For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

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 of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

ivww.nga.gov

The Sixty-fifth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

“Sixty-five, but not retiring”

National Gallery of Art

2,587th Concert

Louis Lortie, pianist

October 8, 2006

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
The Fazioli piano used in this performance

was provided by The Piano Company ofLeesburg, Virginia.

Program

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Tannhauser Overture (1849)

Transcribed for piano solo by Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Thomas Ades (b. 1971)

Darkness Visible (1992)

Franz Liszt

Vallee d’Obermann from Annees de pelerinage, Volume 1 (c. 1848)

INTERMISSION

Thomas Ades

Traced Overhead (1996)

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Nocturne in B Major, op. 32, no. 1 (1836/1837)

Frederic Chopin

Sonata in B Minor, op. 58 (1844)

Allegro maestoso

Scherzo

Largo

Finale: Presto, non tanto
The Musicians

Canadian pianist Louis Lortie has been praised for the fresh perspective and

individuality he brings to his broad repertoire. He has presented the complete

works of Ravel in London and Montreal for the bbc and the cbc, respectively,

and in the 2005-2006 season, completed a Liszt/Wagner series in Florence,

Italy, and in London’s Wigmore Hall. Lortie has recently performed at the

London Proms at Lincoln Center, at Carnegie Hall, and with conductor Charles 

Dutoit and the New York Philharmonic. Although he is known for his interpretations ofChopin’s works, he also performs the works of a number of contemporary composers, including Ades, Elliott Carter, and Gyorgy Kurtag.

Born in Montreal, Lortie made his debut with the Montreal Symphony

Orchestra at age thirteen and performed with the Toronto Symphony

Orchestra three years later, which resulted in an engagement for a historic

tour ofthe People’s Republic ofChina and Japan. He has made more than

thirty recordings on the Chandos label, including the recently released To the

Distant Beloved, which includes works by Beethoven, Liszt, and Schumann,

and a recording of Franck’s Symphonic Variations with the bbc Philharmonic

Orchestra. Louis Lortie appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with

Seldy Cramer Artists of Lafayette, California.

4

Program Notes

When Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt met in Weimar in 1849, Wagner

was fleeing a warrant for his arrest in Dresden, and Liszt, retired from the

concert stage, was dedicating his time to composing. During the three short

days ofthis first meeting, they discussed music and art and confirmed

mutual admiration for each other as musicians. Liszt subsequently became

Wagner’s most ardent fan, championing his music whenever he had the

opportunity. Before their meeting, Liszt had transcribed the works ofmany

composers, but he developed his ability to accurately reproduce the orchestral color ofthe original composition on the piano in transcribing Wagner’s

works. Liszt’s version ofthe Tannhauser Overture, completed in 1849, is a

brilliant example. Extremely virtuosic and technically challenging in every

way, the work captures the sound ofthe strings ingeniously, and the bell-like 

octaves in the coda bring it to an exciting conclusion.

Born in London in 1971, Thomas Ades has enjoyed a meteoric rise to

international musical prominence. He began his career as a pianist and has

expanded his accomplishments to include conducting and composing, for

which he has received widespread acclaim. Heavily influenced by those

who came before him, Ades has a gift for paying homage to the great composers in a modern, personal way. Darkness Visible is, in Ades’s own words,

“an explosion ofJohn Dowland’s lute song of 1610, In Darkness Let Mee

Dwell.” Filled with contrasts, dynamically and texturally, this remarkable

piece covers the entire range ofthe keyboard. Ades gave the first performance of Darkness Visible in the recital hall in Liszt’s house in Budapest.

Liszt’s original compositions include a three-book collection entitled

Annees de pelerinage (Years of Pilgrimage). The first volume ofthese lyrical 

expressions ofnature and art was inspired by his travels in Switzerland.

Vallee d’Obermann, the longest piece in the volume, represents a transcendental experience described in the novel Obermann by Etienne Pivert de 

Senancour (1770 -1846). Liszt opens with a melancholy theme that is transformed over three sections to a brighter finish, evoking not only a place

but also a character, and his philosophical triumph over misfortune.

5
Commissioned by and composed for pianist Imogen Cooper (b. 1949),

Ades’s Traced Overhead is a relatively short work, consisting ofthree linked

movements: Sursum, Aetheria, and Chori. The composer notes: “Imagine a

recording device sent up into space, then making a transcription ofthe data it

brought back, in the form ofsounds heard above our heads. The three pieces 

that make up the work describe a journey ofincreasing distance from earth,

and, accordingly, of drastically increasing perceptual length.” Ades gave the

American premiere of Traced Overhead in March 1997 in Los Angeles.

The fundamental texture throughout the works of Frederic Chopin,

whose compositions are perhaps the most frequently performed in the

canon of piano literature, is accompanied melody. His nocturnes may offer

the clearest example, with melodies distinctly isolated in the right hand and

rolling arpeggiated harmonies in the left. Though the form is attributed to 

Irish composer John Field (1782-1837), Chopin’s “night pieces” are more

widely recognized, and they are far more expressive and introspective than

those of Field. They are often compared to the cavatinas ofVincenzo Bellini

(1801-1835) and other early nineteenth-century Italian opera composers.

The Nocturne in B Major, op. 32, no. 1, written toward the end of Chopin’s

life, shows his development ofthe style to increasingly incorporate countermelodies, inner voices, and rhythmic interest without sacrificing brilliant

creativity in the melodic writing and embellishment.

Ofthe three sonatas by Chopin, the third, op. 58, adheres most closely to the

classic sonata form. Though he preferred dance-based and freer fantasy pieces

(such as ballades and scherzos) to the strict form ofthe sonata, Chopin successfully unified the four movements to form a cohesive work. In the opening

Allegro maestoso he presents two contrasting themes, with a dense development

unfolding into a straightforward recapitulation. The second and third movements are subtly connected; the rhythm at the end ofthe Scherzo is distorted to

form the introduction ofthe Largo, which is written in song form. Finally, the

tranquility ofthe third movement is abruptly interrupted by the opening ofthe

fourth movement (Finale: Presto, non tanto), a vigorous, rhythmic rondo.

Program notes by Danielle DeSivert

6