The Sixty-third Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,520th Concert

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

Giilsin Olnay, pianist

Presented in honor ofthe exhibition

Palace and Mosque:

Islamic Artfrom the Victoria and Albert Museum

23 January 2005

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

www.nga.gov

Admissionfee
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 after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Program

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Variations on Je vends des scapulaires from Herold’s Ludovic op. 12 (1833)

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Variations serieuses in D Minor, op. 54 (1841)

Muhiddin Durriioglu-Demiriz (b. 1968)

Le toumeur (1994)

Ahmet Adnan Saygun (1907-1991)

Preludes in Aksak Rhythm, op. 45, nos. 4 and 12

Giuseppe Donizetti (1788-1856)

Grande marche du Sultan Abdul Medjid-Khan

Transcribed for piano solo and paraphrased by Franz Liszt

INTERMISSION

Saygun 

Sonatine op. 15

Allegro

Adagio con moto

Horon: Prestissimo

Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

In Smyrna

Chopin

Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante op. 22 (1834)
Program Notes

The opera Ludovic by Ferdinand Herold was left unfinished at the time

of his death in 1833 and was completed by his fellow Parisian composer

Fromental Halevy (1799-1862). After hearing the first performance

ofthe opera in May 1833, Chopin composed a set of variations on the first

act aria, Je vends des scapulaires. This was his last essay in variation form. 

Compared with his other works ofthe same period, the variations are

emotionally lightweight, written very much with the Paris salon in mind.

They are infrequently heard in concert, despite their charm and fluency.

Mendelssohn’s Variations serieuses is one ofthe masterpieces ofthe

romantic piano repertoire, a truly great contribution to the variation form. 

Although the work dates from the time when salon variations were very

much in fashion, its serious nature is apparent from the outset ofthe

theme, which is remarkable for its chromaticism, pathetic character, and

four-part harmony in the manner of a chorale. Seventeen strict variations 

and a coda preserve the essential pathos and emotional intensity ofthe

theme, even when the fourteenth variation, marked Adagio religioso, moves

to the relative major key.

In his composition Le toumeur, Turkish-Belgian composer Muhiddin

Diirruoglu-Demiriz explores the mystique ofthe whirling dervishes of

Turkey. In his search for divine enlightenment, the dervish performs a ritual dance, turning around a holy light. For the composer, this calls to mind

the flight of a moth as it whirls around the first source oflight it finds in

the dark of night. The eight notes ofthe traditional mode saba are held

down silently in the middle ofthe piano keyboard. Their resonance forms

a drone, representing the holy light, while rapid keyboard motives flitter 

around it. At first the movement is quiet and hesitant, but it increases in

urgency and intensity, symbolizing the struggle ofthe dervish to unify with

the light. As is the case with a moth and a flame, the ultimate price to be
paid for such a struggle is self-immolation, expressed in the music as the 

saba takes over the texture during the final pianissimo passage. Le toumeur

was commissioned in 1994 by the director ofthe Royal Conservatory of

Music in Brussels, Jean Baily, and was used as a test piece for the first prize 

examinations at the conservatory.

Ahmet Adnan Saygun is Turkey’s most celebrated composer to date.

Early in his career he went to Paris to study composition under Eugene

Borrel (1876-1962) and Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931). Under their guidance,

his style took on elements of both postromanticism and impressionism.

While in Europe, Saygun came into contact with Bela Bartok (1881-1945)

and joined him on some of his ethnomusicological research trips through

the Balkans, the Near East, and North Africa. This experience had a profound effect on Saygun. Although he did not directly transcribe folk tunes,

as Bartok did, Saygun used the melodic and rhythmic modes he heard as

elements in his subsequent compositions. One such element is aksak,

which means “limping rhythm” in Turkish. Aksak is characterized by rhythmic groupings of an uneven number of beats divided into smaller groupings 

oftwo or three beats. Saygun’s lyrical Prelude, op. 45, no. 4, has five beats

per measure, subdivided either 2+3 or 3+2. The furious and virtuosic Prelude,

op. 45, no. 12, has seven beats per measure, subdivided 4+3 or 2+3+2.

The nineteenth-century Italian bandmaster Giuseppe Donizetti was a

brother ofthe famous opera composer, Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848).

In 1828 Giuseppe moved from Italy to Istanbul, where he founded a court 

orchestra and was given the title of pasha. The Grande marche du Sultan

Abdul Medjid-Khan was composed for the Sultan’s coronation in 1839. Eight

years later, when Franz Liszt was on a concert tour of Turkey, he chose

this march as the raw material for a brilliant paraphrase for piano solo.

Among the many hearers who were impressed by this virtuosic piece was

Sultan Abdul Medjid-Khan, who promptly bestowed a decoration on the 

already famous pianist.

Palace and Mosque: Islamic Artfrom the Victoria and Albert Museum

Assembled over the past 150 years, the Islamic art collection ofthe Victoria

and Albert Museum (v&a) in London is one ofthe most renowned in the

world. The closing ofthe v&a’s Islamic galleries for renovation provides a

unique opportunity for museumgoers in other parts ofthe world to see an 

exhibition that highlights the breadth and depth ofthis extraordinary collection. Selected from approximately ten thousand objects, Palace and Mosque

conveys the richness and complexity of Islamic art through more than one

hundred works that represent the full range ofthe decorative arts, including

ceramics, textiles, carpets, ivories, glass, metalwork, and woodwork.

The exhibition is organized in thematic sections: “The Written Word,”

“Courts and Courtiers,” “Mosques, Shrines, and Churches,” and “Artistic

Exchange.” The section devoted to “Artistic Exchange” presents works created by Islamic, European, and Asian artisans that demonstrate the central

role ofthe Middle East in the exchange of artistic and cultural ideas between 

East and West. The exhibition remains on view in the East Building until

February 6, 2005.
The Musician

Gulsin Onay's musical destiny was apparent from an early age when, as a sixyear-old, she gave her first public concert on Turkish radio. By age sixteen, she

had graduated from the Paris Conservatoire, winning the prestigious premier

prix du piano. She went on to win prizes in top international competitions,

including the Marguerite Long-}acques Thibaud and Ferrucio Busoni competitions These accomplishments launched her international career, during

which she has performed in fifty countries across all continents, both in

recital and with many ofthe world’s leading orchestras. Among the ensembles with which Onay has performed are the Dresden Staatskapelle, the

Radio Symphony Orchestras of Vienna, Berlin, and Munich, the Salzburg

Mozarteum Orchestra, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Warsaw Philharmonic,

the Israel Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Japan 

Philharmonic, and the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic. She has played to

warm critical acclaim at the Berlin, Warsaw, Granada, Newport, SchleswigHolstein, and Istanbul music festivals as well as the Mozartfest-Wurzburg.

Renowned in her native Turkey, Onay holds the title of State Artist and

is artist-in-residence at Bilkent University in Ankara. Onay is a soloist for 

the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, and has received an

honorary doctorate from the Bosporus University in Istanbul. In 2003 the

Turkish National Committee of unicef named her a goodwill ambassador.

She is a champion ofthe music of contemporary Turkish composer

Ahmet Adnan Saygun, whose Second Piano Concerto is dedicated to her. 

Other contemporary composers who have dedicated works to Gulsin Onay

are Hubert Stuppner, Denis Dufour, Jean-Louis Petit, and Marc-Andre

Hamelin. Gulsin Onay’s recordings include solo piano works by Haydn,

Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, Franck, 

Medtner, Ravel, Bartok, and Saygun, and concertos by Mozart, Chopin,

Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Stuppner, and Saygun.

Saygun’s Sonatine op. 15 was his first major work for the piano. The first

movement develops a diatonic first theme and a contrasting impressionistic

second subject with a variety of complex harmonies and textures. The second

movement is a funereal passacaglia that grows from a quiet beginning to

a fortissimo climax. The final movement is a virtuosic toccata based on the

horon, a dance from the Black Sea region featuring aksak rhythms.

Edward Elgar was an accomplished pianist, as the piano parts of his

chamber music testify. However, he had evident difficulty writing large-scale

works for the piano, struggling with and finally abandoning a concerto, and

most of his works for solo piano are short pieces oflittle substance. The

atmospheric miniature In Smyrna is an exception. In 1905, Elgin embarked

on a Mediterranean cruise; when the ship docked at Smyrna on the Aegean

coast (today the city of Izmir), the composer toured the town and found its

mosque particularly impressive. He composed this piece on the spot, giving 

it the subtitle In the Mosque. It appeared in the Daily Mail at the end ofthat

year in the Queen’s Christmas Carol Book.

Chopin originally conceived his Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise

brillante as a work for piano and orchestra; it was first performed in 1835

at a benefit concert in Paris. As a pianistic tour-de-force it was a great

success, and since the orchestral part was perfunctory at best, the work

quickly found its way into piano recitalists’ repertoire as a work for piano

solo. The Andante spianato is a simple and peaceful pastorale in the style

of a nocturne. In striking contrast, the exuberant polonaise has a wealth of

melody and original flourishes, expressing Chopin’s patriotic Polish spirit

with great showmanship.

Program notes by Tony Scholl
The Sixty-third Season of Concerts

at the National Gallery of Art

Under the direction of Stephen Ackert

January-May 2005

Sundays at 6:30 pm, West Building, West Garden Court* 

Admission free

JANUARY

2 National Gallery Orchestra

Joseph Jay McIntyre, guest conductor

Gala Viennese New Year Concert

9 Mendelssohn Piano Trio

Beethoven: Trio op. 27

Shostakovich: Trio op. 67

Benjamin: Aperitif

16

FEBRUARY

6 National Gallery Vocal Arts Ensemble

and Smithsonian Chamber Players

Kenneth Slowik, guest conductor

Johann Thiele: St. Matthew

Passion (1637)

Presented in honor of Rembrandt’s

Late Religious Portraits

Cyrus Forough, violinist

Stephen Ackert, pianist

LeClair: Sonata in D Major

J.S. Bach: Sonata bwv 1015

Fletcher: Study (Woman Holding

a Balance)

Saint-Saens: Rondo capriccioso

Giilsin Onay, pianist

Music by Liszt, Elgar, and Turkish composers Saygun and Durroglu-Demiriz

Presented in honor ofthe exhibition

Palace and Mosque: Islamic Artfrom the

Victoria and Albert Museum

Camerata Trajectina

Seventeenth-century popular

music from The Netherlands

Presented in connection with the

Gallery-wide program Dutch Interiors

13 Peter and Paul-Armin

Edelmann, baritones

Thomas Hrynkiw, pianist

Lieder and duets by Mendelssohn,

Schubert, Brahms, and other

composers

20 Bobby Rodriguez Trio

Jazz from Los Angeles presented

in honor of Cotton Puffs,

Q-tips®, Smoke and Mirrors:

The Drawings ofEd Ruscha

(East Building Auditorium)

27 Leila Josefowicz, violinist

John Novacek, pianist

Music by Los Angeles composers

Salonen, Adams, Grey, and Novacek

Presented in honor of Cotton

Puffs, Q-tips®, Smoke and Mirrors:

The Drawings ofEd Ruscha

unless otherwise indicated

MARCH APRIL

6 Takacs String Quartet

Bartok: Quartets nos. 3 and 4

Beethoven: Quartet op. 59, no. 3

Presented in honor ofAndre Kertesz

13 National Gallery Chamber

Players Wind Quintet

Music by Antonin Reicha and

other Hungarian composers

Presented in honor ofAndre Kertesz

March 20, 27, and April 3, 2005

Concerts in honor ofthe exhibition

Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre

20 L’Orchestre de Chambre Fran^ais

with Kyung Sun Lee, violinist

Ravel: Pavane

Magnard: Suite op. 2

Lekeu: Adagiofor Strings

Debussy: Petite Suite

Saint-Saens: Romance op. 48

27 Philippe Entremont, pianist

Debussy: Selections from

Preludes and Images

Ravel: Sonatine; Gaspard de la null

3 Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

Betty Bullock, pianist

French cabaret concert

April 10, 17, 24, and May 1, 2005

Concerts in honor ofthe exhibition

Gilbert Stuart

10 Christ Church Cathedral Choir,

Oxford, England

Music by Attwood, Crotch, Billings,

and other British and American

composers of Stuart’s time

17 National Gallery Orchestra

Stephen Simon, guest conductor

Music by Haydn, Boyce, and other

composers of Stuart’s time

24 Penelope Crawford, fortepianist

Stephen Ackert, organist

Music of Stuart’s time for fortepiano, harpsichord, and organ

MAY

1 Dean Shostak, glass armonicist

Music for glass armonica and other

instruments of Stuart’s time

Programs subject to change

Detailed information at www.nga.gov or (202) 842-6941