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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.

The Seventy-Third Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

3,040th Concert

Musica ad Rhenum

Jed Wentz, flutist and conductor

Sarah DeCorso and Evan Few, violins

Joseph Tan, viola

Job ter Haar, cello

Michael Borgstede, harpsichord

March 1, 2015

Sunday, 3:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court
Program

Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773)

Concertofor Flute, Two Violins, and Basso Continuo in E Minor

Allegro

Andante moderato

Allegro assai

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Suitefor Solo Cello in G Major, BWV 1007

Prelude

Allemande

Sarabande

Menuets 1 and 11

Gigue

Bach

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903 (c. 1720)

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

Concerto in G Majorfor Flute, Strings, and Basso Continuo

Andante

Allegro 

Adagio 

Allegro

The Musicians

MUSICAAD RHENUM

Since its founding in 1992, the chamber ensemble Musica ad Rhenum has

created a devoted following for its personal and highly emotional style of

interpretation of baroque music. Balancing the intentions ofthe composer

against the needs ofthe creative performer, the group aims to move, amuse,

and delight the audience through the music itself, believing that baroque

music is strong, expressive, and as relevant today as when first composed.

The group has specialized in French music, resulting in a 2004 recording of

the complete chamber music of Francois Couperin that has sold more than

20,000 copies and been highly praised in the press. Its 2004 debut at the

National Gallery consisted ofmusic by Couperin, Forqueray, Leclair, and

other French baroque composers.

A frequent guest ensemble at festivals in York, London, Graz, Antwerp,

Madrid, Berlin, and Utrecht, Musica ad Rhenum has been heard in the

Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Frick Museum in New York, Wigmore Hall

in London, Philharmonie in Berlin, and both Musikhaus and Musikverein

in Vienna. Ensemble members joining founder Jed Wentz in today’s concert

are violinists Sarah DeCorso and Evan Few, violist Joseph Tan, cellist Job ter

Haar, and harpsichordist Michael Borgstede. Musica ad Rhenum appears at 

the National Gallery by arrangement with Shupp Artists Management, Inc.

JED WENTZ

A graduate ofthe Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, the Royal Conservatory ofThe Hague, and the University of Leiden, Jed Wentz founded Musica 

ad Rhenum and serves as its flauto traverso (transverse flute) player and conductor. Under his direction, the ensemble has produced more than thirty

CDs of eighteenth-century repertoire. A member ofthe faculty at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, he has published articles on music and dance in

Tijdschrift Oude Muziek, Early Music, Journalfor Eighteenth-Century Studies,

and other publications. In 2012 he was appointed artistic advisor to the

Utrecht Early Music Festival.

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Program Notes

Rightfully acknowledged as the father ofthe modern flute and its repertoire,

Johann Joachim Quantz was a virtuoso flute player, prolific composer, and

innovator in instrumental design and techniques. He had the good fortune

to be hired as court musician and private teacher by Emperor Frederick n of

Prussia (1712-1786), who was also a talented flutist and supported a virtuoso

court orchestra, for which he hired Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)

as harpsichordist and conductor. Quantz composed more than three hundred

concertos and sonatas for the flauto traverso, so named because it is held to

the side, rather than directly in front ofthe player. He authored a method for

playing his instrument—a book that also contains invaluable instructions

for interpreting the music written at his time, including customs that were

passed down orally from master to pupil and would otherwise have been lost

to posterity.

Johann Sebastian Bach composed his six suites for violoncello solo

during a period of creative focus on instrumental music. Between 1717 and

1723, he served as Kapellmeister and director of chamber music at the court

of Duke Leopold ofAnhalt-Cothen, who was an informed music lover. As a

Calvinist thinker, he demanded no sacred vocal music from Bach, whose skill

as a composer of cantatas and motets was already well developed. However,

the composer was provided with an orchestra ofhighly skilled instrumentalists,

who became the stimulus for Bach’s remarkable works for solo violin and

cello as well as concerti for solo instruments and orchestra. A fine violinist

in his own right, Bach was aware ofthe string players’ world and its “trade

secrets.” He called upon the performers to activate more than one string at a

time, arpeggiate large chords, and to continue melodic lines across numerous

rests. The resulting multiple linear strands made possible fugues, canons,

and other forms of counterpoint on a single instrument with only four strings.

Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue also dates from his period at the

duke’s court, although there is evidence that he continued to perform and

refine it over the next decade, publishing it in Leipzig in 1730. Considered

one ofhis greatest single works for keyboard, it consists ofthree parts, even

though the title implies only two. The first section acts as a prelude and is

4

similar in style to Bach’s toccatas, with grand flourishes and improvisatory

abandon. The middle part is more like a recitative, calling to mind the arias

he wrote for the human voice. The third part—the fugue—begins strictly,

with a chromatic exposition, followed by a more expansive and free development. As the fugue draws to a close, the composer introduces thick chordal

textures as he harmonizes the final statement ofthe theme.

Georg Philipp Telemann was by far the most prolific of all baroque

composers—more than three thousand works can be accurately attributed to

him. Highly regarded by his colleagues and the music critics ofhis time, in

1721 he competed successfully for the position ofmusic director of Hamburg’s

five largest churches. One ofthe other competitors was Johann Sebastian Bach.

In 1722 both composers vied for the position of Kantor at the Thomaskirche

in Leipzig, and once again, Telemann was the committee’s first choice. He

turned down the offer, however, after using it as collateral to obtain better pay

and conditions from the Hamburg city council. The Leipzig position was 

then offered to Friedrich Graupner, who also turned it down, so that finally

the council hired Bach as its third choice.

Telemann’s prolific output declined after 1740, as his passion turned to

writing music treatises and raising exotic plants. In spite offailing eyesight

and other health problems, he continued to compose occasionally, producing music ofthe highest quality until shortly before his death in 1767.

Program Notes by Stephen Ackert, Senior Music Program Advisor,

National Gallery ofArt.

5
Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

The 66th American Music Festival

Roger Reynolds, guest artistic director

March 8-22, 2015

National Gallery ofArt Sunday Lecture

Intermedial collaboration and production:

Roger Reynolds’s FLiGHT Project and Robert Ashley’s Operas

March 8, 2015

Sunday, 2:00 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

jack Quartet

Music by Ashley, Lou, Nancarrow, and Reynolds

March 8, 2015

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Works in Progress Lecture

Personal Vision and the Education of

Young Composers in America

March 9, 2015

Monday, 1:00 and 2:00 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

-rff>

jack Quartet

with Eric Huebner, pianist

Music by Felder, Feldman, Nielson,

Reynolds, Wolpe, and Zorn

March 11, 2015

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

4$

Dust

A film by Robert Ashley

March 11, 2015

Wednesday, 1:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

The 66th American Music Festival continues with a

lecture on March 16 and concerts on March 15,18, and 22.