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 ofthe 

West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

For the convenience of concertgoers, 

the Garden Cafe remains open for light refreshments

until 6:00 pm on Sundays.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

uww.nga.gov

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 oftheir support. Please contact the development 

office at (202) 842-6450 or circle@nga.gov for more information.

The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,9t5th Concert

Joseph Smith, pianist

December 12, 2012

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Admissionfree
Program

“Music for 12/12/12”

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)

Twelve Variations on “La Folia” (1776)

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Fantasy Pieces, op. 12 (1837)

John Field (1782-1837)

Twelve O’clock Rondo (1832)

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, op. 66 (1845-1846)

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) 

Entr’acte from The Snowman (1909)

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Second Prelude (1926)

Euday Louis Bowman (1886-1949)

Twelfth Street Rag (1914)

The Musician

JOSEPH SMITH

With a reputation for uniquely effective presentation oflittle-known and

rarely-played repertoire, pianist Joseph Smith was hailed by the New York

Times for his “eloquent playing,” the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung found

him a “richly sensitive interpreter,” and Stuart Isacoff, in his book A Natural

History ofthe Piano, calls Smith a “walking encyclopedia ofthe piano.”

A Steinway artist, Smith has performed at Alice Tully Hall, the American

Cathedral in Paris, and at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. This concert

marks his third appearance at the National Gallery ofArt. Known for his

informative lecture-recitals, Smith recently appeared at the Chopin Foundation, the New York Grieg Society, the New York Society Library, and the

Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.

Smith’s column “Rare Finds” has appeared in Piano Today magazine

since 1993, and he has written for the British magazine Piano. For two years, 

“Joseph Smith’s Piano Bench” ran as a monthly feature on National Public

Radio’s Performance Today. The editor of eleven piano anthologies, he has

three volumes in the Steinway Library ofPiano Music, is included in David

Dubai’s The Art ofthe Piano, and his articles are cited in Maurice Hinson’s

Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire.

Joseph Smith’s prolific output of CD recordings includes Familiar Melodies

(Brioso), which Fanfare magazine called “an imaginative new collection...

the playing is always both intelligent and committed”; an album ofmusic

by Charles Tomlinson Griffes (Arkiv Music), ofwhich Stereophile wrote that

Smith plays “with consummate understanding and sensitivity”; and Piano

Barcarolles: From Venice to the Mississippi (Brioso).

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Program Notes

The number twelve has been important to number theorists throughout

history, going back to the earliest records ofthe activity ofsoothsayers and

astrologers. An important element in Hebrew and early Christian thought

(twelve tribes ofIsrael, twelve apostles), twelve was also the number of

principal gods in the ancient Greek pantheon. Taking its cue from GrecoRoman Mitraism and other religions that observed twelve-day festivals in

mid-winter, the early Christian church established a twelve-day midwinter

festival to celebrate the birth ofChrist. Shi’ite Islam recognizes twelve

Imams—legitimate successors ofthe prophet Muhammad—and Eastern

Orthodoxy observes twelve Great Feasts.

As mystical values and characteristics were assigned to various numbers

in the seventeenth century, the number twelve came to represent completeness and formal perfection, having within it the reverse multiples ofthe

symbolically important numbers three and four. Even earlier, as musicians

in Western Europe adapted the Greek modes to organs and other instruments, the result was the placement oftwelve half-steps within each octave.

Composers and poets often grouped their works in sets oftwelve or multiples oftwelve.

All ofthe music on today’s program has been selected to feature the

number twelve in some way, noting that this day is the last one in this century

that will have the same number for the day, the month, and the year (12/12/12).

In some cases, the number twelve is included in the title or the opus number,

but in others, one has to know a detail ofthe work in order to make the

connection. Frederic Chopin’s Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, for example, is in

12/8 meter, as are all traditional barcarolles. Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a child 

prodigy, completed the score for his ballet, The Snowman, when he was twelve

years old, and George Gershwin’s Second Prelude is in twelve-bar blues form.

4

Euday Louis Bowman, composer ofthe famed Twelfth Street Rag, was

born in Fort Worth, Texas, where he learned to play the piano from his sister, 

Mary. He supplemented his meager income as a junk dealer by playing

at local night spots. Before long, he became a local celebrity, playing by

invitation in private living rooms and fire halls. He probably wrote Twelfth

Street Rag while playing in a Main Street shoeshine parlor located between

Tenth and Eleventh streets in Fort Worth. Though he wrote several original

compositions between 1914 and 1917, including Fort Worth Blues, Tipperary

Blues, and Kansas City Blues, his use of a repeating three-note melody and

a duple-metered bass made Twelfth Street Rag his most popular hit. First

published in 1914, the piece had a profound influence on jazz from the

late 1920s through the 1940s. Bowman recorded his rag in 1924 and 1938,

although his interpretation was not available to the wider public until he

released a third recording in 1948. Other jazz musicians, however, made

the song world famous through 120 recorded versions, including those of

Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Fats Waller.

Program notes by Stephen Ackert, head, music department,

National Gallery ofArt

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Concerts in December 2012 at the National Gallery ofArt

Empire Brass

with Elisabeth von Trapp, soprano,

and Douglas Major, organist

Holiday Concert

December 16, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Garden Court

Kenneth Slowik, fortepianist

with Catherine Manson, violist,

and Eric Hoeprich, clarinetist

“Music from the Age ofthe Fortepiano, 1700-1830”

Presented in honor of Masterpieces ofAmerican Furniture

from the Kaufman Collection, 1700-1830

December 19, 2012

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Jennifer Lane, soprano

Kenneth Slowik, fortepianist

“Music from the Age ofthe Fortepiano, 1700-1830”

Presented in honor of Masterpieces ofAmerican Furniture

from the Kaufman Collection, 1700-1830

December 23, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building Lecture Hall