andAdagietto) has anA-B-Aformat--its pizzicato outer movements

are interrupted bya slow interlude,2x\adagjetto. The finale(Fugue),

devoid of an any intricate weave, maintains interest with its rhyth­

mic drive, which an anonymous writer describes as

“bordering on 

ragtime.” As commented by Olin Downes ofthe NewYorkTimes:

“The Foote Suite is charming, entertaining, written with sincerity, 

refinement, and grace. It is constructed with genuine skill and

created with musical passion. It grows and acccumulates and sweeps

toa climax. [It is a] work ofa true maker of beautiful sounds who

long since won the high respects bestowed upon him in his life

­

time and now accorded his memory.”

Considered the“quintessential Elgar (especially the second move­

ment)” (Allan Frank), the Serenadefor String Orchestra, Op. 20, is

possibly (among his smaller orchestral works) the most frequently

performed. It remained one of his favorites throughout the rest of

his life. The first complete performance was given in Antwerp on 

23 July 1896. The serenade’s outer movements(Allegro and Alle­

gretto) with their malleable, sauntering, and rustic traits, have sand­

wiched between them an inner movement(Larghetto) that is lyri­

cal, compassionate, and tranquil.

Fantasia ona Theme by Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams is built on 

a theme taken froma collection entitled the Psalter ofArchbishop

Parker by the sixteenth-century English composer (Tallis), which

was first printed in 1567. Introduced at the Three Choirs Festival 

in Gloucester Cathedral in 1910, the Fantasia, besides being one of

Vaughan Williams’ early major orchestral works, is regarded as one

ofthe finest ofthe genre. It is scored forstring quartet and double

string orchestra. Vaughan Williams’ musical language is unique,

and his musical genius enabled him to create enormous sonorities

froma distinctive harmonic approach that“combines the modali­

ties of the Tidor era with the sparkling polytonalities of the mod­

ern age” (Nicolas Slonimsky). As stated bywriter BurnettJames:

“the character ofTallis’ theme is one of combined strength and

simplicity; and in the course of his Fantasia the composer elabo­

rates upon the innermost nature with searching musical devo­

tion.... The massive sonorities, the strong but unexaggerated

harmonic idiom, and the melodic and rhythmic flexibility pro­

claim [an] exalted vision and fertile musicality.”

-Program notes by Elmer Booze

The Fifty-seventh Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and E LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2305th Concert

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

GEORGE MANOS, conductor

Sunday Evening, 11 April 1999 

SevenO’clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
PROGRAM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Adagio and Fugue in

(1756-1791) C Minor, K. 546

(1788)

Arthur Foote Suite for Strings in E Major, Op. 63

(1853-1937) (1907; rev. 1908)

Prelude

Pizzicato and Adagietto

Fugue

INTERMISSION

Sir Edward Elgar Serenade in E Minor for String

(1857-1934) Orchestra, Op. 20 (1892)

Allegro piacevole

Larghetto

Allegretto

Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme

(1872-1958) by Thomas Tallis

(1910)

Conductor, composer, and pianist George Manos has been director of music at the National Gallery of Art and conductor of the

National Gallery Orchestra since 1985. He is also artistic director

of the American Music Festival and of the National Gallery vocal

and chamber ensembles, which he founded. A native Washingtonian, George Manos already organized and conducted orchestras

and choirs in this city at the age ofseventeen. Among those were

the Hellenic, Washington, and National Oratorio Societies, and the

American Composers and Conductors Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble dedicated to the presentation ofnewworks byAmerican composers. Manos’ career as a performing pianist and teacher has included several years on the faculty ofCatholic University in Washington, DC, where he taught piano, conducting, and chamber music. In

addition, he held the directorship oftheWilmington, Delaware, School

ofMusic, where he presented an annualjazz festival and clinic. Maestro Manos founded and directed for ten years the renowned Killamey

Bach Festival in the Republic of Ireland, and was the music director

of the 1992 Scandinavian Music Festival in Folding, Denmark.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began the serious study of counterpoint at the age of 10, under the tutelage of his father. Although his

initial interest in Bach’s contrapuntal technique in 1776 led to his 

early attempt at fugal writing, it was the well-established treatise

on counterpoint, GradusadPamassum, ofJohann Joseph Fux (1660-

1741), a well-known Austrian organist, music theorist, pedagogue,

and composer, that his father urged him to investigate and study.

There is speculation that Mozart had further counterpoint studies

with the Italian pedagogue Giovanni Battista Martini (1706-1784).

Finally, Mozart’s examinations ofthe contrapuntal works ofMichael

Haydn, the polyphony in the instrumental works ofJoseph Haydn

(for example, his string quartets), and the study of Bach’s fugues

helped to strengthen and solidify his understanding of fugal writing. With this newly acquired skill, Mozart was given the opportunity to present his Fugue in CMinorfor2pianos, K 426 in the Salzburg

home ofBaron Gottfried van Swieten, where performances ofworks

by Bach and Handel were held at his Sunday afternoon chamber

music musicales. Written in 1783, the work was re-scored forstrings

in 1788, with the addition of an Adagio that, for all intent and purposes, acts as its expressive introduction.

Arthur Foote, who received the master ofarts degree from Harvard

University (the first master of arts degree in music from an American college) was trained solely in America. Of Foote’s sizable body

of instrumental works, Suitefor String Orchestra in E Major, Op. 53

remains one of his most notable and often played compositions. It

is a small-scale work in three movements that is steeped in the

romanticism of the late nineteenth century. The first movement

{Prelude) is mellifluous and grows out of the first eighth notes

representing its opening phrase. The second movement {Pizzicato