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 ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

www.nga.gov

The Seventieth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,873rd Concert

Asteria

Sylvia Rhyne, soprano 

Eric Redlinger, tenor and lutenist

Presented in honor of

Antico: The Golden Age ofRenaissance Bronzes

February 5, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Gilded Words and Silver Tones

Antoine Busnoys (1430-1492)

En voyant sa Dame

Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474)

Vergine bella

Anonymous

Chiarafontana (Lute solo)

From Chansonnier cordiforme (c. 1475)

Robert Morton (c. 1430-1476)

N’auray-je jamais mieux

Busnoys

Quant ce vendra

Morton

Le Souvenir de vous me tue

INTERMISSION

Anonymous

Hora cridar “Oyme”

from Chansonnier cordiforme

Hayne van Ghizeghem (1445-1497) 

Allez Regrets

Dufay

J’atendray tant

Donna gentile (Lute solo)

Gilles Binchois (c. 1400-1460)

Deuil angoisseux

Dufay

Se la Face ay pale
The Musicians

ASTERIA

Described as “intimate and deeply communicative... meltingly beautiful”

(The New York Times) and “captivating and intimate” (Goldberg Magazine),

Asteria first came to public attention in 2004, when the duo won the 

Unicorn Prize for Medieval and Renaissance Music, issued for the first time

that year by Early Music America. Since then, soprano Sylvia Rhyne and

tenor and lutenist Eric Redlinger have earned praise from critics and 

audiences alike in Baltimore, Boston, Columbus, Miami, New York, San

Francisco, and Washington, dc. Committed to historically informed presentation of early music, they have completed extensive research in original 

sources from libraries in Basel, The Hague, and Paris. Recognizing the

timeless appeal ofmedieval and Renaissance love songs, they bring intimacy 

and passion to their interpretations as well.

Having sung leading roles in Broadway musical theater, Sylvia Rhyne

establishes a strong dramatic connection with her audience. Raised in

London and the Pacific Northwest, she studied early music at Carleton

College in Northfield, Minnesota, under the guidance of Stephen Kelly.

While in Minnesota, she also studied with Wesley Balk at Saint OlafCollege

and recorded with Dennis Russell Davies and the Saint Paul Chamber

Orchestra. She has also sung with New York City Opera.

Gifted with a light tenor voice, Eric Redlinger gained expertise in early

music while studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. A graduate of

Middlebury College, he did post-graduate studies in composition and 

musicology at the Hochschule fur Musik in Frankfurt am Main, Germany,

studying medieval lute with Crawford Young. His voice teachers have

included Richard Levitt, Drew Minter, and Gary Ramsey.

4

Program Notes

Antico: The Golden Age ofRenaissance Bronzes is the first exhibition in the

United States devoted to the Mantuan sculptor and goldsmith Pier Jacopo

Alari Bonacolsi (c. 1455-1528), known as Antico for his expertise in classical

antiquity. Antico also developed and refined the technology for producing

bronzes in multiples. His exquisite bronze reductions of ancient Roman 

sculptures, such as the Apollo Belvedere (c. ad 120-140), are enlivened with 

gilding and silvering. Antico’s bronzes are so rare that the works included

in this exhibition constitute more than three quarters ofthe sculptor’s

extant oeuvre. The exhibition remains on view in the East Building until

April 8, 2012.

It is true ofboth sculpture and music in the fifteenth century that tastes 

tended to be Pan-European, as opposed to the nationalism that emerged in

the arts in the sixteenth century. One unifying factor was the universal

fascination with ancient Roman and Greek artifacts as paragons of beauty

and texts from the same sources as repositories ofunsurpassed wisdom. 

Composers had no artifacts or musical manuscripts from the ancient world,

but many ofthem aspired to perfection ofform and mathematical unity that

they assumed was present in the music heard by Pythagorus, Plato, Cicero,

and others whose writings about music as a science had survived.

Migration of professional musicians was also a unifying factor. Some

ofthe most heralded composers at the fifteenth-century Italian courts were 

native French speakers, and one ofthe leading composers at the French

court of Burgundy, Robert Morton, was an Englishman. The great music

master Guillaume Dufay changed patrons no fewer than ten times, working 

in turn for Duke Philip of Burgundy, Pope Amedee vm of Savoy, Pope

Eugene iv, and several members ofthe Este and Malatesta families.

5
Epoque-defining events such as the great schism that temporarily planted

a rival pope in Avignon in 1378 provided fertile ground for the international

exchange ofmusical and artistic ideas. The vigorous empire-building ofthe

Dukes of Burgundy in the first halfofthe fifteenth century contributed

significantly to the establishment of a Franco-Flemish polyphonic musical

tradition with wide-reaching influence throughout Europe. French poetry 

was the preferred vehicle for the expression ofcourtly sentiment across the

continent, as evidenced by the high prevalence of French chansons in the

numerous songbooks originating in Italy and elsewhere.

Music composed and performed during Antico’s lifetime was every bit

as sumptuous and graceful as his sculptures. It was a time offervent devotion

to the beauty ofthe human body, mind, and spirit, in which the princes of

Europe competed with each other to engage the most prestigious singers,

composers, and artists ofthe day. The music chosen for this concert emphasizes the rich cross-pollination between Italy and Burgundy in particular as

musical traditions were polished and refined at the dawn ofthe Renaissance.

6

Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt in February 2012

Cavatina Duo

Eugenia Moliner, flute

Denis Azabagic, guitar

Music by J. S. Bach, Piazzolla, and other composers

February 12, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

The Phillips Camerata

Resident Chamber Ensemble ofthe Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

Music written between 1890 and 1921 by Faure and Turina

Presented in honor of Picasso’s Drawings, 1890-1921: Reinventing Tradition

February 19, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Roger Wright, pianist

Music by Balakirev, Debussy, Griffes, Ravel, and other composers

February 26, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court