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National Gallery ofArt

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available in recognition oftheir support. Please contact the development 

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

The Seventy-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,976th Concert

David Geringas, cellist

January 19, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

John Corigliano (b. 1938)

Fancy on a Bach Air (1996)

J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Suite no. 1 in G Major

Praeludium

Allemande 

Courante

Sarabande 

Menuets 1 and 11

Gigue

Anatolijus Senderovas (b. 1945)

Interludium

J.S. Bach

Suite no. 5 in C Minor

Prelude 

Allemande 

Courante

Sarabande 

Gavottes 1 and 11

Gigue

INTERMISSION
Peteris Vasks (b. 1946)

Gramata cellam (1978)

David Geringas (b. 1946)

Gloria

J. S. Bach

Suite no. 3 in C Major

Prelude 

Allemande 

Courante 

Sarabande

Bourree

Gigue

The Musician

In full command of an unusually broad repertoire from the early baroque 

to the contemporary, cellist and conductor David Geringas is known for his 

flexibility and innovative approach to music as well as his mastery ofthe 

cello. A former Rostropovich pupil and gold-medal winner ofthe 1970

Tchaikovsky Competition, Geringas continues with gusto a career that is

now in its fourth decade. He has performed world-wide with many ofthe 

leading orchestras and important conductors ofour time, and his discography

includes recordings that have been honored with important prizes, including 

the Diapason d’Or, Grand Prix du Disque, and the 2011 Deutscher Schallplattenkritik Preis for his recording ofthe cello concertos of Hans Pfitzner 

(1869-1949).

A champion of new music, Geringas has played the Western European 

premieres ofmany works ofthe Russian and Lithuanian avant-garde.

Among the well-known contemporary composers who have written cello

concertos for him are Sofia Gubaidulina, Ned Rorem, Erkki-Sven Tur, and

Peteris Vasks. As conductor, Geringas appears regularly in Germany and

abroad, frequently in a dual role as cellist and conductor. From 2005 to

2008, he was chief guest conductor for the Tokyo Philharmonic and China 

Philharmonic orchestras. In 2009 he conducted the Moscow Philharmonic

Orchestra, and the following year he made his debut as an opera conductor 

in Klaipeda, Lithuania, with Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

A recipient of Germany’s Verdienstkreuz erste Klasse for his achievements as musician and cultural ambassador, David Geringas is an honorary

professor at the Moscow Conservatory and the Central Conservatory in

Beijing. He appears at the National Gallery ofArt by arrangement with 

Shupp Artists Management, www.shuppartists.com.

5
Program Notes

Ofhis Fancy on a Bach Air, John Corigliano says: “This piece began in celebration and ended in memoriam. My cousin introduced me to his colleague

Robert Goldberg and his wife Judy, avid music lovers both. We became fast

friends. When, later, they asked me to compose a piece for their twenty-fifth

wedding anniversary, I suggested that instead of a single writer they ask a

group of composers to write variations. And what better theme to choose

than the venerable melody ofthe variations that bore their name? Bach

would surely approve.

“Their close friends Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax agreed to play the variations. Then tragedy struck. Robert succumbed to a virulent cancer and died

all too soon. Judy’s spirit and love led her to transform what might have been

a requiem into a celebration ofher husband’s life, and Ma and Ax performed

the set ofvariations preceded by the Bach theme in Boston where the Goldbergs 

live. My ‘Goldberg Variation,’ Fancy on a Bach Air, is for unaccompanied cello.

It transforms the gentle arches of Bach’s theme into slowly soaring arpeggios of almost unending phrase-lengths. Its dual inspiration was the love of

two extraordinary people and the solo cello suites of a great composer—both

ofthem strong, long-lined, passionate, eternal, and for me, definitive of all

that is beautiful in life.”

Bach’s six suites for unaccompanied cello date from about 1720, when

the composer was serving as Kapellmeister at the court ofAnhalt-Cothen.

Bach did not play the cello, and it may well be that he wrote these suites for 

one ofthe cellists in the small professional orchestra that Prince Leopold 

maintained at court. For a non-cellist, Bach displayed profound knowledge

ofthe instrument—the writing in these suites is idiomatic and assured,

and makes full use ofthe instrument’s lower register. Like the sonatas and

partitas for solo violin, the cello suites represent the summit ofthe music

written for unaccompanied string instruments.

Bach’s suites for solo cello remained for years the property of a handful

of connoisseurs—they were not published until 1828, more than a century

after they were written. In addition to the standard dance movements included

6

in a suite—allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue—Bach added an

introductory prelude to all six suites and interpolated one extra dance

movement just before each final gigue to make a total ofsix movements.

The noble Prelude ofthe Suite no. 1 in G Major rides along a steady pulse

ofsixteenth-notes, and it is the responsibility ofthe performer to breathe

musical life into these sequences. Bach makes full use ofthe resonant

sound ofthe cello’s open G string that underlies so much ofthis movement,

and indulges in a favorite pastime—inverted counterpoint—by concluding

the movement with a series of notes that is an inversion ofthe opening

series. The Allemande moves along in a similar sequence ofsteady sixteenths, although here the tempo feels slower and more dignified. In this

and the other binary movements, the performer has the option ofplaying or 

ignoring the repeat ofthe second section. The Courante (French for “running”) sails along with somewhat harder-edged rhythms, while the Sarabande dances with grave dignity; Bach makes effective contrast here between the resonance of great chords and the steady flow ofthe melodic line.

The interpolated movement in the First Suite is a pair ofminuets. Their

sprightly rhythms come from the origins ofthe minuet as a quick dance

rather than the stately tempo at which it was danced in eighteenth-century

courts. The concluding Gigue is a smoothly flowing brief dance in 6/8 time.

Anatolijus Senderovas (b. 1945) studied composition with Eduardas

Balsys (1919-1984), a leading Lithuanian composer ofthe post-World War 11

period, at the Lithuanian Academy of Music. Upon graduating from the

academy in 1967, Senderovas went on to study under Orest Evlakhov at the

Saint Petersburg Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov State Conservatory. In 1990, he

was a scholarship student at Tel Aviv’s Samuel Rubin Israel Academy ofMusic.

Other awards he has garnered in the course ofhis career are the Order ofthe

Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas (Knightly Cross), the Order of Merit to 

Lithuania (Officer’s Cross), second prize at the International Composition

Competition in Prague (1993), a diploma at the International Witold Lutoslawski

Composition Competition (1994), the Lithuanian National Prize (1997), the

European Composers’ Prize (2002), and the Prize ofthe World Intellectual

Property Organization (2008).

7
Bach’s Suite no. 5 in C Minor is often regarded as one ofthe finest ofthe

six that he wrote for solo cello. In minor key, it is expressive and somber. It

was evidently a favorite ofthe composer, who arranged it for solo lute several

years after writing it. An unusual feature ofthe cello version is that Bach

asks the cellist to retune his instrument, tuning the A-string (the top string)

down one full step to G; this makes possible certain chord combinations

that would otherwise be impossible with normal tuning.

The Prelude opens with the dotted figures characteristic ofthe French

overture and proceeds to fugal material, but the opening section does not

return, as it does in the classic French overture. The slow Allemande (that

title originally meant “German dance”) retains the dotted rhythms ofthe

opening movement, while the Courante is in a quick 3/2 meter, full of

multiple stopping. This technique—playing two or three notes at once—

presents special challenges to the cellist. The linear Sarabande, which 

unfolds with grave dignity, is followed by two Gavottes, one graceful and 

full of double-stopping, the other quick and built on flowing triplets. After a

repeat ofthe first Gavotte, the suite ends with a Gigue that is quite serious, 

unlike the merry Irish ancestor ofthat dance, the jig. Long-breathed legato

phrases maintain the somber gravity that has marked the entire suite.

Peteris Vasks was born in Aizpute, Latvia, where his father was a Baptist

pastor. Having received his early musical education at the local music school,

he subsequently attended the Emils Darzins Music School in Riga (1959-

1964), where he produced his first compositions and studied the double 

bass. His career as an orchestral player began in 1961, while he was still a

student. Due to his religious beliefs and artistic convictions, Vasks suffered 

under the cultural repression ofthe Soviet period in Latvia, but the fall ofthe 

Iron Curtain brought swift and widespread recognition ofhis works. Much

of his music is characterized by the juxtaposition of extremes—violent and

ethereal, impetuous and reserved, strictly metered and largely improvisatory.

Gramata cellam (Book for Solo Cello) tests every aspect ofthe performer’s

technical and musical abilities.

Known among the Bach cello suites for its heroic character, the Suite no. 3

shows Bach’s affinity for the cello in his choice of C major as its key. This

enables him to make ample use ofthe cello’s C string, and the resonance

ofthis lowest string echoes throughout the suite. Even though every note is

written out for the player, the prelude has an improvisatory quality—creating

the effect, no doubt intended by the composer, that the performer is creating 

the music on the spot. In the Allemande, Bach enlivens the basic pulse with 

turns, double-stops, and thirty-second notes. The Courante races past, while

the Sarabande is dignified and extremely slow. Many listeners will discover

that they already know the first Bourree, as this graceful dance has been

arranged for many other instruments; Bach presents an extended variation 

ofit in the second Bourree. The concluding Gigue dances quickly in its 3/8

meter; Bach offers the cellist some brisk passagework as well as extended 

double-stopping in this high-spirited dance.

Program notes by Danielle DeSwert Hahn, music program specialist,

National Gallery ofArt

9
Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Dali String Quartet

Music by Efrain Amaya

and other composers

January 26, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone

Russell Ryan, pianist

Schubert: Schwanengesang

February 2, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Building Court

-#>

Fine Arts Quartet

Music by Kreisler and Zimbalist

February 9, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Building Court

Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Aron Zelkowicz

Music by Barber, Chopin, 

and other composers

February 16, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Louise Toppin, soprano

Leon Bates, pianist

Spirituals and other music

by African American composers

February 23, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium