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

200ob South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

wunv.ngfl.gov

The Sixty-fifth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,602nd Concert

Roger Chase, violist

Michiko Otaki, pianist

Presented in honor of

The Artist's Vision: Romantic Traditions in Britain

February 4, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

York Bowen (1884-1961)

Melodyfor the C String, op. 51, no. 2

Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953)

Concert Piece (1904)

Benjamin Dale (1885-1943)

Phantasy, op. 4 (1911)

INTERMISSION

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) 

Romance

Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975)

Viola Sonata (1933)

Moderato

Andante—Andante poco maestoso

Furiant: Molto allegro

Coda: Andante maestoso

Bowen

Melodyfor the G String, op. 47

The Musicians

ROGER CHASE

Born in London, violist Roger Chase studied at the Royal College of Music

with Bernard Shore, later studied in Canada with Steven Staryk, and worked

for a short time with the legendary Lionel Tertis. Chase made his debut in

1979 with the English Chamber Orchestra, and in 1987 he appeared as a

soloist at a Promenade concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He has

been invited to play as principal violist with every major British orchestra

and with many others in North America and Europe, including the Berlin

Philharmonic Orchestra. Composers, too, have taken an interest in Chase,

writing solo pieces, concertos, and chamber works for him. His recordings

for Cala, crd, emi, Floating Earth, Hyperion, and Virgin records demonstrate his diverse interests: playing an amplified viola with a folk group,

performing as a soloist on a historically authentic instrument, and promoting avant-garde music. A long-standing member ofmany ensembles, Chase 

has played with the Esterhazy Baryton Trio, Hausmusik London, the London

Chamber Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Nash Ensemble of London,

and the Quartet of London.

MICHIKO OTAKI

Pianist Michiko Otaki was born in Japan and studied in the United States,

receiving advanced performance degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Miami.

She is currently a professor and director of keyboard studies at Clayton

State University in Atlanta. A noted chamber musician, she has performed

with such world-class ensembles as the Gideon String Trio, the Kodaly

Quartet, the Martinu String Quartet, and the Swiss Wind Quintet. Her

unique association with the Warsaw Wind Quintet has involved numerous

extensive tours of Europe and the United States, which in 1993 included

a concert at the National Gallery, and two critically acclaimed CD recordings, 

one ofwhich received the Polish Grammy for the best chamber music

recording of 1996.

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The Exhibition

The Artist’s Vision: Romantic Traditions in Britain, on view in the West Building’s prints and drawings galleries through March 18, 2007, is composed of

selections from the Gallery’s permanent collection. The exhibition highlights

many fine British prints and drawings from the late eighteenth through the

early twentieth centuries. Trends in British romantic art ofthe time included a

fascination with the individual and the visionary, a revival ofinterest in medieval art and subject matter, and a revolt against conventional ideas and styles.

In both music and art, romanticism peaked before the middle ofthe

nineteenth century, but many ofits major trends lingered to the end ofthe

century or reappeared in the next. Twentieth-century artists such as F. L.

Griggs (1876 -1938) and the early Graham Sutherland (1903 -1980), both

influenced by William Blake and Samuel Palmer, have their counterparts in

composers Sir Arnold Bax, York Bowen, and Benjamin Dale. All three were

students of Frederick Corder’s (1852-1932) —a lesser figure among romantic composers but a highly influential teacher at the Royal Academy of Music

in London—and owe a deep debt to romantic masters Johannes Brahms

(1833-1897), Edward Elgar (1857-1934), and Richard Wagner (1813-1883).

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Program Notes

The legendary English musician Lionel Tertis (1876-1975) is recognized

as one ofthe greatest violists of all time. Due to his efforts, the viola was 

elevated from its former status as “the Cinderella ofthe string family” to a

respected solo instrument. In the early part ofthe twentieth century, he lobbied a number of English composers to write for the instrument, but many

ofthe resulting compositions are rarely heard today. Violist Roger Chase

and pianist Michiko Otaki have consequently initiated a series ofrecitals,

a “Tertis Project,” to introduce these pieces to contemporary audiences.

Because the composers Tertis encouraged had a special relationship to the

romantic movement, this concert has been chosen to complement the exhibition The Artist’s Vision: Romantic Traditions in Britain.

In his autobiography, My Viola and I, Tertis wrote, “It was pure generosity

in those days—at the beginning ofthe [twentieth] century—to write for the

solo viola. Publishers would not consider anything ofthe sort; to them it was

a distinctly bad commercial proposition. However, my composer friends continued to write a number ofworks for me. The style oftheir music belongs to 

the period, but it was beautiful, and was a powerful influence in the advancement ofthe viola. Benjamin Dale and York Bowen were the first to make contributions to the new solo literature, followed soon after by Arnold Bax.” After 

Bowen’s death, Tertis wrote in an article in the Royal Academy ofMusic Magazine: “[Bowen] and the late Benjamin Dale were the closest friends. They were 

both crazy about Wagner and went to every Covent Garden performance. I

shall always feel indebted to both ofthem for their generosity in writing compositions for the viola.” Bowen’s and Dale’s unique musical languages shared

some common traits, such as extremely colorful and complex chromaticism,

highly unusual (but perfectly logical) modulations, and uncommonly long

but singable melodic lines.

York Bowen studied piano with the world-renowned pedagogue Tobias

Matthay (1858-1945) and composition with Frederick Corder at the Royal

Academy. Bowen won no fewer than seven prizes as a pianist and composer

while at the academy and was appointed professor there in 1909. He was a

5
frequent recital partner ofTertis's and considered the viola to be far superior 

in tone to the violin. Among the many works Bowen wrote for Tertis are a

viola concerto and two viola sonatas. Both Bowen’s Melodyfor the G String,

op. 47, and his Melodyfor the C String, op. 51, no. 2, are dedicated to Tertis,

who wrote, “Bowen was always full of exuberance, and this characteristic

permeated his works.”

Sir Arnold Bax also studied piano with Matthay and composition

with Corder at the Royal Academy. Tertis described Bax as very shy and

reticent—a person who had no intention of or interest in becoming a

concert pianist—although many stories are told of his extraordinary talent. 

Though not of Irish descent, Bax was fascinated by Ireland and its folklore,

and his compositions often reflect this fondness. He first visited Ireland in

1902, lived there for a few years after his first marriage, learned Gaelic, and 

returned frequently throughout the rest of his life. The Concert Piece was

written in 1904, shortly after Bax’s first visit to Ireland, and shows just how

powerful an impression that country had made on him.

Benjamin Dale came from a musical family, and his father, C. J. Dale,

was the principal ofthe North Metropolitan College of Music, the first

school Bowen attended. Like Bowen and Bax, Dale studied composition 

with Corder at the Royal Academy and won many prizes for his works. His

Phantasy, op. 4, was commissioned by W.W. Cobbett in 1911. The extended 

one-movement composition opens with a slow introduction that reappears

as a coda following the main body ofthe piece, which has a fast-slow-fast

format. Tertis and many others who heard the unusually dramatic and

expressive work—full of exquisite melodies and rich harmonic colors —

regretted that Dale was not a more prolific composer.

Ralph Vaughan Williams was another admirer ofTertis’s artistry and

had him in mind when he wrote his Suitefor Viola and Flos campi for solo

viola, orchestra, and chorus. The Romance for viola and piano was discovered

after Vaughan Williams' death and was edited by Tertis’s favorite student,

Bernard Shore, who played its premiere on January 19,1962, with pianist

Eric Gritton.

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Sir Arthur Bliss studied composition and conducting at Pembroke 

College in Cambridge and at the Royal College of Music. His composition

teachers included Gustav Holst (1847-1934), Sir Charles Villiers Stanford 

(1852-1924), and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Bliss served as director ofmusic

at the bbc from 1942 to 1944, was knighted in 1950, and succeeded Bax as

Master ofthe Queen’s Musick in 1953. Bliss’s Viola Sonata was written in

1933 f°r Tertis, who played the premiere at the composer’s home in Hampstead Heath. The sonata consists offour movements and expresses a wide

range oftemperaments, from elegiac to passionate and nearly violent. The 

fervent Furiant is followed by monologues for the viola and the piano that

lead into a repeat ofthe opening theme ofthe first movement. The cyclical

composition is completed with a return to the same material that concluded 

the first movement, presented fortissimo this time, rather than pianissimo.

Program notes based on material provided by Michiko Otaki

Next Week at the National Gallery of Art

Till Fellner, pianist

Music by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert

February n, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court