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 ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000b South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,733rd Concert

Tara Artemis Kamangar, pianist

June 21, 2009

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Aminollah Hossein (1905-1983)

Persian Legend, op. 35, no.1

Prelude no.1“Homage to Omar Khayyam”

Loris Tjeknavorian (b. 1937)

Excerpts from Dansesfantastiques, op.2 (i960)

Danse amoureuse

Danse lyrique

Danse elegiaque

Dansed’extase

Golnoush Khaleghi (b. 1941)

Fantaisie (1987)

INTERMISSION

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1952)

Sonata no.j inA Minor, op. 28 (1917)

Anoushirvan Rohani (b. 1939)

Loving Whisper

Hossein

Excerpts from Mosaiques, op. 19

Scenesfrom Summer

Serenade Tartare

Hossein

Etude no.2“Circassian Dance”

Javad Maroufi (1925-1993)

Isfahan Rhapsody

Golnoush Khaleghi

Looking Back (1998)

The Musician

Witha diverse repertoire ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Behzad

Ranjbaran, pianist Tara Artemis Kamangar has performed in Cadogan Hall,

the David Josefowitz Recital Hall, Wathen Hall and Whitehall Palace in

London, Harvard’s Paine Concert Hall, the Paramount Theatre in Oakland,

and the Wattis Room in San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, among

others. She recently performed Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody ona Theme of

Paganini with the Oakland Symphony, and gave the United States premiere

of Aminollah Hossein’s Piano Concerto no. 2. Her concerts have been

broadcast over Voice ofAmerica television and radio and the bbc Persian 

Service, and sponsored by such organizations as Asia House, the Harvard 

Club of tlie United Kingdom, the Iran Heritage Foundation, Magic of Persia,

and the San Francisco Symphony League.

Kamangar brings audiences rarely-heard works by Persian composers 

Hormoz Farhat, Aminollah Hossein, and Loris Tjeknavorian, and is in the 

process ofrecording the complete piano works of Iran’s leading female

composer, Golnoush Khaleghi, to be released on the rkac label. In 2007

she was the featured performer at the Women Leading Global Change 

Conference in Westminster, England, and the Women of file Future Awards

in London, and she was named ambassador for the Women of Achievement

program by Princess Zahra Aga Khan. In addition to her classical works,

she has recently composed nineteen songs to lyrics by her brother that will

be recorded by Cypriot singer Vakia Stavrou. A native of California, Kamangar began private studies in piano and

violin at age three. While still in high school, she placed first in several

piano competitions, received the Paderewski Medal from the National Piano

Guild, and performed Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with two

symphony orchestras. Kamangar received her bachelor’s degree at Harvard 

University, where she continued her piano studies with Victor Rosenbaum. 

She recently completed postgraduate studies in piano performance at

London’s Royal Academy of Music, where she wasa recipient ofthe Kath­

leen Bayfield scholarship. She resides in London.

3
Program Notes

Aminollah Hossein was born in Ashkabad, Iran. Shordy after his birth, his

family moved to Russia, fleeing persecution in Iran as members ofthe

Baha’i faith. His mother taught him how to play the tar, a traditional Persian

instrument similar to the lute. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Hossein

moved to Stuttgart, Germany to study medicine at the insistence of his

father, and simultaneously studied piano with Artur Schnabel. In 1927 he

moved to Paris, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He became

the first Persian to enter the Paris Conservatory, studying composition and

orchestration under Paul Vidal.

Persian Legend and Prelude no. 1 (“Homage to Omar Khayyam”) were

composed in Paris in the 1930s, with financial support from the Iranian

Ministry ofCulture and Art. In these two pieces, Hossein uses quickly

repeated, pedaled notes to imitate the sound ofthe santour, a traditional

Persian instrument (similar to the dulcimer). Omar Khayyam (1048-

1122) was Hossein’s favorite Persian poet, whose poems he could recite

from memory.

Loris Tjeknavorian was born in Iran in 1937. He studied violin and piano

at the Tehran Conservatory of Music and composition at the Vienna Music 

Academy. As director ofthe National Music Archives in Tehran, he was in

charge of collecting and researching traditional Persian folk music and

national instruments. He has made nearly one hundred recordings and

written more than seventy-five compositions, including symphonies, operas,

a requiem, chamber music, ballet music, choral works, an oratorio, and

more than forty-five film scores. His compositions have been performed by

major orchestras, including the American Symphony Orchestra, the London

Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Haifa, Johannesburg, and Tehran. From 1989-1999 he was the

principal conductor ofthe Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Yerevan.

Dansesfantastiques was composed during Tjeknavorian’s final years at 

the Vienna Academy (1959-1960). He later orchestrated the work for three

pianos, celesta, and percussion. The dances range in character from trance4

like to romantic to flashy. The expressive and haunting melodies— all

original, as opposed to melodies derived from folk songs—sound distinctively Armenian. Regarding this composition, the New York Times music

critic Bernard Holland wrote: “Mr. Tjeknavorian puts Armenian and Iranian

traditions in our hand as ifthey were passports.”

Golnoush Khaleghi is a graduate ofTehran’s School ofNational Music,

where she studied Persian music under Javad Maroufi and Hossein Saba, and

the Tehran Conservatory of Music, where she studied piano under Emanuel

Melik-Aslanian. She continued her studies at the Akademie Mozarteum in

Salzburg, specializing in conducting under Kurt Prestel and Gerhard Wimberger. She continued her conducting studies at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the University ofWisconsin, earning bachelor ofmusic and

master ofmusic degrees. Khaleghi has worked closely with such renowned

conductors as Robert Fountain, Rouben Gregorian, Helmuth Rilling, and Karol

Teutsch, and has performed in Canada, Europe, Iran, the United States, and 

Venezuela. She is the founder ofthe National Iranian Radio and Television

Choir (Hamavazan) and the Rouhollah Khaleghi Orchestra, which is named

in honor ofher father, who is widely acknowledged as the leading Persian

composer ofthe twentieth century. Since the cultural upheaval ofthe Islamic 

Revolution in 1979, she has been a prominent figure in promoting Persian

music and culture through the concerts ofthe Rouhollah Khaleghi Orchestra

and other activities abroad. At present, she resides in Annandale, Virginia, and

devotes her time to music research and teaching, composing, and arranging

the works ofher father and other great masters of Persian music.

The melody that inspired Khaleghi s Fantaisie was written in the 1930s by

Morteza Neydavoud as a pishdaramad, or prelude, in the mode of Esfahan.

After presenting certain parts ofthis melody, Fantaisie turns to a melismatic

section. However, instead ofthe free improvisation that is commonly used in

Persian music, this is measured, or metric improvisation. A development

follows, and the work ends with a vigorous recapitulation ofthe Neydavoud

melody. Looking Back was completed in 1998 and is written in the dastgah

(Persian mode) of Homayoun. A contemplative and highly melismatic fantasy,

it reflects the composer’s yearning and nostalgia for her lost homeland and

5
happy times long gone. A florid introduction is followed by a journey through

the dastgah, visiting several ofits standard melodies— Daramad, Kereshmeh,

Chakavak, Mansuri, and Bidad. The work concludes with a rhythmic section

called Zarbi.

Sergei Prokofiev, one ofthe most celebrated Russian composers ofthe 

twentieth century, was bom in Ukraine. After excelling at piano and composition at an early age, he attended the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. During

the 1920s, he toured the United States and Europe, gaining the admiration

of audiences, ifnot critics. In 1936 he settled in Moscow, and entered into a

difficult relationship with Josef Stalin and file Soviet artistic bureaucracy.

Prokofiev spent his last years in failing health and financial insecurity, and he

died on March 5,1953, the same day as Stalin. Prokofiev’s Sonata no. j, completed in 1917, was a critical success. A single-movement sonata, it is dedicated 

to Prokofiev’s closest friend, the poet Boris Verin, and his fellow student

Maxim Schmittgof, who committed suicide in 1914 at age twenty-two.

Anoushirvan Rohani was born in Rasht, Iran. He received music lessons

from his father, the poet and violinist Reza Rohani, and later studied piano

under Javad Maroufi. Rohani composed his first song at age six, which he

called Avalin Tango (First Tango). In 1958 he began a long collaboration with

the National Iranian Radio Network. He has written over five hundred

compositions that include numerous songs, orchestral music, piano pieces, 

and film scores, among them Soltan-e-Ghalbha (King of Hearts), Gol-e-Sang

(Stone Flower), and Tavalodat Mobarak, the Persian version ofthe “Happy

Birthday” song. He also mastered the accordion and the electronic organ,

which he introduced to Iran in 1963.

Since 1979 Rohani has lived in Los Angeles and Germany, where he

continues to compose and record for the mzm Records label. His recordings

from this period include the album Reminiscence ofLife. He has received several

international awards, including the first prize in Spain’s International Music

Festival for his song Mi Destino (the Spanish version of Soltan-e-Ghalbha). He

has worked with the Czech Symphony Orchestra and the Opera and Ballet

Orchestra ofHanover, Germany. In addition to Persian music, Rohani has

written Maybe I, Maybe You for the heavy metal band, The Scorpions.

6

Two of Hossein’s ballets, Persian Miniatures and Scheherezade, were

choreographed by George Skibine, one of Serge Diaghilev’s dancers, and

performed at the Paris Opera. His other orchestrated works include the

Symphony ofthe Sands (1946), Persepolis Symphony (1947), Arya Symphony

(1976), and three piano concertos. He also composed twenty film scores— 

mostly for films directed by his son, the famed French actor and director 

Robert Hossein—using the pseudonym Andre Gosselain. Hossein’s works

have seen a revival in recent years: his Persepolis Symphony was performed and

recorded by the bbc Symphony Orchestra, and several ofhis works for orchestra and voice were performed and recorded by the Monte Carlo Philharmonic

Orchestra and tenor Roberto Alagna. In addition, Hossein’s orchestral works 

served as the music for the film Ben-Hur directed by his son.

Scenesfrom Summer and Serenade Tartare are excerpts from the Mosaique

Suite, a set ofsix pieces dedicated to Hossein’s wife, Anna, a Russian comedy 

actress. For Scenesfrom Summer, Hossein wrote the following notes: “[Scenes

from Summer] depicts the light atmosphere of a sunny day, clear and sonorous.

To be played with an airy execution.” For the Serenade Tartare, he wrote: “A

gloomy sketch—feeling very sad for no reason.” The colorful Etude no. 2

(Circassian Dance) was later arranged by Hossein for full orchestra for use in

his ballet Persian Miniatures.

Javad Maroufi received his basic musical training from his father, the

renowned Persian tar player Mousa Maroufi. Javad later studied the tar with Ali

Naqi Vaziri, before turning to the piano at age fourteen. Maroufi worked for tire

Persian Ministry ofCulture, performed as the pianist for the National Iranian

Music Orchestra and the National Iranian Radio Network, and taught music

at Tehran University. Maroufi’s piano works are widely known and beloved in

Iran, particularly his Jila Fantasy, Golden Dreams, Isfahan Rhapsody, and Seven

Persian Dastgahsfor the Piano.

Program notes by Tara Artemis Kamangar

7