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 East 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

2,645th Concert

Paul Badura-Skoda, pianist

November n, 2007 

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm 

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor, bwv 903 (1730)

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Variations in F Minor, Hob. xvn:6 (1793)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Sonata no. 21 in C Major, op. 53 (“Waldstein”) (1804)

Allegro con brio 

Introduzione: Adagio molto 

Rondo: Allegretto moderato

INTERMISSION

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Moments musicaux, op. 94, D. 780 (1828)

1: Moderato

11: Andante

hi: Allegro moderato

Schubert

Sonata in A Major, D. 959

Allegro

Andantino

Scherzo: Allegro vivace

Rondo: Allegretto
The Musician

Austrian pianist Paul Badura-Skoda is one ofthe most important musicians

of our time. A legendary artist, he has played in all the world’s greatest

concert halls and for years was the pianist with the largest number of

commercial recordings available on the market. His style is characterized

by a complete immersion in music, a passionate search for its essence,

and a sense of artistic responsibility.

In 1945 Badura-Skoda entered the Vienna Conservatory. Two years later,

he won first prize in the Austrian Music Competition and a scholarship that

allowed him to study with Edwin Fischer. In 1949 Wilhelm Furtwangler and

Herbert von Karajan became aware ofBadura-Skoda’s outstanding talent

and invited him to perform. Practically overnight the young Viennese pianist

became a world-famous artist. Since then Badura-Skoda has been a regular

and celebrated guest at the most important music festivals and a soloist with

the world’s premier orchestras. In addition to Furtwangler and von Karajan, he

has collaborated with renowned conductors Karl Bohm, Lorin Maazel, Zubin

Mehta, Sir Georg Solti, and George Szell, among others.

Badura-Skoda continues to tour internationally with performances in

China, France, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and the United States, where he

celebrates his eightieth birthday with this concert and concerts at the Gateways Festival in Rochester, New York, and the Piano Texas International

Academy and Festival in Fort Worth. He appears at the National Gallery by

arrangement with Hunstein Artist Services of New York City.

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Program Notes

The exact dates of composition ofJohann Sebastian Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy

and Fugue are not known, although there is evidence that Bach began to

compose it in 1720 and continued to perform and refine it over a period of

ten years, finishing it in Leipzig in 1730. Considered one of his greatest

single works for keyboard, it is written in three parts. The first section acts

as a prelude and is similar in style to his toccatas, with grand flourishes and

improvisatory abandon. The middle part resembles a recitative and is musically 

challenging, requiring a mature and sensitive interpretation. The third part, 

or fugue, begins with a strict chromatic exposition. This intensifies to a more

expansive and free development, and incorporates passage work and a thicker,

chordal texture with the final statement ofthe theme.

Joseph Haydn was rare among eighteenth-century composers in that

he enjoyed a great deal ofsuccess, both financial and otherwise, during his

lifetime. Though he was not a pianist himself, he wrote more than fifty

sonatas and several short pieces for the instrument, primarily during the

first part of his career—only three were written during the last twenty years

of his life. The Variations in F Minor were written for pianist Barbara von

Ployer, who was a gifted student of Mozart’s. There is quite a bit ofspeculation and evidence to show that Haydn secretly dedicated them to a dear

friend and perhaps his last great love, Marianne von Genzinger. Genzinger

died in 1793, the same year the variations were written, and given the depth

and tone ofthe music, it is likely that she was his inspiration. Written as

a set of double variations, the work presents two themes: a mournful first

theme and its variations in F minor are interspersed with variations on a

more restful and consoling theme in F major.

Written in 1804, Beethoven’s twenty-first piano sonata is nicknamed

the “Waldstein” because it was dedicated to the composer’s good friend

and benefactor, Count Ferdinand von Waldstein. This sonata comes from

Beethoven’s middle period during which time he began to stray from classic 

sonata form and take advantage ofthe mechanical improvements in the

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piano. Extremely challenging from a technical standpoint, the “Waldstein”

is a precursor to the sonatas ofthe late period, and was clearly not intended

to be played by the amateur “salon” pianist. In addition, Beethoven wrote

this work when he was unusually happy and untroubled, and this sense of

optimism is reflected in the music’s color and style. It has just two movements, although the second movement does have a briefintroduction.

Originally Beethoven wrote a slow middle movement for the piece, but it

became too long, so he published it separately. The first movement, Allegro

con brio, is written in sonata form, with an extended coda acting as a second 

development before the conclusion. The Adagio molto introduces the final

Rondo: Allegretto moderato, a tour de force filled with challenging passage 

work and extended trills.

Franz Schubert was a master composer ofshort pieces that convey a

distinct mood. He wrote more than five hundred lieder that convey the tone,

action, or setting of a poem, ranging in theme from a spring day next to a

babbling brook to a terrified child riding a horse. Since Schubert began all

his works at the keyboard, it is no surprise that he created—perhaps even

invented—the “character” piece for piano. His six Moments musicaux,

written over the course ofseveral years and published the year he died, are

miniature gems of melody and expression. Schubert’s final three piano 

sonatas, all composed in 1828 and published posthumously, represent the 

composer in his prime. These expansive and profound works were all

written after the death of Beethoven, and all pay homage in one way or

another to the great master. The four-movement A-Major Sonata, D. 959,

opens with broad and majestic chords, which give way to a warm and lyrical

second theme in the Allegro. In the second movement, marked Andantino,

Schubert presents two opposing themes, opening with a dreamy lullaby

that unfolds into a dark and stormy middle section. The playful Scherzo lifts

the listener out ofthe mood ofthe previous movement, and in the final

Allegretto, the composer borrows a theme from his own A-Minor Sonata,

D. 537, as well as the Beethovenian texture and sonata-rondo form.

Program notes by Danielle DeSwert

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Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Contemporary Music Forum presents

a world premiere performance

Sanctuary

by Roger Reynolds

featuring Steven Schick and the red fish blue fish ensemble

November 18, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium and atrium