Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

200ob South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

National Academy of Sciences

Auditorium Entrance: 2100 c Street, nw

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www.loc.gov/concerts

cover: Carl Joseph Begas, Felix Mendelssohn

Bartholdy, 1821, Private Collection

Mendelssohn on the Mall

January 11-February 27, 2009

Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of

the birth of Felix Mendelssohn

(February 3,1809-November 4,1847)

Presented by the Library ofCongress,

the National Academy of Sciences, and the

National Gallery ofArt under the gracious patronage

of His Excellency Dr. Klaus Scharioth, Ambassador

ofGermany to the United States

Admission isfree
Mendelssohn on the Mall

January 11-February 27, 2009

Concerts and Events

JANUARY

11 Ma’alot Wind Quintet

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer

Night’s Dream, transcribed for

wind quintet; music by Ligeti,

Barber, and Piazzolla

Preceded at 6:00 pm by a

preconcert lecture: Mendelssohn

and the Visual Arts

SUNDAY, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

18 Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio

with guest artists Edwin Kaplan

and Sel Kardan, violas, and Kurt

Muroki, bass

Mendelssohn: Sextetfor Piano

and Strings, op. 87; music by Sheng

and Smetana

Sunday, 3:00 PM

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

18 National Gallery Orchestra,

Kenneth Slowik, guest conductor

Mendelssohn: “Italian” Symphony;

Schubert: Symphony in C Major

(“Great”)

Sunday, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

25 Fine Arts Quartet

Mendelssohn: Quartets, opp. 12

and 44/1

Sunday, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

Hie Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and

F. Lammot Belin 

National Gallery of Art

2,702nd Concert

January 18, 2009

National Gallery Orchestra

Kenneth Slowik, guest conductor

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Symphony no. 4, op. 90 (“Italian”)

Allegro vivace

Andante con moto

Con moto moderato

Saltarello: Presto

INTERMISSION

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Symphony no. 9 in C Major, D. 944 (“Great”)

Andante; allegro ma non troppo; piu moto

Andante con moto

Scherzo: Allegro vivace

Finale: Allegro vivace
The Musicians

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

The National Gallery Orchestra was founded in 1943 and initially consisted

of approximately twenty-five players drawn from the National Symphony

Orchestra. Gradually growing in numbers, the Gallery orchestra eventually

reached the size and status of a large chamber orchestra. The ensemble has

undertaken the full range of chamber and symphonic repertoire and has

frequently presented first performances ofworks by American composers,

most notably the 1953 premiere ofCharles Ives’ Symphony no. 1 under the

direction of Richard Bales and the 1990 premiere of Daniel Pinkham’s

Symphony no. 4 under George Manos. The orchestra recently completed a

highly successful concert tour in North Carolina, under the direction of

guest conductor Vladimir Lande.

KENNETH SLOWIK

Kenneth Slowik first established his international reputation primarily as

a cellist and viola da gamba player through his work with. Anner Bylsma’s

L'Archibudelli, the Axelrod Quartet, the Castle Trio, the Smithson String

Quartet, and the Smithsonian Chamber Players. In 1988 he was named

a rtistic director ofthe Smithsonian Chamber Music Society and became

the conductor ofthe Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra and the Santa Fe Bach

Festival . In 1993 he was appointed artistic director ofthe Baroque Performance Institute at the Oberlin College Conservator)’ of Music, and he led

the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra from 1999-2004. In recent

years he has devoted increasing amounts of time to conducting orchestral,

oratorio, and operatic repertoire with modem- and period-instrument

ensembles on both sides ofthe Atlantic.

Slowik has been a featured instrumental soloist and/or conductor with

numerous orchestras, among them the Baltimore Symphony, the Cleveland

Orchestra, the National Symphony, FOrchestre Symphonique de Quebec,

and the Vancouver Symphony. A frequent guest artist with prominent

3

chamber groups as wrel 1 as with most ofthe leading American early music

ensembles, he enjoys providing the organ or harpsichord continuo for performances oflarge-scale baroque works at various festivals in the United States

and abroad, and appears in recital both as harpsichord soloist and fortepiano

collaborator for duo sonatas and Lieder. He previously appeared at the National

Gallery in several ofthe above capacities in 2000, 2005, and 2006.

Slowik’s impressive discography comprises more than sixty recordings

featuring him as conductor, cellist, gambist, and keyboard player for music

ranging from the baroque (Marais, Corelli, Bach) through the classical (Haydn, 

Boccherini, Beethoven, Schubert) and romantic periods (Mendelssohn, Gade, 

Spohr) to the early twentieth century (Schonberg, Mahler, Richard Strauss).

Ofthese, many have won prestigious international awards, including France's

Diapason d’Or and Choc, the British Music Retailers’ Award for Excellence, 

Italy’s Premio Internazionale del Disco Antonio Vivaldi, twro Grammy®

nominations, and numerous “Record ofthe Month’’ and “Record ofthe Year”

prizes. Current projects include a twenty-CD traversal ofthe complete Haydn

baryton trios with the ensemble Esterhazy Machine, and a documentary dvd

about Schonberg’s First Chamber Symphony and Verklarte Nacht.

As an educator, Slowik has presented lectures at colleges and universities

throughout the United States and has contributed to a number ofsymposia

and colloquia at museums throughout the United States and Europe. He

serves on the faculties ofthe University of Maryland and l'Academie Internationale du Domaine Forget in Quebec.

4
Program Notes

Felix Mendelssohn was born on February 3,1809. With “Mendelssohn on 

the Mall,” the Library of Congress, the National Academy of Sciences, and

the National Gallery ofArt join musical presenters around the world in

celebrating the bicentennial ofthe birth of a composer whose works have

become essential to the Western canon. Art historians and cultural historians alike are fascinated by Mendelssohn because he was a “Renaissance 

man” who developed skills in many areas to a highly sophisticated level,

including drawing and painting, sports, and writing. He was lionized in his 

own time as a composer, conductor, and performer, and the world mourned

his untimely death in 1847 at age 38.

Mendelssohn’s fourth and last symphony is dubbed “Italian” because 

he jotted down the first sketches for the work while he was traveling in Italy

for the first time in 1830. There is a reference to music in the Italian style in 

the final movement, but the connection of this symphony to Italy has been

drawn primarily by musicologists, who have compared the exuberance of

the first movement with a letter Mendelssohn wrote on the occasion of his

arrival in Italy, which includes the lines: “Italy, at last! What I have all my life

considered as the greatest possible felicity is now begun.”

The second movement (Andante con moto) has given rise to speculation

on the part ofsome famous musicologists as to possible inner meanings in

the music. Sir Donald Francis Tovey (1875-1940) found it to be a religious 

testimony, tracing Mendelssohn’s “progress” from Judaism to Christianity

(The Mendelssohn family converted secretly in 1816, when Felix was seven

years old). Sir George Grove (1820-1900), principal editor ofthe famous

Grove's Dictionary ofMusic and Musicians, heard the two opening measures

ofthe movement as “the cry of a muezzin from his minaret.”

5

The third movement (Con moto moderato) reveals Mendelssohn as the 

romantic classicist, a position in music history that he occupies more firmly

than any other composer. It is a scherzo in the traditional manner, with the

usual repeats and a contrasting middle section, or trio. A whimsical departure from the standard form occurs at the very end ofthe movement, when

Mendelssohn slips in a briefrecollection ofthe main idea from the trio.

The fourth movement’s reference to Italian music comes in the form of

a saltarello, a traditional dance marked by rapid rhythm and athletic movements that include impulsive leaps. The dancelike character oftire movement

becomes more intense as the rhythm evolves into the more feverish pulse of

the tarantella. As the movement draws to a close, Mendelssohn blends the 

two dances, resulting in an exhilarating finish.

When Franz Schubert died in 1828, Mendelssohn—already an accomplished composer—was just nineteen years old. He was well acquainted

with Schubert’s works and a great admirer ofthem, especially the ninth and

last, the Symphony in C Major, which Mendelssohn and others who revered

Schubert came to identify as the “Great” symphony. It represented hero worship and a compositional crisis on Schubert’s part, because, after the impact

on the musical world of Beethoven’s Ninth Syynphony, any other composer’s

ninth symphony would unavoidably be compared to that monumental work.

Schubert responded to the challenge by extending the length of every part of

the first movement, placing more than the usual number of beautiful melodies in each (the introduction alone has three themes), and developing the

motifs with a passion, intensity, heroic breadth, and dramatic interest that

surpassed anything he had previously written.

6
The lyrical second movement (Andante, con moto) serves as a beautiful

foil for the Beethovenesque first movement. Its reverie is interrupted by

distant trumpet calls, which seem to come from another world, and disappear as mysteriously as they came. Both the cello and the oboe are given

sublime melodies, which are eventually woven together in a duet.

In the third movement (Scherzo: Allegro vivace), Schubert elaborates at

length in each repeated section and transforms the traditional triple meter

of the scherzo into an accented waltz. Tire trio appears to have been inspired

by an Austrian folk song, with a repeated note in tire horns perhaps calling

to mind the alphorn.

Tire final movement (Allegro vivace) bursts upon the listener like a storm, 

propelled along its course by an ebullient triplet figure that first appears in

the strings. As in the Scherzo, the horns are given tire honor of prefacing 

each new theme with a fanfare. The movement has two themes, both of

which return with great effect in the recapitulation that ends the symphony 

with triumph and conviction.

/

For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

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 of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.
FEBRUARY

Exhibition of Mendelssohn manuscripts, letters, watercolors, and the 

Mendelssohn family scrapbook

THROUGHOUT FEBRUARY 2OO9

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

i Ulrich Urban, pianist

Mendelssohn: Fantasies and Caprices,

op. 16; selected Songs without Words;

Variations serieuses, op. 54

SUNDAY, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

6 Cypress Quartet

Mendelssohn: Quartet, op. 13;

music by Beethoven and Puts

FRIDAY, 8:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

8 Josef Feigelson, cellist

Peep Lassmann, pianist

Mendelssohn’s complete works

for cello and piano

Sunday, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

10 Mira Trio

Hensel: Piano Trio in D Minor, op. 11;

Mendelssohn and Hensel: Songs

without Words; Mendelssohn:

Piano Trio no. 2 in C Minor, op. 66 

Preceded at 6:15 pm by a

preconcert presentation by

Susan Clermont, Music Division,

Library ofCongress

Friday, 8:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

13 Atrium Quartet

Mendelssohn: Quartet, op. 80;

music by Shostakovich and Borodin

FRIDAY, 8:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

15 University ofAkron Concert Choir,

Samuel Gordon, conductor

Mendelssohn: Wie der Hirsch schreit,

op. 42; Chorale Cantata: O Haupt

voll Blut und Wunden; hymn: Hor

mein bitten

SUNDAY, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

18 Trio con Brio Copenhagen

with guest artist James Dunham,

viola

Mendelssohn: Piano Quartet in

B Minor, op. 3; Beethoven:

“Archduke" Trio

Preceded at 6:15 pm by a preconcert 

presentation by R. Larry Todd,

Duke University

WEDNESDAY, 8:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

19 Presentation by R. Larry Todd,

Duke University

Reflections on the Mendelssohn

Bicentenary

THURSDAY, 7:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

22 Mendelssohn Piano Trio

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in D Minor,

op. 49; music by Beethoven

Sunday, 6:30 PM

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

27 Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh,

Betsy Burleigh, director

Mendelssohn: Psalm 55; Sechs

Spriiche, op. 79; music by Handel, 

Haydn, Herbert, and Rindfleisch

Friday, 8:00 PM

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS