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

2,851st Concert

Genova and Dimitrov Piano Duo

October 30, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Andantino Varie in B Minor, op. 84, no. 1 (1827)

From Divertissement on French Motives, D. 823

Anton Arensky (1861-1906)

Suite no. 2, op. 23 (“Silhouettes”) (1892)

Le Savant (The Scholar)

La Coquette (The Coquette)

Polichinelle (The Buffoon)

Le Reveur (The Dreamer)

La Danseuse (The Dancer)

Franz Liszt (1811-1883)

Symphonic Poem no. y Les Preludes (1854)

INTERMISSION

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Rhapsodie espagnole (1907)

Prelude a la nuit

Malaguena

Habanera

Feria

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Porgy and Bess Fantasy

Arranged for two pianos four hands by Percy Grainger

This concert is made possible by funds provided by the Richard B.

and Sarah J. Marsten Charitable Remainder Unitrust.

The Musicians

A prize winner in all the major piano duo competitions, including the

ard Music Competition in Munich, the Bellini Music Competition in Italy,

the DranoffTwo Piano Competition in Miami, and the Tokyo Piano Duo 

Competition, the piano duo Genova and Dimitrov has performed to great

public and critical acclaim at major concert halls in Africa, Asia, Europe,

and North and South America. Festival appearances include the Al Bustan

Music Festival Beirut, Bebersee Music Festival, Brandenburg Summer

Festival, Chopin Piano Festival in Duszniki, Gdansk Music Festival, La

Roque d’Antheron Piano Festival, Lower Saxony Music Festival, Music 

Festival ofthe Hamptons, Ravello Festival, Sofia Music Weeks, and Woodstock Mozart Festival.

The duo has appeared with the Beijing, New World, Pacific, Savannah,

and Stuttgart symphony orchestras, the Cape Town, Durban, Sofia, and

Ukranian National philharmonic orchestras, the Bulgarian National, Bucharest National, Hanover, and Kaiserslautern radio orchestras, and the Polish

Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductors under whose direction the

duo has played include Alun Francis, Robin Gritton, Toshiyuki Kamioka, 

Hannu Lintu, Eiji Oue, Ari Rasilainen, Alexander Rudin, Leos Svarovsky,

and Emil Tabakov.

Both pianists were born in Bulgaria of Greek origin, have been playing

piano since age five, and made their orchestra debuts at age nine. Since 

2008 they have been jointly in charge ofthe specialized piano duo class at 

the Hanover State University of Music and Drama. Genova and Dimitrov

have released eight CDs, including world premiere recordings of piano

duo works by Johann Christian Bach, Robert Casadesus, Muzio Clementi,

Dmitri Shostakovich, and the Bulgarian composer Pancho Vladigerov. In

2010 Genova and Dimitrov were appointed artistic directors ofthe International DranoffTwo Piano Competition in Miami. Genova and Dimitrov

appear at the National Gallery by arrangement with Shupp Artists Management, www.shuppartists.com.

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Program Notes

Composed in 1827 near the end of his life, Schubert’s Andantino Varie in

B Minor is a set ofvariations for piano four hands that shows his mastery

ofthe variation form. Marked by its emotional and compositional maturity,

the work begins with a simple melody followed by four variations. A final

restatement ofthe original theme completes the work, considered by critics 

to be one ofthe composer’s best.

Anton Arensky’s Suite no. 2, subtitled “Silhouettes,” is modeled after 

the baroque harpsichord suites of Francois Couperin, with each movement

assigned a French name. A series ofmildly whimsical character pieces with

Arensky’s own aesthetic stamp, it could hardly be mistaken for baroque music.

The first movement, “The Scholar,” is modeled on baroque fugues, where a

slow, heavy subject is banged out in the bass and then presented canonically.

A second lighter and busier theme takes over, but soon the intimidating

initial theme intertwines with it in a most “scholarly” style. “The Coquette”

is a delicate salon waltz swirling through several light episodes, some of

them carefree and some pensive. “The Buffoon,” a reference to the bumbling

commedia dell’ arte character Polichinelle, or Pulcinello, is a mercurial

piece in which melody lines dance across dizzying accompaniments. “The

Dreamer” is a comparatively serious and unaffected slow movement whose

lyricism is interrupted only by a passionate central climax. The rhythmic

Spanish bolero of “The Dancer” completes the work with exhibitionistic

keyboard figurations.

During his tenure as “grand ducal director ofmusic extraordinary” at

Weimar, Franz Liszt composed twelve symphonic tone poems. In each of

these works he distilled the essence of a literary source in a single-movement

orchestral work. Les Preludes is the third and by far the most popular ofhis

tone poems that he later transcribed for two pianos four hands. The title is

derived from French poet Alphonse de Lamartine’s ode, “Meditations poetiques,” which describes the life of a man from youthful love through the

harsh realities ofwork and war and finally to self-acceptance. Liszt’s original

score includes an excerpt from the poem: “What else is our life than a series

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of preludes to an unknown song, whose first and solemn notes are intoned by

death?” Though Les Preludes was not specifically inspired by Lamartine’s text,

its final version faithfully reflects the shifting mood sequences ofeach section

ofthe poem.

First composed as a piano duet in 1907, Ravel’s Rhapsodie espagnole

became one ofhis first major works for large ensemble when he orchestrated

it the following year. With the exception ofthe “Habanera,” which was a

note-for-note transcription ofthe original duet written twelve years earlier, the

first performance received only muted applause from the front ofthe auditorium. However, Ravel’s students and friends in the upper gallery made a great

ruckus, calling for encores. The piece reflects Ravel’s connection with his

mother’s Basque heritage—one that he would use often in his compositions.

Regarded today as one ofthe seminal works ofthe American theater,

Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess is often referred to as “The Great American

Opera.” When it first ran in New York in 1935, however, it was anything but

a success. Gershwin was devastated by the failure, having thought that it

was the best music he had ever written. His untimely death at age thirtyeight in 1937 prompted a revival that caught the attention of composers who

responded with various symphonic suites. During this time Australian

composer Percy Grainger took interest in the music. Grainger’s excerpts

from Porgy, arranged for two pianos four hands, make pianistic what was 

essentially orchestral and vocal, creating a satisfying emotional traversal

ofthe opera in less than thirty minutes. In addition to material from the

introduction and the finale, the Fantasy includes settings of nine songs,

imaginatively knit together in a sequence that differs from Gershwin’s:

“My Man’s Gone Now;” “It Ain’t Necessarily So;” “Clara, Don’t You Be

Down-hearted;” “Strawberry Call;” “Summertime;” “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down;”

“Bess, You Is My Woman, Now;” “I Got Plenty O’Nuttin;” and “Oh, Lawd,

I’m On My Way.” The opening and closing sections ofthe Fantasy parallel

the beginning and ending ofthe opera.

Program Notes by Danielle DeSwert Hahn

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Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Monadnock Music Trio

Music by Bogdanovic, Gerner, Lindroth, Norman, and Simpso

Presented in honor of The Gothic Spirit ofJohn Taylor Arms

November 2, 2011

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Talich String Quartet

Music by Ludwig van Beethoven

November 6, 2011

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court