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 of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

www.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 circk@nga.gov for more information.

cover: Joan Miro, The Flight ofthe Dragonfly before the Sun, 1968,

National Gallery ofArt, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

The Seventieth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,899th Concert

New York Opera Society

Rosa Betancourt, soprano

Gustavo Ahualli, baritone

Giuliano Belotti, guitarist

Miguel Baselga, pianist

Presented in honor ofthe exhibition

Joan Miro: The Ladder ofEscape

July 1, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783)

Sonata in D-jlat Major

Ricardo Llorca (b. 1962)

El Combat del Somni

Mai mes

La Llum

En du-te’m

Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909)

Cadiz

Ernest Borras (b. 1928)

Llibre d’Amic

XIII

VIII

VI

x

INTERMISSION

Llorca

La Memoria de les Canelles

Xavier Montsalvatge (1912-2002) 

“Canto Negro” from 5 Canciones Negras

Albeniz

Zaragoza

This concert is made possible in part by support from the 

Institut Ramon Llull.

The Musicians

NEW YORK OPERA SOCIETY

New York Opera Society (nyos) benefits singers and audiences alike through

timely productions that offer fresh and provocative interpretations of contemporary and classical works, nyos annually tours a new production of an extant

work at international festivals and features a contemporary opera or new 

commission in the United States. In addition, it hosts a salon series and an 

international residency for performers; supports outreach in underserved

communities; and runs Les Jeunes Solistes, a training and educational program. In its most recent seasons, nyos presented new productions of Falstaff

and Madama Butterfly for its annual festival in southern France; the United

States premiere of a contemporary Spanish opera, Las Horas vacias, by

Guggenheim fellow and Juilliard faculty member Ricardo Llorca; and three

performances at the National Gallery ofArt. These featured a showcase for

young Norwegian singers in connection with the Norwegian Christmas at

Union Station (2008); a Gershwin songfest in honor of From Impressionism

to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection (2010); and the world premiere of a

children’s opera by Norwegian composer Gisle Kverndokk, Max and Moritz:

A Cartoon Opera in Seven Pranks in honor of Edvard Munch: Master Prints

(2010). Other notable nyos evenings have taken place at the Chicago Cultural Center, the Embassy ofItaly, and the World Financial Center in New

York City.

New York Opera Society is led by its president, A.T. Nguyen, and by

executive director Jennifer Cho, who has received numerous awards for her

work in music since completing her studies as at Northwestern University.

The society maintains a website at www.newyorkoperasociety.com.

3
ROSA BETANCOURT

Puerto Rican soprano Rosa Betancourt made her professional debut in 2005

as Musetta in Puccini’s La Boheme with Opera de Puerto Rico. Since then

she has sung the title role in the zarzuela Marina, Valencienne in The Merry

Widow, Cunegonde in Candide, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Rosina in Barhiere

di Siviglia, and Fraulein Silberklang in Der Schauspieldirektor. As a resident

young artist in Opera New Jersey's 2007-2008 season, she sang the title role 

in Romeo et Juliette for the company’s Summerfest. She has been featured as

a studio artist with the Fort Worth Opera, an invited artist with the Mimesis

Ensemble, and a guest soloist at the Casals Festival in San Juan. Among the

contemporary composers whose works she has sung are Jack Delano, Philip

Glass, and Malcom Peyton.

Betancourt holds degrees from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music

and the Mannes College of Music. Winner ofthe 2005 Metropolitan Opera

National Council Auditions in the Puerto Rico district, the following year she

was a finalist in both the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation and the Giuglio

Gari Foundation competitions. Additional honors include the Judge’s Award

at the 2007 Opera Index Competition and finalist in the 2008 Fritz and

Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition. In 2009 the Connecticut Opera

Guild awarded her the Andrea Pinto prize.

GUSTAVO AHUALLI

Baritone Gustavo Ahualli made his operatic debut in 1996 as Papageno in

Die Zauberflote at the Teatro San Martin in Tucuman, Argentina. Since then

he has sung leading baritone roles in numerous operas, including La

Traviata, Don Carlo, Lucia Di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale, La Favorita, Le

Nozze di Figaro, Cosifan tutte, La Boheme, Turandot, Eugene Onegin, Pagliacci,

and Carmen. Ahualli has recently performed at Argentina’s Teatro Argentino

de la Plata and Teatro San Martin and with Buenos Aires’ Opera Lirica and

Opera de Buenos Aires. In the United States, he has been heard with the

New Jersey Association ofVerismo Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Saint Louis’

Union Avenue Opera Theatre, the Westfield Symphony, and Wichita Grand

Opera. In addition to his many opera roles, Ahualli has performed the bass

4

arias in J. S. Bach’s Magnificat, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Verdi’s

Requiem. He was a featured soloist in the musical service offered by Pope 

Benedict xvi on his recent visit to Yankee Stadium.

Born in San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina, Ahualli began his musical

training at age seven with Hilda Deniflee, a student of Kodaly and Bartok.

In 1998 he obtained his Maestria de Canto from the Instituto Superior de 

Arte del Teatro Colon. In 2006 he was named first-prize winner ofthe New 

Jersey Association ofVerismo Opera Competition. Currently, Ahualli holds

positions as a bilingual cantor for the Sacred Heart Cathedral Basilica in

Newark, New Jersey, and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

GIULIANO BEIOTTI

Guitarist and composer Giuliano Belotti graduated from the Conservatory

Gaetano Donizetti in Bergamo, Italy, where he studied under Giorgio 

Oltremari. A recipient of a full scholarship at the Juilliard School of Music

from 1999 to 2001, Belotti worked under the tutelage of classical guitarist

Sharon Isbin. In 1997 he was awarded the Diplome Superieur d’Execution

at the Alfred Cortot Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris.

Belotti has given numerous recitals at prestigious concert halls in Asia,

Europe, Mexico, and the United States, including Alice Tully Hall, the Juilliard 

Theater, and Weill Recital Hall in New York, the dbs Auditorium in Singapore, 

Enrique Granados Auditorium in Spain, Salle Cortot in Paris, Teatro Gaetano

Donizetti in Italy, Teatro Juarez in Mexico, and Teatro La Perla in Puerto Rico.

He has appeared with the Chamber Orchestra ofthe Gran Teatre del Liceu de

Barcelona, the Czech National Orchestra, and the Young Symphony Orchestra ofTexas. As a composer, Belotti has published chamber music works

with Brotons i Mercadal in Barcelona and solo guitar works with Les Productions d’Oz in Canada. He gives master classes in Europe, Mexico, and the

United States.

5
MIGUEL BASELGA

Born in Luxembourg in 1966, Miguel Baselga began playing the piano at age

six. In 1985 he graduated from the Belgian Conservatory of Music of Liege

with a Piano First Prize and continued his piano studies with Eduardo Del

Pueyo until Maestro Pueyo’s death the following year. Baselga has performed

with several orchestras including the Asuncion, Madrid, Mineria, ndr

Hannover, and Tenerife symphonies and the Portugal, Rosario, and State

ofMexico symphony orchestras, as well as the Andorra National Chamber

Orchestra, Classic fm Orchestra, National Orchestra of Spain, Orchestre

National du Capitole de Toulouse, and Spanish Radio-Television Orchestra.

He has given solo recitals at the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Florida; 

the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum ofArt, and Weill Recital Hall 

in New York City; the Seattle Art Museum; and the University of Indiana.

Having recorded the complete piano works of Manuel de Falla, Baselga 

has recently recorded seven discs ofthe piano music ofIsaac Albeniz for the

Spanish label Columna Musica.

6

Program Notes

Presented in honor ofthe exhibition Joan Miro: The Ladder ofEscape, on view

in the East Building until August 12, 2012, this evening's program celebrates

the unique contributions to the world ofmusic by Isaac Albeniz, Ernest

Borras, Xavier Montsalvatge, and Antonio Soler, all ofwhom, like Miro, were

born in Catalonia.

Born in Barcelona, Miro supported Catalonia’s struggle for independence with a mixture of passion and pessimism. Upon completion of his

military service in 1919, he retreated to the countryside around Mont-roig,

where he painted landscapes. The peace ofthat setting was arguably the first

rung in his personal “ladder of escape.” But the troubled world around him

could not be ignored, and Paris—at the time a hotbed of artistic activity and

innovative political thought—beckoned. In 1920 Miro moved to Paris. Two

ofthe paintings he had brought with him, Self-Portrait and Mont-roig, the

Church and the Village, were first displayed in the Catalan section ofthe Salon

d’Automne and subsequently in an exhibition at the Galeries Dalmau in

Barcelona. The artist interacted with musicians and composers throughout

his life, particularly as he was drawn into the circle created by the Ballets

Russes in Paris, which in the 1920s included the director Serge Diaghilev,

dancers George Balanchine and Bronislava Nijinska, composers Francis

Poulenc, Erik Satie, and Igor Stravinsky, and fellow artists Max Ernst and

Pablo Picasso.

A prolific composer ofsacred music as well as keyboard sonatas and

concertos, Antonio Soler was born in Olot in Catalonia. When he was six,

his family sent him to study music at the nearby Monastery of Montserrat.

In 1744 he was appointed organist at the Cathedral of La Seu d’Urgell and

named subdeacon (the title “Padre” was assigned to him by later generations

ofmusic lovers, not by the Catholic Church). In 1762 he published a treatise

on modulation at the keyboard from one key to another, which was condemned

as dangerously modern by the established music theorists ofthe time, but

eventually came to be standard practice. He wrote 120 sonatas, almost all of

them in one-movement bipartite form. They are characterized by phrases

made out of one- or two-bar motifs.

7
One ofthe most promising talents to emerge from the new generation

of contemporary Spanish-American composers, Ricardo Llorca was born

in Alicante, a city located in the southeastern coastal region of Spain that

has been the birthplace ofmany great musicians, among them Oscar Espla,

Ruperto Chapi, Jose Iturbi, Lopez Chavarri, Martin y Soler, and Joaquin

Rodrigo. Llorca studied at Madrid’s Royal Conservatory under Roman Alis

and attended the most theoretically advanced courses at the Festival de 

Granada with Carmelo Bernaola, Luis de Pablo, and Luigi Nono. After graduating in 1988, Llorca traveled to New York in order to continue his studies

at the Juilliard School, where he worked with composers David Diamond

and John Corigliano. Upon completing his studies, Llorca assumed a faculty 

position at Juilliard, where he combines his teaching responsibilities with

his work as a composer. Ricardo Llorca was the composer-in-residence of

the New York Opera Society for their 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons.

The recipient of grants from the Argosy Foundation and Met-Life/Meet the

Composer, Llorca was awarded the Richard Rogers Scholarship in 1992, the

Virgen de la Almudena Award in 1999, and the John Simon Guggenheim

Award in 2001.

Born in Camprodon, a town in the Pyrenees Mountains in northeastern

Spain, Isaac Albeniz played his first piano recital at age four at the Teatro 

Romea in Barcelona. When he was seven, his family moved from Barcelona

to Madrid in order to enable him to study at the conservatory in the capital city,

but by the time he reached age twelve, he became bored with studies (and 

with life at home), and stowed away on a ship bound for South America. He

visited Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, and boarded other

ships bound for San Francisco and New York before he returned to Spain

the next year. At that point, he was ready to settle down, and he embarked

on a course ofstudy that eventually included classes at the conservatories of

Leipzig and Brussels. As a composer, Albeniz was one ofthe key figures in

the Spanish nationalist musical revival ofthe early twentieth century. His

music synthesizes Spanish dance rhythms and folk elements with colorful

virtuoso techniques. He is quoted as saying, “This [Spanish] music contains

light, warmth, and the taste of olives.”

Born in Barcelona, Ernest Borras had a fully developed career as a

sculptor before turning to music in the 1990s. Since completing his music

studies, he has composed works for singers and ensembles ofvarious types, 

including vocal duets and trios, flute and contrabass, and choral ensembles.

His lifelong fascination with the musical implications ofwords and syllables 

in the Catalan language has shaped his music for both voices and instruments.

A native of Lleida (Lerida) in western Catalonia, Xavier Montsalvatge was

an eclectic composer, drawing in the course ofhis long career from such disparate sources as Antillean and Cuban music as well as the music of Stravinsky

and the French composers known as “Les Six” (Georges Auric, Louis Durey,

Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre).

His inspiration for Canciones Negras was the folk music ofthe West Indies.

From 1939 to 1962, Montsalvatge was the chiefmusic critic for the magazine

Destino and the journal La Vanguardia. On March 24, 2002 pianist Alicia

de Larrocha included Montsalvatge’s Sonatina para Yvette in her tribute to

the composer’s ninetieth birthday at the National Gallery. He died just two

months later.

Program notes by Stephen Ackert, head, music department,

National Gallery ofArt

9
Concerts at the National Gallery of Art in September 2012

National Gallery ofArt New Music Ensemble

Music by John Cage

Marking the 100th birth anniversary

ofthe composer

September 5, 2012

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

East Building Auditorium

National Gallery ofArt New Music Ensemble

Music by John Cage

September 9, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium

Members of National Gallery ofArt

Resident Ensembles

Music by J. S. Bach and Osman Kivralc

September 23, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Barbora Kolarova, violinist

Andrea Rusova, lecturer

Music by Haba and Slavicki

Presented in connection with the 

Mutual Inspirations Festival

in collaboration with the

Embassy ofthe Czech Republic

September 26, 2012

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

The Catholic University ofAmerica Orchestra and Chorus

Music by Mozart and Rimsky-Korsakov

Presented in connection with the 

Mutual Inspirations Festival

in collaboration with the 

Embassy ofthe Czech Republic

September 30, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court
Texts and Translations

New York Opera Society

July 1, 2012

El Combat del Somni The Battle of Dreams

Text: Josep Janes (1913-1959)

Music: Ricardo Llorca

Poema 1: “Mai mes” Poem 1: “Nevermore”

Mai mes podre ferme a la mar del goig,

mentre tomin les roses 

a mi em retrobin encar tot sol,

lluny de tu, i amb les noses del gest i el

respir.

jSi pogues fiigir lluny de mi,

cap a l’alba que tu deus fer etema!

Tot es sotmes a una nit cendra i malva 

sense ales de Hum de dema pel mon.

Quan ens vingui a velar

Pesguard per obrir-lo al teu

si sabrem per que al punt de partir

no ens feies adeu amb la ma 

i ens daves la fe d’un dema.

Nevermore will I look at the sea with 

comfort;

Never again will I care for the roses to

return;

For I am alone and far from you.

Your face is now remote 

And your breath.

IfI could run away from myself

to get where you are,

At daybreak, then—endless auroras with 

you—I’d be blessed and contented.

But no....not yet.

Dark nights always without you,

Grey and purple nights,

Wanting your wings,

sweeping me around the globe.

And then, once you’ve returned,

my own wings unfold.

Only then I will know that when you left,

you didn’t wave at me to say goodbye 

but to give me the faith oftomorrow.
Poema 2: “La Llum”

La llum no m’isola de tu

com dies enlla m’isolava.

El mon ja no m’es insegur,

talment com m’ho fou.

Si mirava en tu com un somni llunya 

tomat enyoran9a i absentia,

avui et pressento la ma

i els ulls vora meu.

La presencia de tu se m’ha fet tan vivent 

que dintre del meu pensament

no hi viu altra’llum ni altra gloria.

Et tine en les mans i en el cor

com una can90 que no mor,

i als ulls, com una victoria.

Poema 3: “En du-te’m”

jEn du-te’m!

No et tomis record

ni et facis absent del paisatge

- un dia, tan pur - del meu cor.

En du-t’em a l’ultima platja del mon, 

on retrobi la pau perduda, 

on es puguin descloure les ales del cor 

sota un blau de cel,

on naveguin alloure sospirs i desigs en un

mar quiet, que els teus ulls asserenin.

Domina les ones, l’atzar,

i dun-me a camins que sols menin a tu.

Fes-me fort. Fes-me pur.

Tu sols, als meus ulls.

Tu i l’atzur.

Poem 2: “The Light”

The light in you no longer shines.

The light in you no longer isolates me

As in the past.

The light in you, which made my world so

insecure, is safe now,

No longer hurts my sight

As in the past.

The light in you was like a distant dream

Turned into melancholy,

Turned into absence.

And today, as yesterday, I give you my

hands and my eyes;

I’d given you all ofme.

Your presence is so vivid inside me 

that I have no other light

and need no other glory

Now I have you in my hands and in my 

heart like a song that never dies.

Now I have your eyes

Like a victory.

Poem 3: “Take Me Along”

Take me along!

I shall not be just a memory, not a distant 

thought; Stay in my landscape and rest;

In such a pure day and live eternally deep in

my heart.

Take me with you; Look no further.

Let’s go to a distant shore

And there, in regained peace, 

let’s unfold under the firmament, 

navigating, with sighs and desires, over a

quiet sea.

Surfing the waves, diving through paths 

only known by you,

Make me strong; make me pure;

Only you and your eyes—

Only you......and the blue.

Joan Vinyoli’s (1914-1984) collection ofpoems Primer desenllac, published in 1937, shows a

very personal style, in which poetry is conceived as a purely intellectual reflection. He saw this 

poetry as inseparable from the circumstances of his life, the sense ofwhich he questioned from

the standpoint ofthe enigma offaith. Clearly influenced by a quote from Reiner Maria Rilke 

(1875-1926)—“Poetry is not a matter offeelings but of experience”—Vinyoli continued to write 

in this style until 1963.

From Primer desenllac

Text: Joan Vinyoli

Music: Ernest Borras

Poem XIII

We were talking, we were expecting, and we were told: Go on the carriage and don't hurry into

the abyss, but the gulf was everywhere.

On the walls and in trees and on the streets and in the leaves, in the colors and in the sounds.

On the outskirts oftoday and the surroundings oftomorrow.

And we were going happily in the float, into the most perfect night....

Poem VIII

We began a long, difficult and dangerous road, but we thanked things, whether snow or mud,

dew or constellation, and we were making them ours, due to a love that taught us how to

appropriate them.

Poem VI

We endured the yellow wind, the blue fire, the unsafe water, and dryness of a river full ofrocks.

But then came the blizzard that cured our ills and spread over us a greenish night.

Then it hid us in a spike ofsilence and said to us words of consolation.

Poem X

We said to each other:

The difference between us and the wise seeker is in the fact that he discovers the gold in the

reflection ofthe water, while we pursue it through the labyrinths ofthe stone.... But getting lost,

we find the way to it....