Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

wuw.nga.gov

The Sixty-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of

the East Building and the

2,500th Concert at the National Gallery of Art

National Gallery Orchestra

Jorge Mester, guest conductor

13 June 2004

Sunday Evening, 7:00 pm

East Building Mezzanine

Admission free
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.

For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30 pm.

cover: Paul Stevenson Oles, 1971, National Gallery of Art Archives

2,500th Concert

13 June 2004, 7:00 pm

National Gallery Orchestra

Jorge Mester, guest conductor

Presented in honor ofthe exhibitions Courtly Art ofthe Ancient Maya

and The Cubist Paintings of Diego Rivera: Memory, Politics, Place

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Pulcinella Suite (1922, rev. 1949)

Sinfonia (Overture)

Serenata

Scherzino—Allegro—

Andantino

Tarantella

Toccata

Gavotta con due variazoni

Vivo

Minuetto— Finale

Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940)

Homenaje a Federico Garda Lorca

(Homage to Federico Garda Lorca)

(1935)

Bade (Dance)

Duelo (Sorrow)

Son (Sound)

Intermission

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Pavane pour une infante defunte

(Pavane for a Dead Princess) (1899)

Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)

Variaciones concertantes (1953)

Tema per violoncello ed arpa

Interludio per corde

Variazione giocosa per flauto 

Variazione in modo di scherzo

per clarinetto

Variazione drammatica

per viola

Variazione canonica

per oboe e fagotto 

Variazione ritmica per trombe

e trombone

Variazione in modo di moto

perpetuo per violino 

Variazione pastorale per corno

Interludio per fiati

Ripresa dal tema per

contrabasso

Variazione finale in modo

di rondo per orchestra
The East Building

Designed for the Gallery’s modern and contemporary art collection and the 

Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, the East Building is known 

for its triangular shapes and dramatic skylit atrium, a sculptural space framing a i6,ooo-square-foot open interior court. Linked to John Russell Pope’s

1941 neoclassical West Building in part by use of the same Tennessee 

marble, the modernist East Building has been recognized not only for its

groundbreaking design, but also for its technical innovations and its exquisite craftsmanship, which has garnered twenty-three craft awards.

With remarkable foresight, National Gallery of Art founder Andrew W.

Mellon requested that Congress set aside a plot ofland adjacent to the 

original 1941 West Building for the museum’s eventual expansion. In 1967

Mellon’s children, Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce, along with the 

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, offered to fund this extension, in keeping

with their father’s vision. Under the leadership of Paul Mellon and former

Gallery directors John Walker and J. Carter Brown, building plans moved

forward, and in July 1968 architect I.M. Pei was selected. He devised a

radical design solution for the trapezoidal site by drawing a diagonal line 

through it, thus creating two triangles—one to house the museum’s

exhibition spaces, the other for the Gallery’s study center, library, and office

spaces. Construction began in 1971. On 1 June 1978, President Jimmy

Carter and Paul Mellon dedicated the new building to the people ofthe

United States.

Pei’s innovative use of geometric shapes as a space for the display of art 

attracted wide public attention and critical acclaim, with attendance at the 

East Building reaching the one-million mark less than two months after the 

building opened. Deemed “the elder statesman ofAmerican architecture”

by New York Times critic Herbert Muschamp, Pei, now age eighty-six, is the

recipient ofthe Smithsonian Institution’s 2003 National Design Award for

lifetime achievement. The East Building itselfwas awarded the American

Institute of Architects’ 25-year Award in 2004.

The East Building has been the setting for some ofthe Gallery’s most

innovative musical programs, including concerts by George Shearing and

the bbc Big Band, the Ramsey Lewis Trio, and Simon Estes, and special presentations by Gagaku, Ray Charles, Denyce Graves, the American Boy

Choir, and the National Gallery Orchestra.

CONCERTS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY

This occasion marks the 2,500th time that a free Sunday concert has been

offered at the National Gallery. Now in its 62nd season, the concert series at

the Gallery has been the setting for performances by many musicians who

have had outstanding careers, including such luminaries as Claudio Arrau

(1944), Eugene Istomin (1949), Earl Wild (1943-1945 and 2001), Virgil Fox

(1943-1945), Bernard Greenhouse (1943-1945), Menahem Pressler (1954,

1991, and 2000), and Philippe Entremont (1953 and 2004).

Concerts at the National Gallery began during World War 11, when the

first director ofthe Gallery, David E. Finley, kept the building open on 

Sunday nights to accommodate the many armed forces personnel who were

in Washington at the time. The idea of augmenting the museum’s service

to the public with music was inspired by the decision ofthe great English

pianist Myra Hess to remain in London during the blitz and to entertain

the troops and the public with recitals in London’s National Gallery. Further

encouragement for giving concerts in Washington was provided by Frances

Nash Watson, a prominent Washingtonian and concert pianist; Mary Howe,

a Washington composer; and Mrs. Dorothy Godfrey, a supporter and friend 

of Findley. The first concert, a performance by the United States Navy

School of Music Chorus, took place on 7 December 1942.

The Gallery’s first assistant to the director for music, Richard Bales,

conducted his first concert at the Gallery in July 1943. In the course of

his tenure, which lasted forty-two years, he organized more than 1,700

performances, some ofwhich featured his own compositions. With the 

National Gallery Orchestra and the choir of Resurrection Lutheran Church

in Washington, D.C., he recorded three of his cantatas: The Union, The

3
Confederacy, and The Republic. During the 1943-1944 concert season, Bales

instituted the Gallery’s American Music Festival, a series of concerts devoted

exclusively to music by American composers. This custom continues on an 

annual basis, and the festival is the longest-running of its kind in existence.

Under Bales’ supervision, live broadcast ofthe concerts was initiated in 1950

and continued until 1992. Broadcasts ofmusic from National Gallery concerts can currently be heard on National Public Radio and xm Satellite Radio,

Inc. Since the mid-1960s, the concerts at the Gallery have been supported by

funds bequeathed by William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin. Other

significant funding has been provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,

the Gulbenkian Foundation, and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

From 1985 to 2003, concerts at the National Gallery were under the 

direction of George Manos. A concert pianist as well as a conductor, Manos

appeared as concerto soloist with the Gallery orchestra and accompanied

some ofthe guest artists in recital. He instituted jazz concerts in the context

ofthe American Music Festival and hosted such jazz greats as George

Shearing, Dizzie Gillespie, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Billy Taylor, and 

Maynard Ferguson.

Since November 2003 the concerts have been directed by Stephen 

Ackert, who was named head ofthe music department after sixteen years as

the Gallery’s music program specialist. His lectures and Gallery talks on the 

crosscurrents between art and music in various periods and cultures are a

regular feature ofthe Gallery’s educational offerings. Ackert looks forward

to developing projects that increase and enhance opportunities for Gallery

visitors to experience great art and great music concurrently.

4

THE NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

The National Gallery Orchestra initially consisted of approximately 

twenty-five players who were also members ofthe National Symphony,

and it was listed in programs simply as “Orchestral Ensemble.” Gradually growing, it took on the name “National Gallery Sinfonietta,” and

it eventually reached the size and status of a symphony orchestra. The 

ensemble undertakes the full range of chamber and symphonic repertoire and has frequently presented first performances ofworks by

American composers, most notably the 1953 premiere of Charles Ives’

First Symphony under the direction of Richard Bales.

JORGE MESTER, GUEST CONDUCTOR

Conductor and violist Jorge Mester has been praised by fellow musicians and audiences alike as one ofthis generation’s most dynamic

conductors. He has served as music director ofthe Pasadena Symphony

since 1984 and is conductor laureate ofthe prestigious Aspen Music

Festival, which he led as music director for twenty-one years. Beginning 

with the 2004 season, he will also assume the post ofmusic director 

ofthe Naples Philharmonic Orchestra in Florida, in addition to his 

work with the Pasadena Symphony. The Los Angeles Times declared:

“Mester is a master...a virtuosic conductor,” and a conductor of

“passionate vision.” Mester's career in Mexico, the land of his birth, 

included the musical directorship ofthe Orquesta Filarmonica de la

Ciudad de Mexico.

Mester’s passion for conducting extends from the stage to the

classroom. He served as director ofthe Juilliard School’s conducting

department during the early 1980s and is currently a guest conductor

at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.

In a testimonial to his own teachers, Mester says: “I love teaching. I

hope to pay back the help Leonard Bernstein, Gregor Piatigorski,

William Schuman, and Jean Morel gave me early in my career. I want

5
to help others the way I was helped.” Mester has taught several generations

of conductors, including James Conlon, Dennis Russell Davies, Andreas

Delfs, JoAnn Falletta, and John Nelson, and was a mentor early in their

careers for Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Midori, Renee Fleming, Cho-Liang 

Lin, and Robert McDuffie.

An ardent champion of contemporary music over many years, Mester

has given more than seventy world premiere performances ofworks by

such composers as Philip Glass, Peter Schickele, Michael Daughtery, Carl

Ruggles, Joan Tower, and George Tsontakis. During his twelve-year tenure

as music director ofthe Louisville Orchestra, from 1967 to 1979, Mester

made seventy-two world premiere recordings with the orchestra, a prolific

achievement for both conductor and orchestra. Among the composers

whose works he recorded are Dmitri Shostakovich, Krzysztof Penderecki,

Carlos Chavez, Leonardo Balada, and Peter Schulthorpe.

Of Hungarian descent, Jorge Mester was born and raised in Mexico City

and currently resides in Southern California. An accomplished violist, he

performed with the Beaux Arts Quartet for several years before focusing

exclusively on conducting. He appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Diane Saldick, llc, of New York City.

6

Program Notes

Diego Rivera (1886-1957) was arguably the most important Mexican 

painter ofthe twentieth century and certainly one ofthe most dynamic figures in Mexico’s recent history. The exhibition The Cubist Paintings of Diego

Rivera: Memory, Politics, Place, which remains on view at the National

Gallery until 25 July 2004, emphasizes Rivera’s distinctive approach to synthetic cubism and includes works he created between 1913 and 1915, when

he was in France and Spain. These extraordinary compositions of vivid

colors and tactile surfaces demonstrate the artist’s engagement with themes

ofidentity and place during a time of profound social and political upheaval

in both Europe and Mexico. The exhibition explores the evocative links

developed between objects, people, and places, often including specifically 

Mexican motifs or references to the cities Rivera inhabited at the time

(Paris, Madrid, and Mallorca). Together, these paintings not only represent

the artist’s finest cubist work, but they also offer important meditations

on self-identity and nationalism.

Like the Rivera cubist paintings, Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas’

Homenaje a Federico Garda Lorca (Homage to Federico Garda Lorca) was also 

created when he was living in Madrid at a time of great political upheaval.

In Revueltas’ case the tumult was caused by the Spanish Civil War. In 1936,

when news came ofthe unjust and untimely death of Federico Garda Lorca

(he had been executed without trial by Falangists in a village near Granada),

Revueltas wrote a musical homage to the poet, entitled at that time Lament

for Federico Garda Lorca, and conducted the premiere performance ofthe

work while Madrid was under siege. The score calls for an unusual combination ofinstruments: piccolo, E-flat clarinet, two trumpets, trombone,

tuba, percussion, piano, and strings (without violas or cellos). The work

begins with the trumpet executing a noble funeral fanfare. The Bade

(Dance) follows, a melody given to the brasses that gambols over a string

bass. The use ofthe piccolo against the tuba in the dance is startling. The

7
trumpet, in mourning, returns. Its long, thin shadow ofmusic fades into 

the Duelo (Lament), which is part wail, part cradle song. In the Son (Sound),

a universe of emotions is revealed. Sonority is piled upon sonority, with 

the instruments splitting the sound into multiple syncopations.

By his own admission, Igor Stravinsky became thoroughly acquainted 

with the works of Italian baroque composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

(1710-1736) only after being urged to do so by his compatriot, the celebrated

Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929). After reading through

several Pergolesi scores, both instrumental and vocal, Stravinsky became 

enamored with the quality ofthe music and agreed to Diaghilev’s request

that he write a musical score for this ballet, Pulcinella. Selecting some twenty

works of Pergolesi for his inspiration, Stravinsky included excerpts from the 

former composer’s harpsichord sonatas, trio sonatas, and arias from both his

serious and his comic operas. The original ballet score contains eighteen 

scenes, from which Stravinsky arranged eleven for a suite for chamber

orchestra. In the suite format, Pulcinella had its premiere on 22 December 

1922 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted on that occasion by

the French-American conductor Pierre Monteux (1875-1964).

Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante defunte (Pavanefor a Dead Princess)

was originally written for solo piano. One of his early compositions, the

Pavane illuminates Ravel’s gift for melodic simplicity and offers no serious 

difficulty for the pianist. A delicately evocative elegy, the Pavane gave Ravel

his first taste of notoriety. The work became a favorite of many pianists,

some ofwhom took great liberties in interpreting it. Ravel’s admonishment

to one youthful interpreter—to keep in mind that it was conceived as a

“Pavane for a Dead Princess,” not a “Dead Pavane for a Princess”—became 

a favorite Ravel quote. His orchestration ofthe piano version was completed 

in 1910 and enjoyed great popularity. When the prominent Hungarian-born

American conductor and composer Antal Dorati (1906-1988) recorded the

orchestral version, the liner notes stated: “In both its orchestral and piano 

versions, this little piece has survived untold abuse in performance, as well

8

as at the hands ofthe popular song writers; but when interpreted with 

taste...it never fails ofits singularly poignant effect.”

By the time the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera wrote his 

Variaciones concertantes for chamber orchestra in 1953, he was already established as a brilliant and powerful creative spirit in Latin-American concert 

music. The work was commissioned by the society known as the Friends

of Music of Buenos Aires and was given its world premiere performance in 

Buenos Aires on 2 June 1953 by the eminent Russian-born composer and

conductor Igor Markevitch (1912-1983). Ginastera’s description of his composition was included in the program for that performance: “These variations have as a subject an Argentine character. Instead of using folkloristic

material, [I achieved] an Argentine atmosphere through the employment of

[my] own thematic and rhythmic elements. The work begins with an original theme followed by eleven variations, each one reflecting the character 

ofthe instrument featured. All the instruments ofthe orchestra are treated

soloistically. Some variations belong to the decorative, ornamental or elaborative type; others are written in the contemporary manner of metamorphosis, which consists oftaking elements ofthe main theme and evolving from

it new material.” Translated into English, Ginastera’s titles for the variations 

are: Themefor Cello and Harp, Interludefor Strings, Humorous Variationfor

Flute, Scherzo Variationfor Clarinet, Dramatic Variationfor Viola, Canonic

Variationfor Oboe and Bassoon, Rhythmic Variationfor Trumpet and

Trombone, Perpetual Motionfor Violin, Pastoral Variation for French Horn,

Interlude for Winds, Recapitulation ofthe Themefor Double Bass and Harp,

and Final Variation in Rondo Formfor Full Orchestra.

Program notes by Elmer Booze