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The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,909th Concert

PostClassical Ensemble

Angel Gil-Ordonez, Music Director

Joseph Horowitz, Artistic Director

George Vatchnadze, pianist

Presented in conjunction with 

“Interpreting Shostakovich”

November 4, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

(performed without intermission)

Music by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Chamber Symphonyfor Strings in C Minor, op. 110a

Transcribed by Rudolf Barshai from String Quartet no. 8, op. no (i960)

Largo

Allegro molto 

Allegretto

Largo

Largo

Preludes and Fuguesfor Solo Piano from op. 87

Prelude in C Major (as recorded by the composer)

Prelude and Fugue in C Major

Prelude and Fugue in G Minor

George Vatchnadze, pianist

Chamber Symphonyfor Strings in A-flat Major, op. 118a

Transcribed by Rudolf Barshai from String Quartet no. 10, op. 118 (1964)

Andante

Allegro furioso 

Adagio

Allegretto
The Musicians

POSTCLASSICAL ENSEMBLE

Founded in 2003 by Angel Gil-Ordonez and Joseph Horowitz, PostClassical

Ensemble is an experimental musical laboratory testing the limits of orchestral programming. Its tagline, “More than an Orchestra,” refers to the thematic

scope and exceptional formats ofits concerts, and aspiration to embrace collaborative and educational activities not normally associated with orchestras.

This spring, the ensemble will present “Dvorak and America” at the Clarice 

Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, Maryland, which will include

the world premiere of Hiawatha Melodrama—a creation of Horowitz and

Dvorak scholar Michael Beckerman, inspired by the Longfellow poem The

Song ofHiawatha and drawing on elements of Dvorak’s New World Symphony.

The ensemble maintains a website at www.postclassicalensemble.com.

PostClassical Ensemble gratefully acknowledges support for “Interpreting

Shostakovich” from the the District ofColumbia Commission on the Arts 

and Humanities and from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Members of PostClassical Ensemble participating in tonight’s concert are:

Violin 1

Oleg Rylatko, concertmaster

Zino Bogachek

Ko Sugiyama

Susan Midkiff

Cristina Constantinescu

Sonja Chung

Violin 11

Xi Chen, principal

Eva Cappelletti

Jan Chong

Jennifer Rickard

Heather Haughn

Viola

Philippe Chao, principal

Chris Shieh

Adrienne Sommerville-Kiamie

Megan Yanik

Cello

Igor Zubkovsky, principal

Den Ding

Kerry Van Laanen

Bass

Ed Malaga, principal

Marta Bradley

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The former associate conductor ofthe National Symphony Orchestra of

Spain, PostClassical Ensemble Music Director Angel Gil-Ordonez has conducted throughout Europe, Latin America, and the United States. In 2006

King Juan Carlos 1 of Spain awarded Gil-Ordonez the country’s highest civilian

decoration, the Royal Order of Queen Isabella, for his work in advancing

Spanish culture around the world. He also serves as principal guest conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble, and as music director ofthe

Georgetown University Orchestra.

GEORGE VATCHNADZE

An associate professor of piano and coordinator ofthe keyboard program at 

DePaul University in Chicago, George Vatchnadze has previously appeared

with PostClassical Ensemble in the Stravinsky Project at Strathmore Hall 

in Bethesda, Maryland. His 1997 recital debut at the Edinburgh Festival

received the Herald Angel Award, presented by the Scottish Herald. A veteran

ofrecitals and orchestral appearances throughout Canada, Chile, Finland,

France, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, 

and the United States, he made his New York recital debut in 1999 at Lincoln

Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Reviewing that performance, critic Faubion Bowers

wrote: “Vatchnadze is a consummate artist, now at the height ofhis musical

and intellectual powers. He can do absolutely anything he wants at the piano.”

ANGEL GIL-ORDONEZ

5
Program Notes

This concert is the musical culmination of a multi-week festival titled

“Interpreting Shostakovich,” a collaboration between PostClassical Ensemble 

and the film and music departments ofthe National Gallery ofArt. In addition

to film presentations and discussions at the National Gallery, the festival has 

included events at the Dumbarton Concert Series as well as at The George

Washington and Georgetown universities. PostClassical Ensemble, conducted 

by Angel Gil-Ordonez, was joined in the festival by the ensemble’s artistic 

director, Joseph Horowitz; authors Roy Guenther, Peter Rollberg, and Solomon

Volkov; and filmmaker Tony Palmer to provide a “Shostakovich immersion

experience.” Offerings included four films scored by Shostakovich; Palmer’s

1988 film Testimony; panel discussions; examples from Shostakovich’s choral

and chamber music; and a discussion ofVolkov’s book Testimony: The Memoirs

ofDmitri Shostakovich, led by the author.

A prolific writer on the subject of Russian arts and culture, Volkov has

also written Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky; Conversations with Joseph Brodsky; From

Russia to the West: The Musical Memoirs and Reminiscences ofNathan Milstein;

Saint Petersburg: A Cultural History; Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary

Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator, and The Magical

Chorus: A History ofRussian Culturefrom Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn. Volkov’s biography of Shostakovich was prepared in close collaboration with the composer during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

In a recent interview with PostClassical Ensemble artistic director 

Joseph Horowitz, Solomon Volkov provides revealing insights into the 

circumstances surrounding the composition of Shostakovich’s String

Quartet no. 8, op no. Volkov quotes the composer: “When I wrote the Eighth

Quartet, it was assigned to the department of'exposing fascism.’ You have to

be blind and deafto do that, because everything in the quartet is as clear as a

primer. I quote Lady Macbeth [and] the First and Fifth Symphonies. What does

fascism have to do with these? The Eighth is an autobiographical quartet; it

quotes a song known to all Russians: ‘Exhausted by the hardships of prison.’”

6

Volkov adds: “I would say that the Eighth Quartet was the first time

Shostakovich wrote a ‘letter in a bottle.’ I believe firmly that everything one

creates as an artist is autobiographical in nature with very rare exceptions.

Especially, ifit bleeds. At a certain point, he can begin to feel less at the mercy

offate than a participant in something like divine will.... [Shostakovich] felt

that he was on earth to play an important societal and even political role.

“That understanding began for him after 1936, when he was denounced

in Pravda for Lady Macbeth ofMtsensk. Remember, this opera had been

received in Leningrad as the greatest Russian opera since Tchaikovsky’s

Pique Dame; a milestone. The critics were in effect saying [that] the tradition

of Russian opera is in your hands... .Then, suddenly, absolutely unexpectedly, he received an almost mortal blow: the denunciation in Pravda. And

from this point on, I believe, he would intentionally interpolate quotations

in his music that reveal his situation and his attitudes. The Eighth Quartet is

a culmination ofthis process. Here he was as open as possible and was

saying for the first and last time: ‘This is about me.’”

A clue to the autobiographical character ofthe quartet is found in the 

frequent repetition of a four-note motif—D, S, C, H —the first letter of

Shostakovich’s first name and the first three letters of his last name, as it is

spelled in German. In German musical notation, those four letters correspond to the notes D, E-flat, C, and B.

In “Shostakovich and Film,” an essay prepared for the festival, Tony

Palmer makes a comparison between Shostakovich and Igor Stravinsky

(1882-1971) that provides additional insight into the former composer’s

mind set: “[Shostakovich’s] life and his colossal achievements bestride the 

twentieth century like no other composer, except perhaps his compatriot

Stravinsky. And that is not an idle comparison. I met both men, and to his

dying day Stravinsky always maintained he was a ‘Russian’ composer. And

to his dying day, Shostakovich always regretted his infamous denunciation of

Stravinsky in 1949 as being ‘formalist’ and therefore worthless. Both knew 

in their hearts that, as two ofthe greatest composers ofthe century, they

were the two sides ofthe same coin. They were the twentieth century in all

its blood-soaked barbarism.

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“But whereas Stravinsky had opted for a comfortable life in the West

(although he himselfhad been every bit as much anti-Tsarist as Shostakovich), 

Shostakovich had chosen to stay in Russia, in spite ofvarious opportunities

to leave.... It is clear to me now that ifwe want to know what it was like to

live under Stalin in the Soviet Union from 1924 until 1953, the year of Stalin’s

death, listen to Shostakovich. It’s all we’ve got. Shostakovich’s music is truthful, painful, and horrific. So in this sense, it is the most powerful memorial

imaginable to the greatest number ofinnocent souls destroyed by a tyrant in

all ofrecorded history.”

In 1950 Shostakovich represented the Soviet Union at a music festival in

Leipzig, Germany, marking the bicentennial ofthe death ofJohann Sebastian

Bach (1685-1750). His duties included being the chair ofthe judging panel

for the first International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. One ofthe

entrants in the competition was twenty-six-year-old Tatiana Nikolayeva from

Moscow. Though not required to do so by competition regulations, she had

come prepared to play any ofthe forty-eight preludes and fugues of The WellTempered Clavier on request. Impressed with her depth of preparation and

skill in performing Bach’s music, the jury awarded her the gold medal.

Inspired by the competition and impressed by Nikolayeva’s playing,

Shostakovich started composing his own cycle oftwenty-four preludes and

fugues. He worked fairly quickly, taking only three days on average to write

each piece. As each was completed, he would ask Nikolayeva to critique it. Upon

finishing the cycle in 1951, Shostakovich dedicated the work to Nikolayeva,

who gave the public premiere in Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad) on

December 23,1952.

Beginning with a classically simple and harmonically straightforward

phrase, the first prelude, in C major, proceeds to transpose through an

eclectic array ofharmonies, including ninth and eleventh chords more often

heard in jazz. Its wistful tone, rendered mostly at the pianissimo dynamic

level, continues into the C-Major Fugue. In contrast to the harmonic complexity ofthe prelude, the fugue is written in the purest C major, without a

single accidental.

A master ofthe use of ostinato, Shostakovich mesmerizes the listener

with the persistent simplicity ofthe G-Minor Prelude. Its companion fugue

has a theme that recalls Bach’s D-Minor Fugue from Book 1 of The WellTempered Clavier. Shostakovich meanders quietly through a number ofmodulations before ending the fugue on an enigmatic upward turn.

As was to happen to Shostakovich so often later in his career, his preludes

and fugues met with scorn in official circles. After an obligatory preview,

played in 1951 by the composer for a panel from the Union of Soviet Composers, members ofthe panel expressed great displeasure at the dissonance

in some ofthe fugues. They also objected to the fugue in Soviet music,

because they considered it too Western and archaic.

Program notes based in part on materials provided by Joseph Horowitz,

artistic director, PostClassical Ensemble

9
Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt in November 2012

Michael Lewin, pianist

Music by Debussy

and other composers

November 11, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Washington Saxophone Quartet

Music by Bielawa, d’Rivera,

and other composers

Presented in honor of

Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective

November 18, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

National Gallery ofArt Orchestra

Philippe Entremont,

guest conductor and soloist

Music by Brahms, Danielpour,

and Mozart

November 25, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court