For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

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 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

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,671st Concert

Kathryn Hearden, soprano

Marcio Botelho, cellist

Patricia Parker, pianist

Presented in honor ofthe exhibition

In the Forest ofFontainebleau:

Painters and Photographersfrom Corot to Monet

April 13, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)

Clair de lane (Moonlight), op. 46, no. 2 (1887)

Arranged by Marcio Botelho

Faure

Apres un reve (After a Dream), op. 7, no. 1 (1877)

Mandoline, op. 58, no. 1 (1891)

Faure

Sicilienne (Siciliana), op. 78 (1893)

Papillon (Butterfly), op. 77 (1898)

Ernest Chausson (1844-1899)

Les Papillons (Butterflies), op. 2, no. 3 (1880)

Chanson perpetuelle (Song without End), op. 37 (1898)

Arranged by Marcio Botelho

Chausson

Piece, op. 39 (1897)

Le Colibri (The Hummingbird), op. 2, no. 7 (1882)

Transcribed by J. Griset

INTERMISSION

Jules Massenet (1842-1912)

Elegie (Elegy), op. 10 (1885)

Faure

En sourdine (Muted), op. 58, no. 2 (1891)

Charles Koechlin (1867-1950)

Sonate, op. 66 (1917)

Tres modere (Very moderately)

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

From Fetes galantes (Elegant Celebrations), Book

En Sourdine (Muted)

Fantoches (Marionettes)

Claire de lune (Moonlight)

Debussy

Sonate pour violoncelle et piano

Prologue

Serenade

Finale

Debussy

Ariettes oubliees (Forgotten Airs)

Chevaux de bois (Wooden Horses)
The Musicians

KATHRYN HEARDEN

Soprano Kathryn Hearden completed a doctor ofmusical arts degree at the

Eastman School of Music, where she was among the last students ofrenowned

mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani and a winner ofthe concerto competition and

the performer’s certificate. A finalist in the Washington International Competition for Voice, Hearden sings a repertoire that spans seven centuries and

reflects her love ofchamber music as well as oratorio and operatic literature.

As an advocate ofnew music, Hearden has premiered dozens ofworks and

has served on the board of directors ofthe Capital Composers Alliance. She

currently sings recent American works with the Verge Ensemble ofthe

Contemporary Music Forum, in residence at the Corcoran Gallery ofArt.

Hearden has been featured with the National Gallery Orchestra on wetafm’s “Music in Washington” as well as on National Public Radio. During

recent concert seasons, she has sung with “The President’s Own” Chamber

Orchestra ofthe United States Marine Band. In the greater Washington area, 

she has also appeared at the French Embassy, the John F. Kennedy Center for

the Performing Arts, and The National Museum for Women in the Arts, and

with the Alexandria Symphony, Concert Artists Baltimore, the Millbrook

Orchestra, and The Washington Camerata. Ofher recent recital at the French

Embassy, The Washington Post reported: “Soprano Kathryn Hearden was an 

absolute knockout... her dramatic interpretation... could rival anything seen

on the operatic stage. Hearden’s voice is a first-rate instrument and she used

it to the fullest effect.”

A professor of voice at George Mason University, Hearden has appeared

in numerous concerts in the George Mason Center for the Arts, including

a production ofthe Faure Requiem with guest conductor Leonard Slatkin. 

She has spoken at the Music Teachers National Conference on the subject

of art song collaboration, and is an active adjudicator and a member ofthe

4

National Association ofTeachers of Singing and The Friday Morning Music 

Club. In December Hearden will return to the National Gallery to perform

Elliott Carter’s A Mirror on Which to Dwell with the Verge Ensemble in honor

ofthe composer’s 100th birthday.

MARCIO BOTE1HO

Marcio Botelho is principal cellist with the chamber orchestra of “The

President’s Own” United States Marine Band as well as with the National

Gallery Orchestra. He is a frequent soloist with the Marine Band Chamber

Orchestra, and has played solos with Concert Artists Baltimore, the Millbrook Orchestra, and the National Gallery Orchestra. He has performed

recitals at the Brazilian-American Cultural Institute, the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library ofCongress, the Corcoran Museum, the Kennedy 

Center’s Millennium Stage, The Lyceum in Alexandria, Virginia, and the

National Gallery. In 2002 he was the featured cellist at the Centennial

Tribute to Richard Rodgers at the Library ofCongress.

Botelho received a master ofmusic degree from the Eastman School

of Music, and is a cum laude graduate ofthe University ofCincinnati, where

he was a winner ofthe concerto competition. Botelho teaches in northern

Virginia, where several of his students have won top honors in local competitions, including the National Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Fellowship

program and Virginia’s All-State Orchestra. He has adjudicated for the

Lion’s Club Bland Memorial Music Competition, the Northern Virginia

Music Teachers Association Youth Competition, and the Prince William

Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. Next month Botelho will appear

as soloist with the United States Marine Chamber Orchestra in Haydn’s

Sinfonia concertante.

5
PATRICIA PARKER

Pianist Patricia Parker earned both the bachelor ofmusic and master of

music degrees in piano from the University of Michigan. She subsequently

attended the special studies program at The Juilliard School of Music,

working with Russian pianist and teacher Sascha Gorodnitzski. In 1988 she 

received her doctorate in piano performance from Florida State University

where she studied with James Streem and Marilyn Neeley. Parker has taught

at the University of Southern Mississippi, Henry Street Settlement House 

in New York City, and the summer academy at Interlochen, Michigan. She

is a Jacksonville State University professor emerita, where she taught piano,

music theory, and form and analysis for over twenty years. During her

tenure at jsu, many students from her piano studio excelled by winning

competitions and moving onto graduate work in music.

Parker has performed chamber music recitals in Russia, Eastern Europe,

and the Middle East, and has played frequently in the United States as a

soloist and chamber musician. In spring 1995 she was chosen as one of

twelve semifinalists to participate in the International Beethoven Sonata

Competition. Her lecture recitals and workshops on the music ofwomen 

composers have been presented by The College Music Society and the Music

Teachers National Association. She is active in the Northern Virginia Music

Teachers Association and is a staffmember at George Mason University

in the voice and string studios. She is the organist for Sydenstricker United 

Methodist Church in Springfield; accompanies the Georgetown Chorale;

and serves on the board oftire Little River Symphony. Parker is a performing member of the Friday Morning Music Club ofWashington and a

member ofthe Woodbridge Music Club.

6

The Program

The music of Gabriel Faure is a continuum that spans the romantic, impressionistic, and post-impressionistic periods in nineteenth- and twentiethcentury France. Faure was the pre-eminent composer and professor of

composition of his day, having taught Claude Debussy, Charles Koechlin,

and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) as well as Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), the

renowned professor of composition who taught many ofthe great composers ofthe twentieth century. Faure is considered to be a master of melodie,

the French art song. His use of church modes and what were considered

dissonant harmonies in his time set the stage for the many departures

from convention that later marked impressionistic music.

In Clair de lune, Faure sets Paul Verlaine’s (1844-1896) poem as a

minuet. The use ofthis antique musical form conjures the elegant atmosphere ofthe eighteenth-century aristocracy that Verlaine describes. Faure’s

harmonic language, however, leaves no doubt as to his own late-nineteenthcentury perspective. The use of a major chord precisely when the text speaks

of “singing in the minor key” is indicative of Faure’s humorous refusal to

employ obvious solutions to the age-old challenge oftext-painting in music.

Apres un reve, written much earlier than Clair de lune, shows Faure’s gift

for melody with a line that seems airborne—sometimes floating gently, and

at other times soaring to emotional heights on the drafts ofthe simple chordal

accompaniment. Mandoline, another setting of a Verlaine poem from Faure’s

mature period, describes the light-hearted pursuits ofthe aristocracy. The

mandoline-like arpeggios of the piano part juxtapose playfully with the vocal

line. The poem in En Sourdine explores a more melancholy subject, and, in

the words ofthe French baritone and renowned Faure interpreter Pierre

Bernac, Faure “shrouds this melodie in a mist of arpeggios.”

7
In 1893 Faure wrote the Sicilienne, op. 78, for the English cellist William

Henry Squire (1871-1963). Like hundreds ofsicilianas composed from the 

early baroque through the twentieth century, it is in a minor key and has the 

peculiar lilting and dotted rhythms that define the genre. It also contains

one of Faure s most gentle and beloved melodies. It was Faure’s publisher, 

Auguste Durand (1830-1909), who suggested the title Papillon for the brief

opus 77, written in 1884 for cellist Jules Loeb, who had played the premiere

of Faure’s Elegie in 1883. Loeb wished to have a virtuosic piece as a companion to the Elegie, also written for him. Durand, a composer ofthe romantic

school as well as a publisher, imagined the contrasting sections ofthe piece

as the efforts and reward of a butterfly’s pursuit of nectar.

Ernest Chausson was born into a wealthy family. To please his father,

he studied law and worked briefly in that profession before leaving it at age

twenty-five. His position in society allowed him to meet many ofthe artists

and intellectuals living in Paris in the last quarter ofthe nineteenth century

—among those he received in his salon were composers Debussy, Henri 

Duparc (1848-1933), Faure, the poet Stephane Mallarme (1842-1898), and

Claude Monet (1840-1926). Chausson also assembled a much-admired

collection ofimpressionist art. His compositional output is small but significant, especially considering that less than nineteen years transpired from the

time he began studying composition until his untimely death at age forty-four.

Although Chausson’s music is firmly rooted in the romantic tradition of 

Franck and Massenet, it constitutes an important link between romanticism

and impressionism. Chausson may be said to treat harmony kaleidoscopically,

wandering restlessly from one key to another, and his predilection for 5/4 time 

undermines conventional metric structures. Both traits hint at what was to

come in the next generation of French composers.

Les Papillons is a briefsong from Chausson’s early period, in which 

the piano accompaniment skillfully depicts the fluttering of a butterfly. Le

Colibri, from the same set ofsongs, employs the 5/4 time signature, diffusing the rhythmic periodicity and setting Leconte de Lisle’s (1818-1894)

poem in a dreamlike atmosphere. Chanson perpetuelle, originally for voice,

string quartet, and piano, was written the year before Chausson’s death, and 

is a dramatic work, almost symphonic in scope. The minor key and the use

of tremolo heighten this tragic poem of a lopsided love affair. In the seldom

heard Piece, op. 39, composed the year before the Chanson perpetuelle,

5/4 time, syncopations, and a broad harmonic palette are combined to create

music that alternates between serenity and yearning.

Jules Massenet composed cantatas, operas, oratorios, solo piano pieces,

and suites for orchestra as well as over 200 songs. He owned a home in

the small village of Egreville, near Fontainebleau; one can assume he was

aware ofthe work taking place in Barbizon. In addition, he counted among

his students Chausson, Gustave Charpentier (1860-1956), Reynaldo Hahn

(1875-1947), and Charles Koechlin. The Elegie, op. 10, is one of his most

enduring melodies.

Charles Koechlin was a contemporary of Debussy, and their sonatas

for cello and piano were composed within a year or two of each other.

However, two more different styles could scarcely be found. Where Debussy 

is passionate and temperamental, Koechlin assumes a serene detachment.

Through the use offifths as building blocks, he creates an open, airy score.

Except for a brief passage in the third movement, the sonata is without a

time signature. Koechlin asks the performers to play sans appuyer (without

leaning on any particular beat), so as to completely avoid any semblance

ofrhythmic anchor points.

Claude Debussy is arguably the most significant composer ofthe impressionistic style, although he disliked the label in reference to his own compositions. In a letter from the year 1908 he wrote: “I am trying to do something

different—an effect ofreality... what the imbeciles call ‘impressionism.’”

There is no doubt that Debussy succeeded in creating “something different;”

his use ofwhole-tone and pentatonic scales, chordal parallelism, bitonality,

and unconventional key-changes, altered the musical landscape forever. The

debate still continues as to whether these changes mirrored the events taking

place in contemporary art and literature, or whether later generations have

simply drawn that connection aided by hindsight.

9
According to Bernac, “No musician of any nationality had greater mastery

in creating the mysterious alloy ofmusic and poetry than Debussy.” Where

Faure attempts to capture the mood ofthe poem and convey that mood

through the entire song, Debussy works with each individual phrase and

word; the resulting settings are markedly distinct. The title Fetes galantes was

appropriated by Debussy from a collection ofVerlaine's poems. Debussy’s

setting of En Sourdine begins and ends with a musical depiction ofthe

nightingale from the last line ofthe poem. The words “calm” and “deep

silence” are expressed through the use ofsoft dynamics and the lower range

ofthe voice, giving a hushed effect. The tessitura ofthe voice rises to bring

greater emotion to the words “ecstatic senses.” In Fantoches Debussy employs

scherzo-like motives in the piano to portray the jerky artifice ofthe marionettes, who in turn represent the comical pursuits ofhumanity. Clair de lune

is a great example of Debussy’s style ofsetting text to music. When the words

“singing in the minor mode” are heard, a minor chord is used, in contrast to

Faure’s use of a major chord in the same spot ofthe poem.

In 1915 Debussy returned to composition after a self-imposed hiatus due

to World War 1. His health was already wasted by the cancer that would 

eventually claim his life, and he knew he had little time left to compose,

but he wanted to aid the war effort by doing the only thing at which he was

proficient. He planned a set ofsix sonatas for various instruments, but

completed only three, ofwhich the cello sonata is the first. With the sonatas,

Debussy returned to “pure music,” something that he had avoided for a good 

portion of his career. The first movement is structured in a loose A-B-A form,

and the work is cyclical, with the opening declamatory material reappearing at

the end. The second and third movements are titled Serenade and Finale. The

word serenade harkens back to Pulcinella, Harlequin, and the other characters

ofthe “Comedie italienne.” With a quirky wealth oftimbres and constantly

interrupted discourse, it shares an affinity with Fantoches. Two unusual

indications, ironique (ironically) in the second movement and con morbidezza

(morbidly) in the third, suggest a reach beyond the conventional expressive 

suggestions to be found in a piece ofmusic.

10

Chevaux de bois is the fourth song in Debussy’s Ariettes oubliees. The

Verlaine poem on which it is based describes an old merry-go-round with a

variety of characters. The several iterations of a melodic motifthat turns

about itselfsuggest the constant turning ofthe merry-go-round, while the

ascending fourth followed by a descending fourth suggest the up and down

motion ofthe horses. Other instances oftext painting can be found throughout the song, but perhaps the most significant is the slowing down and

diminuendo at the end ofthe song, when nightfall and the mournful toll of

a church bell bring the merry-go-round, the poem, and the music to a halt.

Program notes by Marcio Botelho

Next Week at the National Gallery of Art

Davidson Fine Arts Chorale

James Dunaway, conductor

Music by Bach, Mozart, Schiitz, Victoria, and other composers

April 20, 2008

Sunday evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court