Wien (Vienna) was the original title of one of Ravel’s most

popular instrumental works, La valse (Poeme choreographique) (The

Waltz [Dance Poem]). Initially scored for orchestra, the work was the

first composition Ravel undertook during his rehabilitation after being

discharged from military service because of poor health. He was seeking

a new direction for himself, since his friend and rival Claude Debussy

(1862-1918) had recently died and a new group of young musicians (Les

Six) were emerging and threatening the music leadership in France.

Ravel, France’s leading composer at that time, wanted to maintain and

reinforce his preeminence with La valse. By his own account, his reason

for composing the work was to pay homage to the waltz king, Johann

Strauss the younger, of whose incredible rhythms he was so enamored.

Writing about La valse, Ravel stated: “I had intended this as a kind of

apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, which, as it is linked in my mind, gives

the impression of a fantastic whirl of destiny. I have given it the setting

of an imperial court, about 1855.” Ravel and Alfred Casella (1883-

1947), one of Italy’s prominent composers of that time, gave the first

performance of the two-piano version in 1920. The solo piano version

heard on tonight’s program is remarkably faithful to the orchestral score

and has proven to be equally effective. As writer D. R Stearns reports,

“The performance of La valse, as transcribed for [solol piano, is so

coloristically alive that one never misses the orchestra.”

Program notes by Elmer Booze

For the convenience of concertgoers

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

The use of cameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed. Please he sure that cell

phones, pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

The Sixty-first Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2451st Concert

DANG THAI SON, pianist

Sunday Evening, 16 March 2003

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Program

Claude Debussy Five Preludes

(1862-1918) From “Preludes, Book II” (1894)

Brouillards

General Lavine-Eccentric

Les fees sont d’exquises danseuses

Canope

Feux d’artifice

Frederic Chopin Nocturne in E Minor, Op. 72, No. 1 (1827)

(1810-1849) Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 42 (1840)

Waltz in D-flat Major, Op. 70, No. 3 (1829)

Waltz in G-flat Major, Op. 70, No. 1 (1833)

Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 34, No. 1 (1835)

(Valse brillante)

Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 31 (1837)

Intermission

Deux legendes

(1863)

Saint Francois d’Assise: La predication

aux oiseaux

Saint Francois de Paule marchant sur les flots

Franz Liszt

(1811-1886)

Federico Mompou

(1893-1987)

Cancion y danza No. 1

Cancion y danza No. 3

Cancion y danza No. 8

Three Dances

from “Canciones y danzas”

(1918)

(1918-1928)

(1946)

Maurice Ravel

(1875-1937)

La valse pour piano solo

(1919-1920)

The Musician

An emerging figure among the leading international musicians of our

time, Vietnamese pianist Dang Thai Son was propelled to the forefront 

of the musical world in October 1980 when he won the first prize and

coveted Gold Medal at the Tenth International Chopin Piano 

Competition in Warsaw, Poland. Since winning the Chopin competition,

Dang Thai Son has performed in prestigious venues in more than forty

countries around the world. The press has been ecstatic about his talent:

“Why haven’t we heard of him before? Dang Thai Son is a superbly

accomplished pianist, with a flabbergasting technique and musicianship

of a high order. He plays with a seamless legato, brilliant dexterity, and

immense power...a musical experience not to be forgotten” (San Diego

Reader). “He is a pianist of superb discipline and undeniable

distinction.... The playing was first-class...a digitally spectacular and

musically delirious performance of Ravel’s La valse” (Boston Globe).

Dang Thai Son studied with his mother in Hanoi and was discovered

by Russian pianist Isaac Katz while Katz was on a visit in Vietnam in

1974. Son pursued his training at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky 

Conservatory with the renowned pedagogues Vladimir Natanson and

Dmitry Bashkirov. Since 1987 he has been a visiting professor at

Kunitachi Music College in Tokyo, Japan. He became a Canadian citizen

in 1995 and teaches at the Universite de Montreal. Dang Thai Son

appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Bureau d’Artistes de

Montreal.

Program Notes

Debussy idolized the music of Chopin, particularly his etudes and

preludes for piano, and emulated them in his own sets of etudes and

preludes. Unlike Chopin, however, whose music evoked poetic

sentiments contained in his unique world, Debussy, according to his

biographer Emile Vuillermoz (1878-1960), “desired to condense into

[his] Twenty-four Preludes (in two books) the most precious

developments in pianistic technique of his age. The short pieces [are]
condensed, ‘pure’ music, and do not set out to treat any precise subject.

Their raison d'etre rests in the discovery of a rhythm, a color, an

atmosphere, or a detail of composition, [the] development [of which]

expands into the evocation of climate, setting, or image.”

Chopin's Nocturne, Op. 72, No. 1, in E Minor, Opus

Posthumous, provides the listener with exquisite proof of the well-known

adage that Chopin could make the piano sing. The nocturne was the

perfect vehicle for him to demonstrate the bel canto style as applied to

the piano. Although it is an acknowledged fact that the Irish composer 

John Field (1782-1837) created the nocturne, the refinement of the

genre, with lush harmonic fabric and sumptuous sonorities, is the work

of the Polish genius and is without equal. The high opus number and

posthumous publication of this nocturne belie the fact that it was written

during Chopin’s student days, and some musical luminaries have

delighted in deriding its content as lacking in genuine substance. As

Marina and Victor Ledin pointed out in their study of the nocturnes,

however, Op. 72, No. 7, had at least one ally in the English musicologist 

G. C. Ashton Jonson, who declared: “[I] would not willingly exchange it

tor the whole of Field’s works bound in full morocco!”

After his arrival in Vienna in 1829, Chopin heard in the salons

the waltzes of Johann Strauss (1804-1849) and Joseph Lanner (1801 —

1843), in addition to familiar opera excerpts. These works, so popular 

among the Viennese, did not arouse Chopin’s interest or win his

enthusiasm. A letter to his father in October 1829 expressed his

disappointment: “I have absorbed nothing of a Viennese nature;

consequently, I am unable to play waltzes.” Ironically, his first waltz, Op.

70, No. 3, was written shortly after the letter. Along with his other

thirteen waltzes, it leaves for posterity a concept of the waltz that was

hailed by Robert Schumann as “of a different character from ordinary

waltzes, and bearfing] the unmistakable mark that only a Chopin could

give them.” Chopin provided a clue to the real inspiration for his first

waltz, hinting it was a young lady by the name of Constantia

Gladkowska, whom he described as a “lovely being.”

The Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 31, is one of six that

Chopin wrote (two as movements for his piano sonatas and four that

were published separately). Heard frequently in concert, its popularity

has been passed from generation to generation by teachers, students, and

the general public. Schumann spoke of it as “so tender, so bold, [and] as

full of love as of scorn.” The opening segment (A) features an

extravagant array of thematic material, brimming with ideas of striking

originality. Particularly noteworthy is the use of silence as a dramatic

device. The trio section (B) unveils a song of unsurpassed beauty, one of

Chopin’s most sensuous melodies. The opening material (A) returns and

leads to a dynamic coda of resounding brilliance.

The year 1863 was a momentous one for Franz Fiszt, as he

received an invitation from the Pope’s librarian to seek spiritual comfort

at the Oratory of the Madonna del Rosario. After two years in retreat at

the Oratory, he acquired the first of four orders that were obligatory

mandates for the priesthood. It was here that the two Saint Francis

legends were written, Saint Francis ofAssisi Preaching to the Birds and

Saint Francis de Paul Walking on the Waters. Representing the outcome of

his divine meditation and inspiration, these two compositions are a

demonstration of Liszt’s pianistic colorations. The first produces a

miracle of delicate bird sounds using trills and apoggiaturas, and the

second features a flood of watery sounds, demonstrating the turbulence

under foot during the saint’s water crossing.

Folksongs, melodies, and dances native to Spain and his native

Catalonia inspired Federico Mompou to compose a set of fourteen short

piano pieces with the collective title Canciones y danzas. While the

melodies retain their rustic flavor, the harmonic and pianistic approaches

are modern. Cancion y danza No. 1 was influenced by La filla del

Carmesi, a popular Catalan melody. No. 3 is based on a Catalan

Christmas song entitled Noi de la Mare and is dedicated to Frank

Marshall, the teacher of the eminent Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha.

No. 8 is a slow waltz and is dedicated to the Spanish pianist Ricardo

Vines (1875-1943), who helped popularize Spanish music in France.