immediate impact but does not completely conceal its sensitive and

whimsical aspects.

In the fourth movement (Allegro energico e passionato), Brahms made

a daring substitute for the usually anticipated sonata-allegro or rondo

form: the ancient baroque chaconne. A set of variations over a theme, the

chaconne ascended to exalted heights in the compositions of Johann

Sebastian Bach. Examples include his Cantata No. 150, the Chaconne in

D Minor for Solo Violin, and the reprise of the Aria in the Goldberg

Variations. The Ciacona (Chaconne) movement in Bach’s Cantata No.

150 was purportedly a topic of discussion between Brahms and von

Biilow, in which Brahms proposed using a chromatically altered version

of the theme in a movement of his symphony. His set of variations for

this movement is in triple meter on an eight-measure theme that is boldly 

presented by the wind instruments in the opening three measures. Thirty

variations follow, each likewise eight measures long. The momentum of

the movement becomes inexorable, with mood changes that simulate

multifaceted gemstones. A solemn passage for the trombones is the

climax to this movement. After a brief pause the principal theme returns,

and the movement is brought to a close with a brilliant coda, marked Piu

allegro.

Program notes by Elmer Booze

The use ofcameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed. Please be sure that all

electronic devices are turned off.

For the convenience ofconcertgoers

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

The Sixtieth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2423d Concert

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

GEORGE MANOS, conductor

Sunday Evening, 2 June 2002

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
PROGRAM

Ludwig van Beethoven

(1770-1827)

Johann Sebastian Bach

(1685-1750)

Overture to “Coriolan”

Op. 62 (1807)

Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor

BWV 582

Transcribed for orchestra by Leopold Stokowski

INTERMISSION

Johannes Brahms

(1833-1897)

Symphony No.4 in E Minor 

Op. 98 (1884-1885)

Allegro non troppo

Andante moderato

Allegro giocoso

Allegro energico e passionato

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 ofthe American

Music Festival and of the National Gallery vocal and chamber 

ensembles, which he founded. Manos’ career as a performing pianist and

teacher has included several years on the faculty of The Catholic

University of America in Washington, DC, where he taught piano,

conducting, and chamber music. In addition, he held the directorship of

the Wilmington, Delaware, School of Music, presenting an annual jazz

festival and clinic. Maestro Manos founded and directed for ten years the

renowned Kilamey Bach Festival in the Republic of Ireland and was the

music director of the 1992 Scandinavian Music Festival in Kolding,

Denmark.

Beethoven’s Overture to “Coriolan, ” Op. 62, received its inspiration

from the tragedy Coriolan by Heinrich Joseph von Collin (1772-1811), a

Viennese courtier, poet, and dramatist. The drama centers on the

expatriate Roman patrician Coriolanus, who aided the enemies of Rome

against his own people and paid for his treachery with his life.

Beethoven, who had a friendly relationship with von Collin, agreed to

compose an overture for the play. By the time Beethoven had completed

his score, however, von Collin’s play had already been introduced in

Vienna (on 24 November 1802) with incidental music taken from

Mozart’s Idomeneo. Although the overture was inspired by and written

for von Collin’s play, its performance in a theater was never documented,

thus leaving Beethoven’s first musical piece for the stage unexecuted in

its original intent. Convinced of the work’s appeal, however, he decided

to present it to the public as a concert overture. Beethoven eventually

conducted the premiere performance in March 1807 at a subscription

concert at the palace of Prince Lobkowitz. At that time the work was still

unpublished, and he and the musicians worked from manuscript.

Considering the widespread popularity the overture has enjoyed ever

since, the composer’s faith in it was indeed justified.

Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582, is renowned in

its original organ version. Having played the work for many years as an

organist, the charismatic English-born American conductor Leopold

Stokowski (1882-1977) was well-suited to transcribing the Passacaglia

and Fugue for orchestra. His knowledge of its tonal possiblities and

polyphonic intricacies enabled him to “translate the advanced idiom of

Bach into modem musical language” (James Lyons). The first half ofthe

eight-bar basso ostinato of the Passacaglia and Fugue are also found in

an earlier work, the Trio en passacaille from a mass by the French

organist and composer Andre Raison (1650-1719). Bach expanded this

theme and added twenty variations that exploit the entire musical range

of the organ, culminating in a brilliant ending for the passacaglia. The

subject of the ensuing double fugue is the theme of the passacaglia. An

accompanying eighth-note rhythmic pattern serves as a countersubject.
Stokowski’s orchestral version of the Passacaglia and Fugue has

suffered periods of neglect, as the popularity of orchestral transcriptions 

of keyboard music has waxed and waned. But, again quoting music critic

and writer James Lyons, “It should be emphasized that Mr. Stokowski

has nowhere tampered with the spirit of the master. Where Bach was

chaste, so is the transcription; where he was vivid, so is the transcription. 

But in each instance the original quality has been enhanced in the

Stokowski arrangement. The triumphant fact is that the orchestra can say

what Bach has to imply. All of the tonal glories denied him are here

resplendent.”

Brahms was fifty-two years of age when he completed his fourth and

last symphony. He had begun it almost immediately upon completion of

his Third Symphony in 1883, and finished it during a stay at

Murzzuschlag, in the Styrian Alps of Austria. When he and the Austrian 

pianist and composer Ignaz Brull (1846-1907) played the two-piano 

version to introduce the work, it was not enthusiastically received. The

outspoken German music critic Eduard Hanslick (1825—1904), who was

present at the performance, remarked: “Really, you know, it sounds like

two tremendously witty people quarrelling.” Having received such

negative feedback, Brahms was initially apprehensive about the success

of his symphony, but he remained optimistic about the eventual success

ofthe orchestral version, which had not yet been heard.

An opportunity to present this version came when German pianist and

conductor Hans von Bulow (1830-1894) invited Brahms to rehearse the

work with his orchestra in Meiningen. On 25 October 1885 Brahms

conducted the world premiere of the Fourth Symphony. The outcome

was judged “interesting at best” by the Meiningen audience and critics. A

month later, however, von Bulow took his orchestra on tour to several

German cities and to Holland, performing the work to great acclaim.

When Brahms attended a performance of the symphony in Vienna in

March 1897, he was boisterously applauded at his seat in the balcony.

Prophetically, this was the last of his compositions he was to hear

performed. He died a month later.

The opening movement (Allegro non troppo) begins with a theme that is

uncomplicated, reflective, and sonorous, followed by the stronger theme

that formulates the emotional turning points and conquests of the

movement. A fanfare by the wind instruments introduces a fervent

second theme for the cellos. The development section exudes an

exquisite interplay of mental acumen and fervor. Here the range of

Brahms’ musical exploration covers the gamut of human emotions, from

a quiet expression of poignancy in an easily harmonized melody to

barbarity in the penetrating perplexities of counterpoint. The musical

drama is high, and the recapitulation and coda close the movement in a

climax of the first magnitude. Sir Donald Tovey (1875-1940) called it

the equal ofthe best of Beethoven.

The second movement (Andante moderato) introduces the key of E

major and opens with horn calls using the Phrygian mode (the mode that

corresponds to a scale played from E to E on the white keys of the

piano). The implication is that a ceremonial event is forthcoming. What

follows, however, is a narrative episode that is warm-hearted and lyrical,

performed by the clarinets with pizzicato strings. The sonata-allegro

form used for this movement has an aberrant feature: its development 

section is not formalized. Instead, the themes are lavishly diversified,

giving the music a beguiling air of mystery in the manner ofinstrumental

and harmonic tone paintings. The cellos are highlighted during the

playing of the charismatic second subject over the accompaniment of

strings. The attractive clarinet writing “may reasonably [be attributed to]

the influence of Richard Muhlfeld, the Meiningen clarinetist, whose

playing inspired Brahms to [compose such] lovely [clarinet] music in his

later years” (Peter Latham).

The third movement {Allegro giocoso), in spite of its duple meter and

sonata-allegro form, is a quasi-scherzo, the first and only one to find its

way into a Brahms symphony. Both Brahms and Tchaikovsky eschewed

the scherzo form that is the hallmark of the classical symphony without

indicating their reasons for doing so. The movement is nevertheless 

intrepid, vigorous, and dramatic. A shade of melancholy is audible

within its meteoric drive, with the result that the music makes an