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.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

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 circle@nga.gov for more information.

cover: Max Weber, Russian Ballet (detail), 1916, oil on canvas, 

Brooklyn Museum, bequest of Edith and Milton Lowenthal, 1992.11.29

The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,947th Concert

Robert Berkman, pianolist

Presented in in honor of

Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929:

When Art Danced with Music

May 15, 2013

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

East Building Mezzanine

Admissionfree
Program

“Ballets Russes mecaniques”

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Danse Russe, from Petrouchka

Recorded by Paul Doguereau

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Reflets dans l’eau, from Images I (Reflections in the Water)

Recorded by Silvio Scionti

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)

Le Boeufsur le toit (The Ox on the Roof)

Transcribed for pianola by the composer

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Vaises nobles et sentimentales (Noble and Sentimental Waltzes)

Modere—tres franc (Moderately—very sincerely)

Assez lent—avec une expression intense (Rather slowly—

with an intense expression)

Modere

Assez anime (Rather lively)

Presque lent—dans un sentiment intime (Almost slowly—

in an intimate mood)

Assez vif (Rather fast)

Moins vif (Less fast)

Epilogue: Lent (Epilogue: slowly)

Recorded by the composer

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

Mouvements perpetuels (Perpetual Movements)

Assez modere (Rather moderately)

Tres modere (Very moderately)

Alerte (Sprightly)

Recorded by Lev Pouishnoff

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Traumerei, op. 9, no. 4 (Reverie)

Recorded by Howard Brockway

Erik Satie (1866-1925)

Parade

Roll 1

Choral

Prelude du Rideau rouge (Prelude of Little Red Riding

Hood)

Entree des managers (Entry ofthe managers)

Prestidigitateur chinois (The Chinese Conjurer)

Petite fille americaine (Little American Girl)

Rag-time du Paquebot (Paquebofs Ragtime)

Roll 2

Acrobates (Acrobats)

Supreme effort des managers (A Supreme Effort on the 

Part ofthe Managers)

Finale

Suite au “Prelude du Rideau rouge”

(Suite on “Prelude of Little Red Riding Hood”)

Recorded by Robert Berkman 

World Premiere Pianola Performance

This concert is sponsored in part by the Billy Rose Foundation.
The Musician

ROBERT BERKMAN

Illuminating a forgotten but delightful aspect ofmusic making, Robert

Berkman is a uniquely qualified master ofthe pianola, revealing the expressive 

capabilities ofthat all-but-forgotten instrument while showcasing its remarkably

varied repertoire. The title ofthe program he brings today—Ballets Russes

mecaniques—refers not only to the exhibition Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes,

1909-1929: When Art Danced with Music, but also to the fact that Berkman

played an important role in developing an installation that proved to be a

highlight ofthe Gallery’s 2006 exhibition Dada. Designed to present a computerized robotic performance of George Antheil’s Ballet mecaniques on the

East Building Atrium, the installation required sixteen digital player pianos,

which were loaned by qrs Music Technologies, Inc., ofBuffalo, New York,

where Berkman was then chiefoperating officer. During the course of his

thirty-plus-year career at qrs, the world’s last piano roll manufacturer, he

produced numerous reissues ofhistoric roll recordings and maintained a

constant flow of new recordings.

Selecting from his large collection ofpiano rolls, some reproducing

performances by famous pianists ofthe early twentieth century, Berkman

presents programs that entertain and enlighten with souvenirs from the concert halls, dance halls, and private homes ofthat era. His particular interest

in the neglected area ofrolls from places other than the United States and

Western Europe prompted him to establish the largest institutionally-held

collection ofsuch rolls at the University ofCalifornia Los Angeles Ethnomusicology Archive, where he has taught and performed as a visiting scholar. Recent

projects have preserved rolls from the Arab world and Lithuania. Berkman

plays on an eighty-eight-note Aeolian pianola from about 1912 that has been

restored and is maintained by Jon Perry of Perry Piano Restoration, Marion

Center, Pennsylvania.

4

Program Notes

The instrument used in today’s concert is a “push-up” pianola, a device that

operates from piano rolls and turns any piano into a player piano. The operator of a pianola, or pianolist, is expected to impart his or her own interpretation to the rolls by using the instrument’s foot and hand controls. Dynamics

and accents are created by subtle and well-timed variations in pressure on

the foot pumps; the sustain pedal, bass/treble balance, and tempo are controlled 

by levers. Unlike the later “reproducing” pianos, which allowed for only minimal adjustments to the dynamics and tempo changes embedded in the rolls,

the pianola allows for considerable spontaneity on the part ofthe performer.

The heyday ofthe player piano coincided almost exactly with that of

Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (1909-1929), widely regarded as one of

the most remarkable artistic endeavors ofthe twentieth century. Many ofthe

composers commissioned by Diaghilev to write for his ballets are represented

on piano rolls, because player pianos and pianolas were very much in vogue

at the time. Either the composers themselves or other competent pianists

recorded the scores on pianos that were specially designed to cut rolls. Among

the companies that manufactured and sold piano rolls between 1909 and 1929

were the Aeolian Company in New York City; the American Piano Company

(Ampico) in East Rochester, New York; Pleyel et Cie in Paris; and M. Welte

and Sons in Frieberg, Germany, and New York City.

Two years before he was catapulted to world fame by The Rite ofSpring,

his composition for the Ballets Russes’ 1913 season, Igor Stravinsky received

his first commission from Serge Diaghilev. The impresario, looking for good

roles for dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, asked the composer to 

write music for a ballet based on the story of a rag doll named Petrouchka

that comes to life. The Danse Russe from Petrouchka on today’s program is

a 1926 Ampico roll created by pianist Paul Doguereau (1908-2000), a friend

of Ravel and an active participant in Boston’s musical life throughout the

second and third quarters ofthe twentieth century.

5
Claude Debussy’s Prelude a I’apres-midi d’unfaune, written in 1894,

proved a spectacular vehicle for Nijinsky when the Ballets Russes produced

the eponymous ballet in 1912. Several roll recordings ofthe Prelude were

produced, but they are not satisfactory for public performance, so Debussy

is represented in today’s concert by his Reflets dans I’eau (1905) in a Welte

recording by Silvio Scionti (1882-1973). Fortunately for the pianolist, it is a

rendition that readily lends itselfto interpretation.

One ofthe group of French modernist composers known as Les Six,

Darius Milhaud recorded selections from his 1924 Ballets Russes work Le

Train bleu in 1927 for Welte. The only Milhaud roll currently available, however,

is his own transcription ofhis surrealist ballet Le Boeuflsur le toit (The Ox on

the Roof). It was issued by Pleyel following the successful premiere ofthe

work in 1920 at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. The influence of exuberant

Brazilian popular music and the use ofpolytonality are evident. The ballet

gave its name to a celebrated bar and cabaret that opened in Paris in 1921

and was frequented by Jean Cocteau and his circle.

Maurice Ravel composed Daphnis et Chloe for Diaghilev’s 1912 season.

Its success led to a second commission, which was subsequently canceled.

This affair brought about the permanent estrangement of composer and

impresario, but Ravel proceeded to publish the work, La Valse, for piano solo

and as a tone poem for orchestra. Neither Daphnis et Chloe nor La Valse

appears to have ever been issued on rolls, but Ravel himselfrecorded his

early suite Vaises nobles et sentimentales in 1911 for Welte.

Another member of Les Six, Francis Poulenc had already come to the

attention of both Stravinsky and Diaghilev with his Rapsodie negre (1917)

when his Mouvements perpetuels became a hit in Europe in 1919. It was to

become his only work issued on rolls, in a Welte recording by the formidable Russian pianist Lev Pouishnoff (1891-1958). Poulenc’s subsequent

Ballets Russes score for Les Biches (1924) was warmly received by the critics

but went unrecorded by the roll makers.

6

Richard Strauss reportedly never received payment for composing the

music for Josephs-Legende for the 1914 Ballets Russes season. The rarity of

the roll version, recorded by Welte workhorse Hans Haass (1897-1955), suggests that that version was also a financial disappointment for the composer.

Since the holders ofthose rare copies ofJosephs-Legende are reluctant to lend

them, Strauss is represented on today’s program by his Traumerei (1908),

which offers a welcome moment ofrepose. The pianist who made this roll 

recording was Howard Brockway (1870-1951), a fine musician, an Ampico

artist, and a champion ofthe player piano.

An iconoclasticic Ballets Russes production, Eric Satie’s Parade (1917) is

based on a one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau, and features cubist sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso. Its absence from the piano roll repertoire is remedied

by a version created by Robert Berkman for performance in today’s concert.

It includes two sections from the orchestrated version that were long missing from the piano four hands version. Due to its length, the work has been

divided into two rolls. There will be a short pause between Roll 1 and Roll 2.

Program notes by Robert Berkman

7