Upcoming Events of the SeventySixth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, all programs

take place in the West Building,

West Garden Court.

The 6821 Quintet

Music by Michael Djupstrom,

Mamiko Hirai, and Kunihiko Murai

Presented in conjunction with the

National Cherry Blossom Festival and 

the Ryuji Ueno Foundation

March 26, 12:10

East Building Auditorium

Richard Stoltzman, clarinet

Mika Stoltzman, marimba

Duo Cantando

Music by Bill Douglas, Chick Corea,

Toru Takemitsu, and John Zorn

April 1, 3:30

Heinavanker Ensemble

Featuring ancient Estonian songs 

and folk hymns

Celebrating Michel Sittow: Estonian Painter

at the Courts ofRenaissance Europe

April 8, 3:30

Tamagawa University Taiko Drummers

and Dancers

April 13, 12:10

East Building Atrium

Fretwork

Featuring music by Alexander Goehr

and J.S. Bach

April 15, 3:30

Inscape Chamber Orchestra

Saint-Saens, Carnival oftheAnimals, with

new verses by Marc Bamuthi Joseph

Mahler, Symphony no. 4, chamber version

April 22, 3:30

Admission to the National Gallery ofArt

and all of its programs is free of charge,

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equip­

ment during the performance is not

allowed. Please be sure that all portable

electronic devices are turned off.

The department of music produced

these program notes. Copyright© 2018

Board ofTrustees, National Gallery of

Art, Washington

Concerts are made possible in part

through the generosity of donors to

the National Gallery ofArt through

The Circle. Reserved seating is available

in recognition of their support. Please 

contact the development office at 

(202) 842-6450 or circle@nga.gov for

more information.

Cover Paul Cezanne, Boy ina Red Waistcoat

(detail), 1888-1890, National Gallery of

Art, Washington, Collection ofMr. and

Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Elonor ofthe 50th 

Anniversary ofthe National Gallery ofArt

nga.gov/music

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Benedetto Lupo. Photo by Musacchio & lanniello

2

Program

Benedetto Lupo, piano

Celebrating Cezanne Portraits

MARCH 25, 2018/3:30

WEST BUILDING, WEST GARDEN COURT

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Images oubliees

Lent

Dans le mouvement d’une “Sarabandec’est-a-dire avec une elegance grave

et lente, meme un peu vieux portrait, souvenir du Louvre, etc.

Quelques aspects de “Nous n’irons plus au bois,” parce qu’il fait un

temps insupportable

Estampes

Pagodes

La soiree dans Grenade

Jardins sous la pluie

Images, premiere serie

Reflets dans l’eau 

Hommage a Rameau

Mouvement

Intermission

Images, deuxieme serie

Cloches a travers les feuilles

Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut

Poissons d’or

Masques

D’un cahier d'esquisses

L’islejoyeuse

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Fhe Musician

Benedetto Lupo has been heralded by critics as an “exceptionally fine pianist...who

has a remarkably fine touch and beautiful tone control” {The Oregonian). Praised for 

his “keen musical intelligence and probing intellect” {Miami Herald) and for combining

“meticulous technique with romantic sensitivity” {Birmingham News), he continues to

gain worldwide recognition.

Lupo has performed with prestigious orchestras worldwide, including the Los 

Angeles, Malaysian, Louisiana, and Naples Philharmonic Orchestras, I Musici de

Montreal, the National Symphony Orchestra ofMexico, and the Orquesta Sinfonica

de Minerfa; and with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Toronto, Calgary, Colorado,

Jacksonville, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Montreal, Oregon, San Antonio, Seattle,

St. Louis, and Vancouver. Festival appearances include Tanglewood with the Baltimore 

Symphony Orchestra, the Domaine Forget International Festival with Les Violons

du Roy, and Le Festival de Lanaudiere.

In Europe, he has appeared in his native Italy with the Orchestra della Svizzera

Italiana, Santa Cecilia Symphony, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, 

Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, the National RAI Orchestra (Torino), and the festivals

of Brescia and Bergamo. He celebrated Liszt’s 200th birthday by performing the

composer’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in E-flat Major and Totentanz with the Gewandhaus

Orchestra in Leipzig. He also performed Nino Rota’s Concerto Soiree with the Spanish 

National Orchestra (Madrid) to mark the composer’s 100th birthday. Lupo has

appeared with the London and Slovak Philharmonics; the orchestras of Limburg

(Netherlands), Odense (Denmark), Plalle (Norway), Rotterdam (Netherlands), and 

Liege (Belgium); and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Navarra (Spain).

Lupo won the silver medal in the 1985 Cleveland International Piano Competition

and the bronze medal in the 1989 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In

1992, he made his New York City recital debut at Alice Fully Hall, won the Terence

Judd International Award, and subsequently performed at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Since 2013, Lupo has taught at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, 

in addition to giving master classes and serving as a competition jurist internationally.

Lupo’s recordings include Nino Rota’s Concerto Soiree with the Orchestra Sinfonica 

Siciliana (Nuova Era), and a new release of the same work (Harmonia Mundi), for 

which he received the prestigious Diapason d’Or award. He recorded Schumann’s complete works for piano and orchestra with Peter Maag and the Radiotelevisione svizzera,

as well as the first CD recording ofthe piano version of Schumann’s Konzertstiick, op. 86

(Arts label). Lupo is featured on the Emmy-award-winning PBS documentary, Here

to Make Music: The Eighth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and also on

the seven-part series Encore! The Final Round ofPerformances ofthe Eighth Van Cliburn

International Piano Competition.

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It is commonly regarded that French artist Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) is one of the

distinguished elders of twentieth-century art, a view reflected in a statement credited

to Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse that “Cezanne is the father of us all.” That same

sentiment may be applied to French composer Claude Debussy, a contemporary of

Cezanne. Both men created masterpieces built with layers of color and a reliance on

light and nature; they also heavily influenced the shift from old artistic practices to

the birth of fresh and dramatic approaches to their art.

Written in 1894 but ultimately published as a suite in 1977, Claude Debussy’s

Images oubliees was titled so as to avoid confusion with his other two sets of Images for 

piano. He charmingly spoke of this work as “not for brilliantly lit salons ...but rather

for conversations between the piano and oneself.” Even though the opening movement, Lent, carries no descriptive title, it is nonetheless characterized by emotion,

grace, and suppleness. The second movement, Sarabande, appeared first in a supplement to the 1896 GrandJournal du Lundi, with the inscription: “In the rhythm of

a ‘sarabande,’ that is, with a slow and solemn elegance, a bit like an antique portrait,

Remembrance of the Louvre, etc.” The final piece of the set is reminiscent of a

toccata and pays tribute to the French nursery song Nous n'ironsplus au bois, (We’ll

Go No More to the Woods), as reflected in the work’s very title. Opening with driving energy and joy and interspersed with harp-like sonorities, the movement winds 

down as if the children of the nursery gradually fall asleep.

Using a title which translates as “engravings,” Debussy published his Estampes

in 1903. In his own words, he explains the nature of these three short “engravings”:

“If one cannot afford to travel, one substitutes the imagination.” The first movement

of this musical journey, Pagodes (Pagodas), was likely inspired by the sounds of the

Javanese gamelan ensembles Debussy heard at the 1889 Paris International Exposition— 

sounds which drew him to the non-Western musical scales and melodic use of percussion. It is said that Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) admired Debussy’s

second Estampes, titled La soiree dans Grenade (Evening in Granada), with its authentic

depiction of Spanish music. "Fhe final movement,Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the

Rain), is one of Debussy’s most popular piano pieces and features two French children’s

songs, Dodo, Penfant do (Sleep, Child, Sleep) and another inclusion ofNous n\irons plus

au bois.

In 1911, Debussy said to composer Edgard Varese: “I love pictures almost as

much as music.” His genius and passion are evident in the way he fashioned today’s

featured Images, premiere serie (1905) and Images, deuxieme serie (1907). On the surface 

and as reflected in each movement’s title, the music truly paints a picture with sounds

Program Notes

5
and rhythm. Yet, probing the depths, the listener discovers subtleties in temperament,

as well as innovative uses of rhythmic textures and chordal sonorities, to combine and

shape Debussy’s personal musical signature. When Debussy sent the first set to his

publisher, he proudly wrote: “With no false vanity, I believe that these three pieces 

are a success and that they will take their place in the literature ofthe piano, on the

left hand of Schumann, or the right hand of Chopin, as you like it.”

The opening movement of his Images, premiere serie, Reflets dans l’eau (Reflections in the Water), has often been compared to the familiar sight of a pebble thrown

into a pond, resulting in ever-widening, farther-reaching circles. Beginning with a perfect fifth in the bass, the mood is set with gentle waves of rising and falling chords,

followed by cascading arpeggios and broken chords gaining in intensity until a giant

swell washes over the listener and the movement is quietly exhausted. I he second

movement, the Hommage a Rameau, is a stylized sarabande that effectively evokes a

slow, stately eighteenth-century dance form. This restrained sense of antiquity slowly

evolves to bold, broad romanticism. The final Image ofthis set, Mouvement, is a display

of brilliance and virtuosity, beginning with repeated triplet figures and proceeding

with a constant rhythmic energy throughout.

In Images, deuxieme serie, the bells ofthe title—Cloches a travers les feuilles (Bells

through the Leaves)—are reflected in the whole tone scale used in the first two measures, and upon which the entire piece is constructed. The second movement, titled

Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut (And the Moon Sets over the Temple 1 hat

Was), mixes rich dissonances and a fragmented, chime-like melody to produce a captivating, ethereal atmosphere. The last Image of this set— Poissons d’or (Goldfish)— 

is one of the most frequently performed of the Images sets. It is easy to imagine the

shimmering water and the movements of the goldfish—darting, graceful, placid— 

through Debussy’s genius.

The title D'un cahier d'esquisses can be translated as “From a Sketchbook,” however,

wrote the British music critic Frank Howes, “It is by no means an insubstantial or

unimportant one.” Robert Schmitz, author of The Piano Works of Claude Debussy, suggests that this work may have been a medium used to test ideas for larger orchestral

works, such as La Mer, which Debussy was working on at this time. Composed in 1903,

this work is quietly ethereal, highly original, and presents a mixture ofstyles and ideas.

Program notes by Kathleen Chau, Music Program Coordinator, National Gallery ofArt

6

Debussy often drew inspiration from other forms of art, as in the case of Masques, a

musical setting ofAntoine Watteau’s (1684-1721) painting Le Mezzetin. Here, a guitar

player is shown, recognizable by his costume as Mezzetin from the cast ofthe Commedia

delParte, a character who is forever frustrated in love. In the background is a woman’s

silhouette with her back turned to Mezzetin. In Debussy’s piece, an understated but

palpable tension prevails throughout, underscoring the duality between tragedy and

comedic irony. Debussy’s friends and pupils commented that he often wore a metaphorical mask to suppress his poignant feelings, and surmised that this trait found

musical expression in Masques.

Kislejoyeuse, written in 1904, was inspired by Debussy’s summer vacation on the

island ofJersey in the English Channel—a vista which no doubt provided him with

striking visual images as he perfected his work. In Debussy’s setting, the introduction

is followed by a rhapsodic sequence that builds in volume, speed, and intensity with

shorter, lyrical interruptions, all culminating in a rousing finale. LLslefoyeuse is a true

virtuoso piece. Debussy himself wrote, “Heavens! How difficult it is to play. ...This

piece seems to embrace every possible manner of treating the piano, combining as it

does strength and grace.”

Adaptedfrom program notes by MichaelJacko, concert aide, National Gallery ofArt,from

the February 26, 2012 program

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