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available in recognition oftheir support. Please contact the development

office at (202) 842-6450 or circh@nga.gov for more information.

The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,943rd Concert

Ignacio Prego, harpsichordist

Presented in collaboration with the

Delegation ofthe European Union to the United States

May 1, 2013

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Flail

Admissionfree
Program

Antonio de Cabezon (1510-1566)

Diferencias sobre el Canto del Cavallero

(Variations on the Song ofthe Cavalier) (c. 1540)

Diferencias sobre la Gallarda Milanesa

(Variations on the Milanese Galliard) (c. 1540)

Pavana con sus Glosas (Pavane with its Variations) (c. 1540)

Juan Cabanilles (1644-1712)

Tiento de ler tono (c. 1670)

Corrente Italiana (c. 1670)

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)

From II Secondo Libro di Toccate, 1627

Toccata Seconda 

Aria di Balleto

Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667)

From II Libro Secondo, 1649

Toccata Seconda FbWV 102

SHORT PAUSE

Froberger

Partita no. 2 in D Minor, FbWV 602

Allemanda

Courant

Sarabanda

Gigue

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)

Sonata in A Major, K. 208

Sonata in D Minor, K. 1

Sonata in D Minor, K. 9

Sonata in B Minor, K. 27

Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783)

Fandango
The Musician

IGNACIO PREGO

First Prize winner at the 2012 Westfield International Harpsichord Competition, Ignacio Prego has been described by the newspaper El Mundo as “one

ofthe most versatile Spanish musicians on the classical music scene.” In

addition to his 2010 debut at the National Gallery, he has performed in major

venues in Canada, China, Europe, South America, and the United States, 

including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of

Art, the National Auditorium in Madrid, the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and Teatro Repertorio Espanol in New York City. Prego

appeared as solo recitalist at the Bach36o Festival; the Chiquitos Early Music

Festival in Bolivia; and the Westfield Continuo Conference in Tacoma, Washington as well as in a live broadcast on New York Public Radio station wqxr.

As part ofhis continuing relationship with the Westfield Center, Prego will

join 2011 Westfield International Harpsichord Competition winner Mike Lee

on May 16, 2013, for a special concert in Ithaca, New York. Reminiscent of an

18th-century salon, the concert brings the two young prize winners together

with the world-renowned harpsichord virtuosos Malcolm Bilson, Roger 

Moseley, and Annette Richards.

After graduating with high honors from the Padre Antonio Soler Conservatory in Madrid, Prego continued his piano studies in the United States with 

Luiz de Moura Castro and Emile Naoumoff. Recipient ofthe 2005 Spanish

International Cooperation Agency scholarship and the 2009 Caja Madrid Foundation grant, Prego studied harpsichord at Indiana University with Elisabeth

Wright. He continues his studies in the historical performance program at 

the Juilliard School in New York, where he works with early music luminaries Kenneth Weiss, Harry Bicket, Richard Egarr, Monica Huggett, Lars Ulrik

Mortensen, and Jordi Savall.

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Program Notes

Today’s concert is the first in a groundbreaking series generated by the Delegation ofthe European Union to the United States in collaboration with the

National Gallery ofArt and the Katzen Arts Center at American University, 

the Kennedy Center, and the Phillips Collection. Dubbing the month of May

as “The European Month ofCulture,” the Delegation will not only present

twenty-nine concerts in the above-mentioned venues, but also offer to the

public the traditional European Embassies’ Open House on May 11, spotlight

tours at area museums, and special exhibitions of art and artifacts at the

Library ofCongress and other venues. The European Month ofCulture ends

on May 29 with a farewell concert at the Gallery by the National Gallery of

Art Chamber Players, performing music by composers from Luxembourg,

Malta, and other European Union countries. Spanish harpsichordist Ignacio

Prego represents both his home country and Italy in today’s concert, which

includes music from both countries.

Making history as the first major keyboard composer on the Iberian

Peninsula, Antonio de Cabezon was a composer as well as an organist. Blind 

from childhood, he quickly rose to prominence as a performer and eventually 

found himself employed by the Spanish royal family. Ofhis prolific output,

275 pieces survive in two collections: Libro de cifra nueva (Book ofthe New

Notation, 1557) and Obras de musica para tecla, arpa y vihuela (Musical Works

for Keyboard, Harp, and Vihuela, 1578). The latter volume contains nine sets

ofvariations (in Spanish tradition called discantes, diferencias, or glosas). Among

the best early examples ofthe genre, Cabezon’s variations begin with the first 

variation, assuming the theme is already known to the listener, or would

have been performed ad libitum by the keyboardist or a singer. The composer

connects individual variations using free transitions, and frequently employs 

a heavily ornamented “migrating” cantus firmus (a melody that moves freely 

among the three to five voices in the texture). The melodies are more often

than not taken from popular Spanish songs and dances.

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Little is known ofthe youth or early training of Spanish composer and

organist Juan Bautista Cabanilles, but he probably began as a chorister at his

local church. The earliest record ofhis musical activity dates from 1665, when

he was appointed second organist at the Cathedral ofValencia. Ordained to

the priesthood three years later, his compositions include sacred vocal and

organ works, many ofwhich carry the title tiento (toccata). Considered by

many students of Spanish music the greatest Spanish baroque composer,

Cabanilles was certainly the most prolific and talented composer from the

region ofValencia, and, together with Correa de Araujo, the most important

Spanish organist ofthe seventeenth century.

The Library ofCatalunya, conservator of almost all the manuscripts of

the works ofCabanilles, has published diverse volumes ofhis numerous

organ compositions. Although he knew the compositions ofthe Italian and

French schools well and was influenced by them, his compositions retain a

definite Valencian flavor. His music is sometimes so far ahead ofits time

that dating it would be decidedly difficult were it not for manuscripts that

were carefully collected and annotated in the eighteenth century.

Although neither Italian nor Spanish, Johann Jakob Froberger has been

given a place ofhonor at the center oftoday’s program. This German composer, 

keyboard virtuoso, and organist influenced practically every later baroque

composer in Europe, thanks to his ingenious development ofthe keyboard

suite and his highly idiomatic descriptive harpsichord pieces, which are

among the earliest known examples of program music. A well-traveled man,

he provided manuscript copies of his music to his colleagues in many parts

of Europe, including Italy and Spain. Even though only two ofhis works were 

published during his lifetime, Froberger was one ofthe very few seventeenthcentury composers who were never entirely forgotten. His works were

studied in the eighteenth century by Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven.

Born in Naples, Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti spent much ofhis life in

the service ofthe Portuguese and Spanish royal families. His 555 keyboard

sonatas are considered standard baroque repertoire, but in fact they were

influential in the development ofthe classical style of piano playing. Only a

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small fraction of Scarlatti’s compositions were published during his lifetime— 

thirty Essercizi were published in 1738, presumably under his supervision— 

but even these few pieces attracted notable admirers, including Frederic Chopin

and Johannes Brahms. In the twentieth century, several major composers,

including Bela Bartok and Dmitri Shostakovich, wrote about or produced

editions of Scarlatti sonatas. Mostly single movements in binary form, the

sonatas often display harmonic audacity in their use ofdiscords and unconventional modulations to remote keys. Some ofthem show the influence, on

the Italian-born composer ofthe Spanish music that surrounded him, once

he became the harpsichord tutor to Queen Maria Barbara of Spain (1711-1758).

A composer whose works span the late baroque and early classical eras,

Antonio Francisco Javier Jose Soler Ramos is usually known as Padre Antonio

Soler, but in his native Catalan he was called Antoni Soler i Ramos. Best known

for his keyboard sonatas—which are an important contribution to the harpsichord, fortepiano, and organ repertoire—Soler was a student of Domenico

Scarlatti. Although there are undeniable similarities to be found in their

respective sonatas, Soler’s style of composition diverges in many ways from

that of Scarlatti. Both composers drew much oftheir inspiration from the

fiery, syncopated traditional music of Spain, but in Soler’s music one can 

often catch glimpses ofthe gallant style, later made famous by the young

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Probably the most famous, and certainly the

most played of Soler’s harpsichord works is the dazzling Fandango, which

has frequently been compared to Ravel’s Bolero.

Program notes based on materials provided by Ignacio Prego

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