Chopin’s grand concept for both the polonaise and the mazurka

appeared after 1838, the fateful year in which he fell in love with

Aurore Dudevant (George Sand). Due in no small measure to her

inspiration, all of his creative activity reached new heights of 

passion and imagination, resulting in a new definition of each of

the genres in which he composed. The polonaises that Chopin 

composed before 1838 were short dances of a single mood and

character, while the example selected by Mr. Wallisch for this 

program is an extended outpouring of patriotic emotion, presenting

several moods in the course of a single piece of music.

The Sonata in B-flat Minor also presents a full range of musical

emotion, from the passion of the first movement and the beginning

of the Scherzo to the grief of the famous funeral march that is its 

third movement. Tenderness is sublimely expressed in the trio of

that march, while the final movement, a Presto, can be seen as an

expression of the numbing of all feeling. Here the composer 

virtually eschews all harmony, allowing the two hands to proceed in

octaves most of the time.

Concerts at The National Gallery ofArt

Under the Direction of George Manos

January 1998

4 National Gallery Orchestra

George Manos, conductor

11 The Pelerinage Duo 

Jerry Wong and Shi-yu

Cheng, duo -pianists

18 Hakan Hagegard, baritone

Warren Jones, pianist

Gala Viennese New

Year concert

Rachmaninoff: Suite No. 2

Schubert: Fantasie in FMinor

Stravinsky: Sonata

Milhaud: Scaramouche

Songs by Brahms, Schubert,

Ravel, and Sibelius

Throughout the month ofDecember, highlightsfrom the Gallery's

1996-1991 concertseason can be heard on “Musicfrom Washington, ”

broadcast on Wednesdays at 9:00pm on WETA, 90.9 FM.

The use ofcameras or recording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30pm.

The Fifty-sixth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2232nd Concert

GOTTLIEB WALLISCH, pianist

Sunday Evening, December 28, 1997

at Seven O’Clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission Free
PROGRAM

Domenico Scarlatti Sonata in D Major, L. 15

(1685-1757)

Sonata in E Major, L. 23

Sonata in A Major, L. 391

Ludwig van Beethoven

(1770-1827)

Sonata No. 18 in E-flat Major

Opus 31, No. 3 (1802)

Allegro

Scherzo

Menuetto

Presto con fuoco

Claude Debussy Estampes

(1862-1918) (1903)

Pagodes

Soiree dans Grenade

Jardins sous la pluie

INTERMISSION

Frederic Chopin Polonaise in F-sharp Minor

(1810-1849) Opus 44 (1840-41)

Mazurka in C-sharp Minor

Opus 30, No. 4, (1836-37)

Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor

Opus 35 (1840)

Grave; doppio movimento

Scherzo: Presto ma non troppo

Marche funebre: Lento

Finale: Presto

GOTTLIEB WALLISCH was born in Vienna, Austria in 1978.

He was admitted at the age ofsix to that city’s University ofMusic

and Performing Arts, where he studied with Elisabeth DvorakWeisshaar. At the age ofsixteen, he became the only pianist ever to

win all four ofthe highest prizes in the University ofIllinois’ International Piano Competition. In 1996 he won first prize at the International Elena-Rombro-Stepanov Piano Competition of the

Vienna University of Music, being the youngest of all the contestants. Mr. Wallisch has performed extensively in Austria and toured

Japan in 1993 and the Middle East in 1994 and 1995. He undertook his first United States concert tour in the 1996-1997 season,

and since then has toured Switzerland, Germany, and Hungary as

soloist with the Slovak Sinfonietta. He has also participated in various radio and television productions and has recorded two CDs on 

the Musica classica label.

Domenico Scarlatti came from a long line of musicians in a prolific family. His father, Alessandro Scarlatti, was a prominent operatic composer in Naples during the late seventeenth century.

Domenico was pushed to write operas and to conform to an older

musical style by his father, who insisted on controlling his son’s career. The elder Scarlatti lived longer than anyone expected, and

Domenico was finally obliged, at the age of thirty-two, to have a

legal document issued enforcing his independence from his father.

This left him free to publish works for the harpsichord, a genre in

which he was extremely talented. His more than 500 single-movement keyboard sonatas are unique in the Baroque repertoire, on 

account ofthe wide range oftheir coloristic effects, harmonies, and

modulations, some ofwhich sound audacious even to modern ears.

Beethoven’s Sonatas, Opus 31 are the first in what has come to be

recognized as his “second period.” Stretching from 1802 to 1817,

this period is marked by the presence of experimentation in every

work. In the case of Opus31, No. 3, there is evidence that Beethoven

had access to pianos with improved action, as one finds staccato

trills for the first time in his sonatas. The presence of four movements in a sonata is in itselfa departure from tradition, and the fact

that none ofthe four is a slow movement was a shock for Beethoven’s

audiences.

Claude Debussy was one of the first composers to break the romantic mold and write in an altogether new style. He was also one

of the first European composers to listen seriously to music of the

Middle and Far East and borrow elements from it for his own work. 

The first ofthe Estampes, Pagodes (Pagodas), is based on a pentatonic

scale of Southeast Asian origin.