By the time Francis Poulenc wrote his Troispieces in 1928, impressionism

in French music was considered passe. According to musicologist Alfred 

Frankenstein, what emerged as a counterfoil to impressionism was “clear,

sharply defined planes, often clashing polytonally but all the more specific for

their clash; everything is crisp, pointed, ‘motoric’ in rhythmand in texture....

The [Poulenc] Toccata is clearly in that [class].” Poulenc was counted as one

ofLrsSix (a group ofsix antiromantic French nationalist composers). Unlike

his colleagues,whowere looking ahead, Poulencwas a classicist, with Mozart

and Scarlatti as his models. Disposed as well toward impressionism, Poulenc

often took a more lyrical approach. TheNocturneNo. 4inCMinor' exemplifies

this side ofhis musical personality.

Alborada delgtaaoso (Morningsong ofthe Jester) is the most performed work

of the five pieces comprising the suite Miroirs, one ofRavel’s major works 

for solo piano. The Spanish flavor and rhythm inherent in the work stem

from his sympathetic link to the Iberian Peninsula, the birthplace of

his mother.

Liszt’s Sonata in B Minor, published in 1854, was dedicated to Robert

Schumann in return for the 1838 dedication to Liszt of Schumann’s

well-known CMajor Fantasy. The Liszt work contained so many daring

innovations that manywho attended the first performance could not endure

it to the end. Its technical hurdles are Herculean and sometimes criticized

as self-defeating. In addition, Liszt’s musical ideas were touted as being

sophisticated to the point ofvagueness.Atone time belittled asimprovisatory 

and episodic, the BMinor'Sonata, with its intricately laced inner workings, 

is now viewed as a monumental work ofprophetic cleverness and intellect.

Liszt’s cyclical use of material and his way of modulating through lengthy

passages that border on the self-indulgent have come to be accepted for

their originality. His coda to the sonata is visionary, with its bells tolling

in the distance, bringing the work to a mystical close that reflects his

lifelong vacillation between flamboyant self-indulgence and spiritual

fervor. While the extent to which the work relates to Liszt’s personality

is debatable, there is no denying that it brought the romantic sonata to

a point where it existed on its own as a genre, without need of further

definition orjustification

Program notes by ElmerBooze

Theuseofcamerasorrecordmgec]idpment

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the Garden Caferemainsopenuntil6:30p.m.

The Fifty-eighth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2334th Concert

MARK MARKHAM, pianist

Sunday Evening, 30 January 2000

Seven O’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
PROGRAM

Franz Schubert

(1797-1828)

I

Sonata in A Minor, Op. 42 (D. 845)

(1825)

Moderato

Andante poco mosso

Scherzo: Allegro vivace

Rondo: Allegro vivace

II

Claude Debussy 1Vo Preludes from Douzepreludes, Book I

(1862-1918) (1910)

Les collines d’Anacapri

Les sons et les parfums tournent dans Fair du soir

Francis Poulenc Toccata from Trotspieces

(1899-1963) (1928)

Nocturne No. 4 from 8nocturnes

(1938)

Maurice Ravel Alborada del Gracioso

(1875-1937) from Miroirs (1904-1905)

INTERMISSION

III

Franz Liszt

(1811-1886)

Sonata in B Minor

(1851-1853)

Selectionsfrom concerts atthe Gallery

can be heard on WGMS-FM, 103.5, on the

second S unday ofeach month at 9:00p.m.

During the months ofJanuary, February, andMarch,

recentperformances by the

National Gallery Orchestra can be heard

on WETA-FM, 90.9, on Wednesdays at 9:00p.m.

Mark Markham was bom in Pensacola, Florida. He began studying

piano atthe age ofeight and was already accompanying singers the following

year. In 1980, as a student of Robert and Trudie Sherwood, Markham

made his debut as soloist with the New Orleans Symphony. In 1988 he

won first prize and the contemporary music prize at the Frinna Awerbuch

International Piano Competition in New York City. Markham has given

recitals throughout the United States, including performances in New

York’s Weill Recital Hall, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, the

Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Baltimore Museum ofArt. Critics

have described his playing as “dazzling and spellbinding,” and “intelligently

organized with a disciplined technique and a delicate sensibility.” Since

1985 Markham has accompanied the renowned soprano Jessye Norman

in recital in many of the world’s most prestigious venues. He has also

worked extensively with countertenor ITerek Lee Ragin, mezzo-soprano

Theodora Hanslowe, with whom he performed at the National Gallery

in 1990, and bass-baritone Andreas Lebeda, who will be heard as soloist

with the National Gallery Orchestra in the next concert of this series

(6 February, 2000).

As was the case with almost all of his works for piano, Schubert himself

was the pianist who played his Sonata in A Minor, Op. 42 for the first time.

The performance took place in Styria, Upper Austria, in 1825. The first 

movement {Moderato), with its reverberating nostalgic motif, fans out into

disjointed harmonies. Strange as the harmonies may be, most pianists agree

with the late eminent Schubert interpreterWalter Klien that “thewriting is

not technically difficult.. .and the entire movement retains its delicate, sad 

air.”The second movement {Andantepocomosso), with its unadorned theme

written in the key ofC Major, has two sets ofvariations, one in C Minor and

the other in A-flat major. The first has a projected dramatic pulse, while the

pulse ofthe second is more dreamlike. The movement closes with a return

to the beguiling opening C Major theme, accompanied by chordal figures

in triplets. The Scherzo, marked Alkgro vivace, is apparently influenced by

scheizos ofBeethoven, but differs from them, according to Eugene Bruck,

who says, “Whereas Beethoven might have had a hand in the energetic art of

themovement, onlySchubert could havewritten so touching,sowonderfully

innocent a trio section.” The finale {Rondo: Allegro vivace), in sonata-rondo

form, has variations in its length of phrases, with an economy of musical 

substance unique to Schubert’s genius.

Debussywrote twenty-four preludesforsolo piano in two books. PreludeNo.

5fromBookI,lescollinesdAnacapri{TheHilkofAnacapri) depictstheeffulgence

ofthe landscape ofthat beautiful island. PreludeNo. 4from the same book, Les

sonset lesparfnnstournentdansFairdusoh'(SoundsandPerfumesSwirlintheEvening

Air) was inspired by a line from the poem Harmonies du sod by the French

poet and essayist Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867).