For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phone 

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 of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-fifth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,616th Concert

Academy ofAncient Music

Richard Egarr, music director and harpsichordist

Pavlo Beznosiuk, leader

April 29, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Concerto Grosso in B-flat Major, op. 3, no. 2, hwv 313 (published 1734)

Vivace

Largo

Allegro 

Vivace

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

Concerto a 7 in F major, twv 44:41 

Grave

Vivace

Adagio

Allegro

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Brandenburg Concerto no. 4 in G Major (c. 1720), bwv 1049

Allegro 

Andante

Presto

INTERMISSION

Telemann

Water Music Suite in C Major (Hamburger Ebb und Fluth),

twv 55^3 (1723)

Overture

Sarabande: Die schlafende Thetis (Thetis Asleep)

Bourree: Die erwachende Thetis (Thetis Awakening)

Loure: Der verliebte Neptunus (Neptune in Love)

Gavotte: Spielende Najaden (Naiads at Play)

Harlequinade: Der schertzende Tritonus (Triton Jesting) 

Tempete: Der stiirmende Aeolus (Aeolus Storming)

Menuet: Der angenehme Zephir (The Pleasant Zephyr)

Gigue: Ebb und Fluth (Low and High Tide)

Canarie: Die lustigen Bots Leute (The Merry Sailors)

Handel

Concerto Grosso in B-jiat Major, op. 3, no. 1, hwv 312 (published 1734)

Allegro 

Largo

Allegro
The Musicians

ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC

The Academy of Ancient Music is one ofthe world’s foremost periodinstrument orchestras. Since its formation by Christopher Hogwood in

1973, the ensemble has established its preeminence in performing music

ofthe baroque and classical periods with concerts across six continents and 

more than two hundred fifty recordings. The orchestra’s pioneering recordings under Hogwood for Decca’s L’Oiseau-Lyre label cover much ofthe

baroque and classical orchestral canon, from concerti and symphonies to

operas and oratorios. The ensemble produced the first recordings on period 

instruments ofmany works, including Mozart’s complete symphonies 

and operas by Handel, Haydn, and Mozart. In addition to the numerous

Decca releases, the orchestra has undertaken projects that have resulted in

recordings for Chandos, emi, Erato, and Harmonia Mundi. The Academy

ofAncient Music is the orchestra-in-residence at the University ofCambridge, England, and appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with 

Colbert Artists Management of New York City. Further information about

the ensemble may be found at www.aam.co.uk.

Members ofthe Academy of Ancient Music participating in the 2007

U. S. tour are:

Music Director and Viola Flute

Harpsichordist Trevor Jones Rachel Brown

Richard Egarr Rachel Byrt Rachel Beckett

Violin 1 Cello Oboe

Pavlo Beznosiuk Joseph Crouch Frank de Bruine

Pauline Nobes Imogen Seth Smith Lars Henriksson

Iona Davies

Double Bass Bassoon

Violin 2 Valerie Botwright Alastair Mitchell

Rodolfo Richter

Pierre Joubert

Persephone Gibbs

Theorbo

William Carter

4

RICHARD EGARR

In September 2006 Richard Egarr took up the post ofmusic director ofthe 

Academy ofAncient Music, succeeding Christopher Hogwood, who became

the emeritus director. Before taking this position, Egarr had conducted a wide

range ofrepertoire, from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion to

John Taverner's Ikon ofLight. Egarr is the director ofthe Amsterdam-based 

Academy ofthe Begijnhof, and he has worked with the Chamber Orchestra of

Europe, The Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, and Tafelmusik Baroque

Orchestra and Chamber Choir ofToronto. In 2007 he will guest-conduct

performances ofthe Saint Matthew Passion with The Netherlands Bach Society and in a staged version at the Glyndebourne Opera House. He will also

conduct the Flemish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber

Orchestra in performances of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

A musician of great versatility, Egarr has worked with all types of

keyboards and their repertoire, including fifteenth-century organ intabulations, works by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) and Frantisek Xaver Dusek 

(1731-1799) on early pianos, and works by Alban Berg (1885-1935) and

Peter Maxwell Davies (b. 1934) on modern pianos. Egarr received his early

musical training as a choirboy at York Minster, at Chetham’s School of

Music in Manchester, and as an organ scholar at Clare College, Cambridge.

His studies with Gustav Leonhardt further inspired his work in the field

of historical performance.

Egarr’s 2006 U. S. solo recital tour performing J. S. Bach’s Goldberg

Variations received great critical acclaim. He has performed extensively in

the major music festivals of Europe and Japan, and he has appeared many 

times as a soloist with The Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, The 

Netherlands Wind Ensemble, and the Orchestra ofthe Eighteenth Century. 

Egarr and violinist Andrew Manze form a duo that plays stylus phantasticus

music and pieces from the late baroque. The pair recently expanded its repertoire to include works by Beethoven, Mozart, Hubert Parry, and Schubert.

5
Richard Egarr records exclusively for Harmonia Mundi usa. His recent

recordings include Per Cembalo Solo (a Gramophone magazine Editor’s Choice)

and the Goldberg Variations. His upcoming releases include solo keyboard

music by Louis Couperin and Mozart; J. S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier,

Book i; and, with the Academy ofAncient Music, Handel’s Concerti Grossi,

op. 3, and Organ Concerti, opp. 4 and 7.

6

Program Notes

Although George Frideric Handel’s six Concerti Grossi, op. 3, were published

in 1734 as a set by the English music seller John Walsh (1709 -1766), the

pieces were probably composed over a period oftwenty years for a range of

different occasions. The set basically forms a compendium of Handel’s

favorite instrumental movements, each piece strikingly different. The number ofmovements in each concerto varies, and Handel was highly flexible

in his scoring ofthese works, singling out several different instruments

for solos. In the Concerto no. j in G Major, there is a solo violin part, while

nos. 1 and 6 feature an oboe duet. In the Concerto no. 1 in B-jlat Major, a duo

ofrecorders is added to the roster ofsoloists in the slow movement. This

piece echoes the musical style ofthe Hanover court, where Handel was the

Kapellmeister from 1710 to 1712. He used the Concerto no. 4 in F Major at a

performance ofthe opera Amadigi di Gaula in 1716.

The Concerto a yin F major by Georg Philipp Telemann represents a more 

traditional form ofthe genre in its combination of diverse soloists. It is scored

for two recorders, two oboes, two violins, and continuo. The related instruments are presented in pairs to create a series ofmellifluous duets, culminating in an occasional tutti at a cadence. As is customary in Telemann’s concerti,

the work is in four movements, drawing on the structure and dance forms of

the French orchestral suite. It is not known where or when Telemann wrote

this concerto; as is the case with many ofhis orchestral pieces, the manuscript survives in Darmstadt, Germany, where Telemann’s friend Christoph

Graupner (1683-1760) directed the court ensemble.

Many scholars presume that Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti were written between 1717 and 1721, during Bach’s time at the court

of Cothen. The court maintained a small orchestra of virtuosi, whose skills

would have been put to the test by Bach’s solo writing. The concerti take 

their name from the Margrave of Brandenburg, to whom Bach presented

copies of the six pieces in 1721, in response to a request from the nobleman.

7
Ironically, the popular nickname has linked the works with Brandenburg

for eternity, despite the fact that he neither thanked nor paid the composer,

nor did he ever arrange for the works to be performed by his court orchestra.

In the Brandenburg Concerto no. 4 in G Major, bwv 1049, the solo parts

are taken by two recorders and a violin. In the outer movements the violin

dominates, with lengthy episodes of breathtaking figuration and variegation, known by Bach and his contemporaries as bariolage. In the central

Andante the partnership between the three soloists is more equal. The first

movement is one ofthe longest baroque concerto movements ever written;

the opening ritornello alone would suffice as a movement for Telemann, for

example. The concluding Presto avoids the dance rhythms usually found in

a finale, instead offering an exhilarating fugue.

Telemann’s Water Music is nowhere near as famous as that of his contemporary and sometime rival Handel, but it is intriguing in its own way. It

was written to be played on land (Handel’s Water Music was first performed

on a barge on the Thames), but it effectively evokes the movement ofthe

waves and the sea breeze in its dance rhythms. Telemann wrote his Water

Music Suite in C Major for the centenary ofthe admiralty in Hamburg, celebrated on April 6,1723. Hamburg gained its importance and wealth from

maritime trade, and the city’s admiralty was vital for protecting and insuring

the ships and maintaining the navigation lights in the Elbe River. As part

ofthe festivities, ships fired their cannons and flew pennants, and music

was performed out of doors. In addition to this suite ofinstrumental music,

Telemann wrote a piece for the occasion based on a serenade composed by

a Hamburg school teacher.

Telemann’s suite follows the conventions ofthe French orchestral suite of

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) but puts the various dance forms to pictorial

purpose in calling to mind the watery subject. The suite begins with a French

overture, which traditionally consists of a grand dotted-rhythm section followed by nimble imitative writing. Here the two sections are given extramusical meaning, as recognized in a contemporary newspaper report: “First the

stillness and gentle waves, and then [in the second section] the tumult of

the sea.” A sequence ofdance movements follows, representing several classical deities associated with the sea. The sea goddess Thetis is portrayed, first

asleep in a yawning sarabande, then awake in a lively bourree. The lovesick

Neptune is represented in a minor-key loure, with subtle and slurred rhythms;

Neptune’s son Triton, however, is in a playful mood, represented by energetic

rhythmic figures and pizzicato strings in the Harlequinade. Two movements

portray different deities ofthe winds: first the stormy Aeolus, then the benign

Zephyr (in a gentle minuet). The gigue, Ebb und Fluth, evokes in its rising and

falling texture the tides that played a crucial role in keeping the harbor channels navigable (and also flushed away Hamburg’s sewage). Finally, the sailors 

themselves appear in their own dance, an unpretentious canarie. The whole

suite combines local and mythological references with fashionable dance

forms. As the newspaper report concluded: “The splendid ideas revealed in

this music were not merely charming and significant, but also remarkably

effective, and uncommonly well suited to the occasion.”

Program notes by Stephen Rose

9
Next Week at the National Gallery of Art

Thomas Hrynkiw, pianist

Music by }. S. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Vytvyts’kyi, and Prester

Presented in honor ofthe Paul Mellon Centenary

on the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Steinway

May 2, 2007

Wednesday Afternoon, 12:10 pm

East Building Auditorium

Anna Maria Pammer, soprano

Markus Vorzellner, pianist

Music by Berg, Webern, and Schoenberg

May 6, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building Lecture Hall