ duet for two of his pupils, Louise and Genevieve Deslignieres.

Later he produced a version for organ solo, which was then transcribed for 

piano solo by pianist Harold Bauer (1873-1951), a specialist in the repertoire

ofthe romantic period. In the Prelude the soaring melody in the style of a barcarolle holds the listener’s interest. A briefinterlude, marked lento, unveils the

head ofthe fugue theme. This is followed by the fugue itself, which unfolds

in a leisurely tempo (allegretto ma non troppo) and builds to a convincing

stretto climax without ever losing its lyrical quality. The Variation is actually a

repeat ofthe prelude with arabesques in the left-hand accompaniment. These

present a special challenge when the work is played as a piano solo: in the

version for organ and piano, the bass line and the arabesques are divided 

between the pianist’s left and right hands while the organist plays the melody,

but in the piano solo version, the left hand must take on both the arabesques

and the bass while the right hand plays the melody.

There is evidence that Johann Sebastian Bach performed and refined his

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue over a period often years (1720-1730) before

publishing his final revision ofthe work in Leipzig. It presents a dramatic

contrast between passionate improvisation and logical development. The

toccata-like flourishes in the opening section are followed by deceptively 

simple arpeggiated chords in the second section, a passage that calls for 

mature and sensitive interpretation on the part ofthe performer. Although

the fugue that makes up the third section is in only three voices, it builds

in intensity as the polyphony becomes freer and culminates in a final statement ofthe theme over full chordal harmony.

Ferruccio Busoni was not the only composer who took on the task of

transcribing Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental Chaconne from his

Partita no. 2 for solo violin. Brahms made a piano transcription ofthe work

for the left hand only, and Andres Segovia transcribed it for the guitar.

Busoni’s original works include four operas, several concertos (including

a massive five-movement concerto for piano and orchestra), numerous

6

chamber works, and a considerable body of music for solo piano, but it is

his transcriptions ofworks of Bach that are heard most often in concert.

His rendering ofthe Chaconne was written while he was living in Boston

and teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music. It is dedicated to 

the pianist and composer Eugene d’Albert (1864-1932). The tonal effect of

the transcription resembles that ofthe organ. Busoni deviates frequently

from the original, adding doublings, elaborating and inscribing numerous

tempo changes, and suggesting performance instructions.

Some devotees ofthe music of Bach decry Busoni’s approach, calling for 

an interpretation that is as close as possible to what the original composer

wrote. Yet Bach was himself an active performer who transcribed and adapted

the works ofseveral seventeenth-century composers and of his contemporaries. In fact, there is good evidence that all ofthe composers whose works 

are here represented often deviated from the original when they performed

their own works, not to mention those of other composers.

Program notes by Sorab Modi