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

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-fifth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

“Sixty-five, but not retiring”

National Gallery ofArt

2,598th Concert

National Gallery Orchestra

Viennese New Year Concert

Hobart Earle, guest conductor

January 7, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm 

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Johann Strauss Jr. (1825-1899)

Einzugsmarsch from Der Zigeunerbaron

(Processional March from The Gypsy Baron)

Annen-Polka

KiXnstlerleben (Artist’s Life)

Josef Strauss (1827-1870)

Die Libelle (The Dragonfly)

Johann Strauss Jr.

Russischer Marsch (Russian March)

Leichtes Blut (Light Blood)

INTERMISSION

Johann Strauss Jr.

Overture to Die Fledermaus (The Bat)

Johann Strauss Jr. and Josef Strauss

Pizzicato-Polka

Josef Strauss

AufFerienreisen (On Vacation)

Johann Strauss Jr.

Fruhlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring)

Unter Donner und Blitz (Under Thunder and Lightning)

The Musicians

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

The National Gallery Orchestra was founded in 1943 and initially consisted

of approximately twenty-five players drawn from the National Symphony

Orchestra. Gradually growing in number, the Gallery orchestra eventually 

reached the size and status of a large chamber orchestra. The ensemble has

undertaken the full range of chamber and symphonic repertoire and has

frequently presented first performances ofworks by American composers,

most notably the 1953 premiere ofCharles Ives’s First Symphony under the

direction of Richard Bales and the 1990 premiere of Daniel Pinkham’s Fourth

Symphony under George Manos.

HOBART EARLE

Bom in Venezuela to American parents, Hobart Earle has been the music

director and principal conductor ofthe Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra for

fifteen seasons. During this time he has elevated the orchestra to a position

ofinternational prominence unprecedented in the history ofthe organization. Earle has conducted the Odessa Philharmonic in the major concert

halls ofAustralia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain,

Greece, Hungary, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and throughout Ukraine to

wide acclaim. His career highlights include performances in such illustrious

venues as the Barbican Hall (London), the Beethovenhalle (Bonn), the Liszt

Ferenc Academy of Music (Budapest), the Musikverein (Vienna), the National

Auditorium (Madrid), and the Great Halls ofboth the Moscow Conservatory 

and the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Society. In the United States, he

has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, the

Kennedy Center, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, and before the United Nations 

General Assembly.

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During his tenure in Odessa, Earle has led performances of works never 

before heard there, including Anton Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony; Gustav

Mahler’s second, third, sixth, and ninth symphonies; and Richard Strauss’s

Four Last Songs. In recognition ofhis work with the Odessa orchestra, Earle

was awarded the title Distinguished Artist of Ukraine, making him the first

and only non-Ukrainian to receive this honor. He was also presented with

the annual Friend of Ukraine award by the Washington Group (an association of Ukrainian-American professionals) on the occasion ofthe fifth

anniversary of Ukraine’s independence in 1996.

As founder ofthe American Music Ensemble Vienna and music director 

from 1987 to 1991, Earle premiered many works and revived several lesser

known compositions from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

He studied conducting at the Academy of Music in Vienna, under Ferdinand Leitner in Salzburg, and under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa

at Tanglewood. Earle also received a performer’s diploma in clarinet from 

Trinity College of Music in London and graduated magna cum laude 

from Princeton University.

Program Notes

With the advent ofthe Christmas and New Year holidays, the music ofthe 

Strauss family—Johann Strauss Sr., the “Father ofthe Waltz” (1804-1849);

Johann Strauss Jr., the “Waltz King” (1825-1899); Josef Strauss (1827-1870); 

and Eduard Strauss (1835-1916)—takes center stage all over the world. Even

though very few people still dance the polka, the quadrille, and the waltz, the 

Strauss family’s music still resounds in concert halls and on the airwaves, as

listeners sway or tap their toes to its intoxicating rhythm. Nowhere is this 

music more popular than in Vienna, the family’s home, where New Year’s

Eve is known as Sylvesterabend. There, the culmination ofthe holiday celebration is the New Year’s Day concert in the Musikverein, a hall completed

in 1869 to house the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society ofthe Friends of

Music). It was in 1939 that the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first

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New Year’s Day concert, under the baton ofClemens Krauss. After his death,

Josef Krips conducted for a number ofyears, followed by Willi Boskovsky,

who had the longest tenure to date as conductor ofthe Viennese New

Year concerts.

The 2007 concert was conducted by Zubin Mehta, a 2006 Kennedy

Center honoree, who said, “This [Musikverein New Year Concert] means a

great deal, because no other orchestra in the world plays Johann Strauss’s

music and that of his family like the Viennese do. And for me, since I grew

up there, that’s the only way I know it, so [the orchestra and I] ‘gel’ very

well.” Conductors ofthe New Year’s Day concert have often maintained the

early nineteenth-century tradition ofleading the orchestra from the podium

while playing the violin, among them Boskovsky, who would advance to the 

podium from the concertmaster’s chair. Another conductor who has revived

this tradition is Loren Maazel, who began his career as a violinist.

The serene, austere, and classical exterior ofthe Musikverein disguises

the wedding-cake extravagance ofthe interior Golden Hall, which is flanked

by ranks of gold-plated caryatids and neorococo paintings by Hans Makart

(1840-1884). For the New Year’s Day concert, the tulip growers of Holland 

and the horticulturists of San Remo, on the Italian Riviera, turn the Golden

Hall and the corridors ofthe Musikverein into a flower lover’s dream. The 

stage is edged with flowers, and garlands are strung from the balconies 

and balustrades.

In 1872 Johann Strauss Jr. toured the United States—the first renowned

European composer to do so. He was invited by the Boston bandmaster and 

impresario Patrick S. Gilmore (1829-1892) to conduct at that city’s 1872

World Peace Jubilee. Strauss feared crossing the Atlantic, but when Gilmore 

offered him $100,000 in gold, Strauss set his fears aside and made the trip.

The Jubilee proved to be one ofthe most colossal events in the annals of

music history. The orchestra consisted of more than one thousand musicians, and it was augmented by a choir oftwenty thousand singers. Together,

they performed the original version ofAn der schonen blauen Donau (The

Blue Danube Waltz), scored for chorus and orchestra. During his sojourn in

Boston, Strauss wrote Jubilee Waltz, which he dedicated to Gilmore.

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Contemporary newspaper accounts ofthe June 1872 event, held in a

huge wood-framed coliseum constructed specifically for the occasion, are

quoted by Hans Fantel in his book The Waltz Kings: Johann Strauss, Father

and Son, and Their Romantic Age (William Morrow & Co., Inc., 1972):

“Herr Johann Strauss, from Vienna, the famous composer and conductor,

will direct each day one of his favorite and world-admired concert waltzes.”

“Strauss was stationed in a sort oflook-out tower, watched by dozens of

sub-conductors. Strauss, always stressing subtlety of phrase, was in despair,

since the downbeat—to get everyone started at the same time—was to

be the belch of a cannon.”

Some time after returning to his home country, Strauss wrote to the

editor of a Viennese music magazine: “The giant coliseum [was] elegantly

constructed and acoustically perfect. When I consider the grand effects of

the fresh voices, the splendid orchestra, and the mighty organ, I am forced

to confess that the Jubilee was a superbly impressive enterprise.”

Johann Strauss Jr.’s primary claim to fame in his own lifetime was his

operettas, which were opera house favorites. He was inspired to write in this

medium by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), whose opera Tales ofHoffmann

was often performed in Vienna, as were his numerous operettas. Strauss’s

Die Fledermaus (The Bat), which had its premiere on April 5, 1874, at the

Theater-an-der-Wien, is acknowledged as the most sparkling and inspired

of all operettas. It is closely rivaled by Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), 

which he wrote eleven years later.

The Pizzicato-Polka, another perennial favorite, is one ofthe few works

that bears the signature ofboth Johann and Josef Strauss. Josef is also 

represented on the program by two polkas: Die Libelle (The Dragonfly) and

AufFerienreisen (On Vacation). Johann Strauss Jr. was highly regarded by

many contemporary composers, including Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

and Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), who said, “I honor him as one of my

most gifted colleagues.”

Program notes by Sorab Modi

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Next Week at the National Gallery of Art

Ellen Hargis, soprano

Paul O’Dette, lute and cittern

Music from Shakespeare’s time

Presented in connection with the

Shakespeare in Washington Festival

January 14, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court