extraordinary pianists of his time. His compositional efforts were limited 

to a few chamber music pieces, piano transcriptions of songs by Richard 

Strauss, and the work on tonight’s program. The theme for the variations

is Grieg’s Arietta, Op. 12.

Born in Sydney, Australia, composer Anne Boyd grew up on a remote

sheep station in central Queensland. She completed her undergraduate 

work at the University of Sydney and subsequently went to England to

study at the University of York, where she became the first woman to

graduate with a doctor of philosophy degree in composition. As a student

of East Asian cultures, Boyd responds to Asian influences in her work,

and she describes her style as uniquely “Australasian.” Bali Moods No. 1

is based on gamelan music and is written in an equal-tempered version

of the pelog scale, one of the two predominant scale systems used in

Indonesian music. Bali No. 2 is a meditation on Mt. Agung and its

position at the center of Balinese life. It highlights the flute as a melodic

instrument of great spiritual purity and power.

Poeme was composed by Sotireos Vlahopoulos for Karen Johnson and

Brian Ganz. It is a dialogue, at once separated and integrated, for flute

and piano. In through-composed form, Poeme emanates from 

interrelated thematic and harmonic materials, with the principal theme as

the focal point. Although the theme gives way to contrasting sections, its

essence is never long absent. Mixing haunting lyricism, sensuous sound,

color, and powerful enunciations, Poeme is at once introspective, 

sensitive, intense, and intimate.

One of the sparkling gems of the flute and piano repertoire is Francis

Poulenc’s Sonata, composed while he was on holiday in Cannes.

Dedicated to the American philanthropist and arts patron Elizabeth 

Sprague Coolidge, its Washington premiere performance was given on

14 February 1958 at the Library of Congress by flutist Jean-Pierre 

Rampal and pianist John Steele Ritter.

Program notes by Karen Johnson,

edited and adapted by Elmer Booze

The Fifty-ninth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2382d Concert

KAREN JOHNSON,flutist

BRIAN GANZ, pianist

Sunday Evening, 29 April 2001

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
PROGRAM

Ralph Vaughan Williams Suite de ballet

(1872-1958) (1913)

Improvisation 

Humoresque 

Gavotte 

Passepied

Walter Gieseking Variations on a Theme by Edvard Grieg

(1895-1956)

INTERMISSION

Anne Boyd

(b. 1946)

Sotireos Vlahopoulos 

(b. 1926)

Francis Poulenc

(1899-1963)

Allegro malinconico

Cantilena

Presto giocoso

Bali Moods Nos. 1 and 2

(1987-1988)

Poeme

Sonata for Flute and Piano

Op. 13 (1875-1876)

Flutist Karen Johnson is known as a colorful stylist of both the solo and

the chamber music repertoire for her instrument. Her playing has been

described as “exquisite and mesmerizing” by The Washington Post. In

recent seasons, she has performed with the Takacs String Quartet and the

Bach Aria Group at such venues as the Bethlehem Bach Festival and the

Glimmerglass Chamber Music Festival. She is active in expanding the

flute repertoire and has worked closely with Washington composer 

Jeffrey Mumford, from whom she recently commissioned a

work for two flutes, entitled Filaments. She played the premiere

performance of the work, which was featured on Mumford’s CD, the

focus of blue light. She has also premiered new works by Sotireos

Vlahopoulos, William Albright, and Francis McKay. In 1998 she formed

a duo, SKYA, with Dutch harpist Astrid Walschot-Stapp, and she is a

member of the Washington-based Fessenden Ensemble. The winner of

numerous awards and competitions, including a 1998 solo instrumental

grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, Karen Johnson is currently 

on the faculties of the Washington Conservatory of Music and the

Fevine School of Music.

Pianist Brian Ganz is regarded as one of the leading pianists of his

generation. After his 1995 performance with the St. Fouis Symphony, the

St. Louis Post-Dispatch critic wrote: “Note-perfect cascades of rippling

arpeggios, melodies soaring into space, and microscopically sculptured 

phrases only begin to describe Ganz’s breathtaking technique and

spectacular musicianship.” Ganz was winner of one of two first grand

prizes awarded in the 1989 Marguerite Fong/Jacques Thibaud

International Piano Competition in Paris. On that occasion, he also

received special prizes for the best recital of the competition and best

performance of the required work. He has appeared three times at the

National Gallery, twice in recital and once as accompanist for violist

Nancy Usher. A graduate of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins

University in Baltimore, Ganz was a pupil of Feon Fleisher, Ylda Novik,

and Claire Deene. Brian Ganz is musician-in-residence and a member 

of the piano faculty at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and has

just been appointed to the part-time faculty of The Catholic University of

America.

Ralph Vaughan Williams composed only a few chamber works, among

them the colorful Suite de ballet. He was credited with popularizing 

English folk music, and the folk element can be heard in these four brief 

but appealing movements: the hauntingly melodic Improvisation, the

jaunty, jiglike Humoresque, the stately yet simple Gavotte, and the

delightful Passepied in the style of a hornpipe.

The distinguished German pianist, Walter Gieseking, is

remembered as a performer rather than a composer. A musician

of superb taste and intellect, he was considered one of the most