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

East 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 ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

wuw.ngfl.gov

Concerts are made possible in part through the generosity ofdonors

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: Edvard Munch, Theatre Programme: John Gabriel Borkman

(Portrait of Henrik Ibsen with a Lighthouse), 1897, lithograph in black on wove paper, 

National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift ofThe Atlas Foundation

© The Munch Museum /The Munch-Ellingsen Group/ars 2012

The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,920th Concert

Tone Elisabeth Braaten, soprano

Andreas Sonning, flutist and artistic director

Kjell Habbestad, composer and narrator

with Members ofthe National Gallery ofArt Orchestra

Per Kristian Skalstad, conductor and violinist

Sponsored by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in honor of

the 150th anniversary ofthe birth of Edvard Munch

January 6, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium

Admissionfree
Program

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

From Holberg Suite, op. 40

Praeludium

En Fuglevise (A Birdsong), op. 25, no. 6

Text: Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

Detforste Mode (The First Meeting), op. 21

Text: Bjornstjerne Bjornson (1832-1910)

Arranged for string orchestra by Kjell Habbestad

Babcerli (Blueberry Slope)

Text: Arne Garborg (1851-1924)

Jeg elsker dig (I Love Thee Only), op. 5, no. 3

Text: Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875)

Arranged for string orchestra by Kjell Habbestad

Ole Bull (1810-1880)

Afsked (Farewell)

Arranged for string orchestra by Kjell Habbestad

Grieg

From Peer Gynt, op. 23

Solveig’s Song, op. 23

Text: Ibsen 

Anitra’s Dance, op. 23

INTERMISSION

Remarks by Kjell Habbestad

Kjell Habbestad (b. 1955)

Munch Suite (2012)

For flute, harp, and string orchestra

Part 1

The Voice/Summer Night

Eye to Eye/Attraction

Separation 

Part 11

Woman/Sphinx/The Dance of Life

Part ill

The Kiss

Love and Pain (Vampire)

Madonna

World Premiere Performance
The Musicians

TONE ELISABETH BRAATEN

A graduate ofthe Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, coloratura soprano

Tone Elisabeth Braaten has enjoyed international success as an opera singer,

recording artist, and frequent collaborator with symphony orchestras. A

founding member ofthe renowned vocal sextet Nordic Voices, with which

she sang at the National Gallery ofArt in 2008 and 2010, she has performed

the role ofthe Queen ofthe Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflote in France and

Germany and in multiple productions at the Norwegian National Opera. A

voice teacher and choral conductor at the Academy of Music in Oslo, she

maintains a website at www.tonebraaten.no.

ANDREAS S0NNING

Serving as artistic director as well as flutist in tonight’s concert, Andreas

Sonning is an associate professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in

Oslo, where he teaches communication skills, concert production, culture

management, dramaturgy, and music performance. He is the founding

director of Sonning Music Performance, a consortium with which he has

produced concerts in Austria, France, Germany, Greece, and Scandinavia as

well as Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Japan. From 2000 to 2008, Sonning was 

artistic director for a regional concert series in Agder, Norway, and for the

past five years has served as co-artistic director with conductor Pierre Bleuse 

of MusikA Toulouse. He maintains a website at www.sonning.no.

4

PER KRISTIAN SKALSTAD

Born in 1972, conductor and violinist Per Kristian Skalstad started playing the

violin at age six and the piano three years later. A graduate ofthe Norwegian

State Academy of Music, Skalstad studied the violin with Stig Nilsson, Ears

Anders Tomter, and Camilla Wicks. Assistant concertmaster ofthe Norwegian Opera Orchestra from 1993 to 2005 and a founding member from 1991

to 2007 ofthe Oslo String Quartet, Skalstad is currently a member ofthe Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. He has conducted all ofthe major Norwegian

orchestras and has performed as a violin soloist with the Bergen Philharmonic, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and

Risor Festival Strings.

KJELL HABBESTAD

Born in the town of Bremnes in the Norwegian province Sunnhordland,

Kjell Habbestad spent the early years of his career as a church organist. A

1981 graduate ofthe Norwegian State Academy of Music with a degree in

composition, he lectured for five years at the Bergen Conservatory of Music

and in 1986 was appointed associate professor at the Conservatory of Music, 

Oslo College. Since 1996 he has been a professor oftheory and composition

at the Norwegian State Academy of Music. His first major work, Magnificat,

won first prize in the 1978 composer’s competition sponsored by tono, the

Norwegian performing rights society. Since then he has produced, in addition

to a large number of choral and chamber works, an oratorio, Ei Natt pa Jorda,

and two operas, Hans Egedes Natt and The Maid ofNorway, all with texts by

Paal-Helge Haugen. Habbestad has also written concertos for organ and strings,

hardanger fiddle and symphonic band, and saxophone and symphonic band.

A writer and editor as well as a composer, Habbestad has written a reference

work for sacred choral music titled Cantate, and he created the visual as well

as the musical components ofhis Munch Suite. He maintains a website at 

www.kjellhabbestad.no.

5
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1943, the National Gallery ofArt Orchestra initially consisted of

approximately twenty-five players drawn from the National Symphony

Orchestra. Gradually growing in numbers, the ensemble eventually reached

the size and status of a large chamber orchestra. It has frequently presented

first performances ofworks by American composers, most notably the 1953

premiere of Charles Ives’ Symphony no. 1 under the direction of Richard

Bales and the 2007 premiere ofJohn Musto’s Later the Same Evening: An

opera inspired byfive paintings ofEdward Hopper, under guest conductor Glen

Cortese. Other guest conductors who have appeared with the orchestra in

recent years include Bjarte Engeset, Philippe Entremont, Vladimir Lande, 

George Mester, Otto-Werner Mueller, and Jose Serebrier.

Members ofthe National Gallery ofArt Orchestra participating in

tonight’s concert are:

Violinists Bassist

Regino Madrid

Jonathan Mott

John Nazdin

Karen Lowry-Tucker Harpist

Simon Rundlett Nadia Pessoa

Lisa Cridge

William Tortolano Pianist

Cristina Constantinescu Stephen Ackert

Luke Ridge

Percussion

Violists

George Ohlson

David Quick

Joseph Tortolano

Cellists

Marcio Botelho

Sean Neidlinger

6

Program Notes

This concert is the first observance in music ofthe 150th anniversary ofthe

birth of Edvard Munch (1863-1944), whose art will be celebrated in exhibitions and special events throughout 2013 in Europe and the United States. 

After a childhood marred by poverty and the untimely deaths ofhis mother

and his favorite sister, Munch enrolled at age thirteen in a technical college 

to study engineering, where he excelled in physics, chemistry, and math. In

1881 he enrolled at the Royal School ofArt and Design ofChristiania (now

Oslo), where his teachers were the sculptor Julius Middelthun (1820-1886)

and naturalist painter Christian Krohg (1852-1925). As he advanced into his

twenties, Munch found the naturalist and Impressionist idioms too superficial. He began a period ofreflection and self-examination, recording his

thoughts in a journal he titled “Soul’s Diary.” He wrote that his painting

The Sick Child (1886), based on his sister’s death, was his first “soul painting”

and his first break from Impressionism.

It was not until the late 1890s that Munch finally began to receive critical

acclaim for his work and some measure offinancial success. His life remained

unsettled, however, through his middle years, and he maintained consistently

that his art was an expression of his troubled existence.

Among the few close friends Munch cultivated were two prominent

musicians, the composer Frederick Delius (1862-1934) and the British

violinist Evangeline Hope Muddock (1883-1952), better known by her professional name, Eva Mudocci. One ofMunch’s pupils, the painter Jelka Rosen

(1868-1935), introduced him to Delius at the artists’ colony at Grez-sur-Loing. 

Rosen later became Delius’ wife, and the couple were important allies for 

Munch in Paris during the early 1900s, offering practical advice and assistance in arranging the exhibition of his work. Munch heard Mudocci perform in Paris in 1902 and was immediately smitten with her beauty and

talent. She was the model for a number ofhis most famous lithographs,

including The Brooch, Salome, and Violin Lesson, all completed in 1903.

Program notes by Stephen Ackert, head, music department,

National Gallery ofArt

7
I LOVE BUT THEE

Op. 5 No. 3

T: Hans Christian Andersen

Tr. William H Halverson

Thou art my joy, the radiance ofmy being,

O my beloved, thou my ecstasy!

I cherish thee, my every passion freeing,

I love but thee now and eternally!

SOLVEIG’S SONG

Op. 23 No. 19

T: Henrik Ibsen

Tr. William H. Halverson

The winter may pass and the spring disappear,

And summer too may vanish and soon the year.

But in my heart I know you will come back again,

And as I have promised, you will find me waiting then.

God strengthen you now ifyou’re wandering alone,

God grant you peace and joy ifyou stand at his throne.

Here I will wait until again you appear,

And ifyou are in heaven I will meet you there, my dear!

The Edvard Grieg Songs

English versions
A BIRD-SONG

Op. 25 No. 6

T: Henrik Ibsen 

Tr. William H. Halverson

One lovely day in springtime we strolled the avenue,

Thinking again to savour our secret rendezvous.

The west wind blew so gently, the sky was ocean-blue,

Above us flew a mocking-bird and sang its ‘loo-la-loo.’

We fashioned plans as lovers do, we vowed we would never part.

I told you that I loved you, you promised me your heart.

High in the tree above us, hark! a chirping refrain,

We kissed but once and said farewell, and ne’er did meet again.

Now as alone I wander along the avenue,

Those twittering, feathery creatures my every step pursue.

It seems a gossipy sparrow was listening as we spoke;

She made a song about us just for the feathered folk.

Now all the birds have learned it, its one they love to sing;

And every treetop tells the tale of that sweet day in spring.

THE FIRST MEETING

Op. 21 No. 1

T: Bjornstjerne Bjornson 

Tr. William H. Halverson

The thrill oflove’s first blooming is like a song in springtime,

Or golden rays ofsunshine when eventide is looming.

Like distant horns resounding in tones ofmuffled thunder,

All nature us surrounding, our souls unite in wonder.

BLUEBERRY SLOPE 

Op. 67 No. 3

T: Arne Garborg

Tr. Rolf Kr. Stang

Ah! Look, how this field’s a-bloom! Let’s stop to rest here, my Bossie!

We may help ourselves, I presume; just eat, so your coat grows glossy!

Such berries! I’ve never seen the like! The slope their blue-hue they lend.

I’ve hunger, too, from our hike; we’ll stay and feast till day’s end!

But what ifthe bear should come? There need must be room here for two.

With him here my voice would fall dumb; that scamper’s provoked

with a ‘boo.’

I might say, “Please, help yourself! My goodness, now don’t be shy!

It’s you first (I’ll wait myself); you own what’s under the sky!

But were it the sly red fox, he’d soon taste the sting of my hand-staff;

I’d chase him to give him sharp knocks, were he kin to the Pope,

this riff-raff!

This loathsome, sneaky red lout! He steals both our sheep and our lambs.

His elegant looks, there’s no doubt, mask his cruel treachery and shams.

But were it the wolf, we dread, as false as our bailiff, the mean brute,

A birch-club I’d strike at his head, and pray that I’d break his unclean snoot.

The ewes and their newborns succumb; poor mother’s lost much of her flock.

I swear! If he only should come, my blows the wretch would bemock.

But were it that splendid boy, the one from yon brushwood clearing,

Once more a big smack I’d employ, but this time one quite endearing!

What thoughts! My word, how absurd, my fantasy always at fault;

I must go tend to my herd; dear Bossies dreaming ofsalt.