Fuchsentritt, was a drinking song associated with the hazing of

freshmen. The other melodies are, Wir hatten gebauet ein staatEches

Haus (which was considered so inflammatory that it was banned

by the German governments of the Metternich era), Hochfeierlicher

Landesvater, ana Gaudeamus igitur, which brings the overture to

an exhilarating close.

Mahler’s songs on texts by Friedrich Riickert (1788-1866) were

composed during one of his happiest periods. He had met and

married Alma Schindler, daughter ofthe Austrian landscape painter

Emil Jakov Schindler (1842-1892), who presented him with two

daughters. BrunoWalter (1876-1962), the celebrated German-born

American conductor who was Mahler’s colleague and follower, found

that the style of his songs developed into “a refreshingly varied and

significant part of his work. Each has the mark of creativity [and]

musical invention; none is a mere piece of emotional declamation.”

Writer John Ardoin further states: “The [qualities] of [these

songs], these remembrances trapped in sound, are the mortar of

[his] symphonies.” For example, the delicacy of a gentle breeze is

captured in the sparse orchestral textures of Ich atmef einen linden

Duft. Ich binder Weltabhandengekommen is rich with the serenity that

orchestral strings are uniquely able to express, while UmMittemacht

is set in a minor mode, from which it repeatedly tries to escape. At 

the end, the music finally breaks into the major mode, reflecting

the consolation that appears in the final verse of the poem, after

four verses of protest and despair.

Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major, which he subtitled The

Romantic; had its first performance in 1881 inVienna under the baton

of the eminent German conductor Hans Richter (1843-1916).

Symphony No. 4, like its contemporary, Brahms’ Symphony No. 2,

retains a classical structure. There are unifying elements throughout

the symphony: the interval of aperfect firth, which is the “motto,”

and a Brucknerian rhythm. The first element is heard in the

second movement (Andantej and the second in the third movement

(Scherzo). The cellos play the perfect fifth interval first in a lengthy

eloquent melody that is heard three times. Similar but shorter

segments starring the violas follow. In the third movement (Scherzo),

the Brucknerian rhythm appears: two quarter notes followed by a

triplet ofthree quarter notes, together filling one 4/4 measure. With

the deployment of distinctive horn figures that are reminiscent of a

hunting cnase, the Scherzo is “a mealtime on the hunt,” a humorous

reference attributed to Bruckner himself.

Program notes by Elmer Booze

During the months ofFebruary andMarch, recentperformances

by the National Gallery Orchestra can be heard on Wednesdays at 9:00p.m.

on WETA-FM, 90.9.

Selectionsfrom concerts at the Gallery can be heard on the second Sunday of

each month at 9:00p.m. on WGMS-FM, 103.5.

The Fifty-eighth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2335th Concert

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

GEORGE MANOS, conductor,

with

ANDREAS LEBEDA, bass - baritone, guest artist

Sunday Evening, 6 February 2000

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
PROGRAM

Johannes Brahms Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80

(1833-1897) (1880)

Gustav Mahler

(1860-1911)

Five Riickert Songs

(1901-1902)

Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder

Liebst du um Schonheit

Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft

Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

Um Mitternacht

INTERMISSION

Anton Bruckner from Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major

(1824-1896) “The Romantic” (1874)

Andante

Scherzo

For the convenience ofconcertgoers

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

The use ofcameras or recording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

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 included several years on the

faculty ofCatholic University in Washington, DC, where he taught

piano, conducting, and chamber music. In addition, he held the

directorship of the Wilmington, Delaware, School of Music, where

he presented an annual jazz festival and clinic. Maestro Manos

founded and directed for ten years the renowned Killarney Bach

Festival in the Republic ofIreland, and was the music director ofthe

1992 Scandinavian Music Festival in Folding, Denmark.

Bass-baritone Andreas Lebeda was born in Gmunden, Austria,

in 1957. His musical training and debut performance took place

in Steyr. In 1975 he began studies in German philology at the

University of Salzburg, and in music education, conducting, voice, 

and piano at the Mozarteum. He participated in master classes with

Elisabeth Schwarzkopfand studied with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and

Rene Jacobs at the Schola Gantorum Basel. From 1987 until 1991,

he was a student of Kurt Widmer in Basel. A seasoned performer,

Lebeda has appeared with orchestras and opera companies and

has presented numerous Liederabende (evenings of German song) 

throughout Europe. His repertoire spans several musical periods,

including baroque, classical, and early romantic. Lebeda records for

Fabian, Symphonia, Supraphon, and Chessky Records. Currently

residing in Vienna, Austria, he teaches at the Mozarteum in

Salzburg. Andreas Lebeda’s appearance at the National Gallery

has been made possible in part by the Austrian Cultural Institute

in New York City.

On 11 March 1879 Brahms received an honorary doctorate in

philosophy from the University of Breslau. He reciprocated by 

presenting to the university his slightly impertinent Academic

Festival Overture, Op. 80, and conducting its first performance there

in January 1881. In order to understand the subtle humor behind

Brahms’ score, it is necessary to remember that he was a protagonist

in what was considered in late nineteenth-century Germany to be

an epic and ultimately significant struggle between classicism, as

spearheaded by Brahms, and progressivism, as embodied in the

works of Richard Wagner. By conferring the honorary degree on 

Brahms, the regents ofthe University ofBreslau lent their academic

authority to conservative classicism in the arts and fully expected

the composer to grace the occasion with an appropriate work, such

as a “Doktor-Symphonie” or a solemn hymn and fugue. Always

ready to deflate pomposity in all of its forms, Brahms produced a

work that must have shocked its first audience of dignified scholars 

at the honorary degree ceremony. His overture integrates the

melodies of four traditional German student songs, one of which,