Concerts at The National Gallery ofArt

Under the Direction of George Manos

February 1998

8 HughSung, pianist

15 Kolja Blacher, violinist

Jessica Krash, pianist

22 Talich String Quartet

March 1998

1 National Gallery Orchestra

George Manos, conductor

8 Christian Tetzlaff,

violinist

15 Paul Badura-Skoda,

Clementi:

Ravel:

Mussorgsky:

Sonata, Opus 2412

Gaspardde la nuit

Pictures at an

Exhibition

Schumann:

Prokofiev:

Brahms:

Ravel:

Sonata in A Minor

Sonata No. 1

Sonata in A Major

Oiseaux tristes

from Miroirs

Tzigane

Beethoven:

Mozart:

Janacek:

Quartet, Opus 131

Quartetin D Major

QuartetNo. 1

Delius:

Dvorak:

Schumann:

On Hearing the

First Cuckoo in

Spring

Scherzo capriccioso

Symphony No. 1

J.S. Bach: Partita No. 2

Sonata No. 3

Partita No. 3

Mozart:

Beethoven:

Chopin:

Fantasy in CMinor

“Waldstein” Sonata

24 Preludes

The use ofcameras orrecording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30pm.

The Fifty-sixth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and 

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2251th Concert

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

GEORGE MANOS, conductor

Sunday Evening, February 1, 1998

at Seven O’Clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission Free
PROGRAM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 41 in C Major

(1756-1791) K. 551 (1788)

Allegro con brio

Larghetto

Gavotte: Non troppo allegro

Finale: Molto vivace

INTERMISSION

Gustav Mahler

(1860-1911)

Adagietto from Symphony No. 5

(1901-1902)

Erich Korngold Suite: “Much Ado about Nothing”

(1897-1957) Opus 11 (1919)

Overture

Madchen im Brautgemach

Holzapfel und Schlehwein

Intermezzo

Hornpipe

The early nineteenth-century publisher and pianistJ. B. Cramer

is credited or blamed, depending upon one’s outlook, with assigning the nickname “Jupiter” to Mozart’s great C Major Symphony.

Cramer meant only to refer to the majestic quality ofthe work, but

subsequent interpreters have insisted on hearing Jupiter’s thunderbolts in the triplets of the first movement of the symphony, as

well as Parnassian calm in theAndantecantabile. Mozart himselfgave 

a much more mundane clue as to why he was able to produce not

just one, but three symphonic masterpieces in the summer of 1788.

On June 27 of that year, he wrote: “I have done more work in the

ten days since I have lived here [in more spacious lodgings made

possible by his appointment as court composer to the Austrian

Emperor] than in two months in my other lodgings. I should do far 

better here, were it not for the gloomy thoughts that often come to

me. I must drive them away resolutely, for I am living comfortably,

pleasantly, and cheaply.”

The Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is one ofa small number of movements from the symphonic repertoire that have taken

their place in concert programs as works to be performed on their

own. The sublime orchestration that characterizes the Adagietto is

the result of painstaking work on the part ofthe composer, who reorchestrated the work for almost every performance of it that he

conducted. It was not until the year ofhis death that he was able to

confide in a friend, Georg Gohler, that the “Fifth” was finished.

Erich Korngold was born to a prominent Austrian musical family.

His father was a music critic who wrote frequently in Vienna’s Neue

freie Presse and Der Merkur. When Erich was only nine, his father

presented one of the boy’s compositions to Gustav Mahler, who

pronounced him a genius and saw to it that he was accepted in the

class ofAlexandervon Zemlinsky, one ofthe most sought-after composition teachers in Europe. Before he turned fifteen, Korngold 

had piano works performed in concert by no less a performer than

Artur Schnabel. In 1934, with his reputation firmly established in

Austria, Korngold went to Hollywood for what he thought was a

short stint offilm-score writing. The worsening conditions forJews

in his home country convinced him to remain in the United States,

and he went on to write some of the finest music in the history of

the film industry. He received Oscars for his scores for TheAdventuresofRobinFlood (1938) and AnthonyAdverse (1936). Postromantic

in style, Korngold’s music fell out of favor with concert programmers during his lifetime, but has enjoyed a resurgence ofinterest in

the last twenty years.