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.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

wuw.ngfl.gov

Concerts are made possible in part through the generosity of donors

to the National Gallery ofArt through The Circle. Reserved seating is

available in recognition oftheir support. Please contact the development 

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

COVER: Angelo Rognoni, Avanzata sul Carso (Advance on the Carso), 1917,

black and colored ink with graphite on wove paper, National Gallery ofArt, Washington,

Eugene L. and Marie-Louise Garbaty Fund and the Mr. and Mrs. Louis Glickfield Fund

The Seventy-Third Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

3,034th Concert

Federico Agostini, violinist

Enrico Elisi, pianist

Cosponored by the

Italian Cultural Institute ofWashington, DC

January 18, 2015

Sunday, 3:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court
Program

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)

Berceuse and Aria from Six Piecesfor Violin and Piano (1901-1906)

Andantino

Lento

Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975)

Tartiniana seconda (1955-1956)

Pastorale

Tempo di Bourree

Presto; leggerissimo

Variazioni: Decisamente; maestoso; tranquillo; doloroso;

alia sarabanda; deciso; duramente; con gagliardia

Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973)

II Canto della lontananza (Song ofthe Distance) (1919)

Respighi

Sonatafor Violin and Piano in B Minor, P. 110 (1916-1917)

Moderate

Andante espressivo

Passacaglia: Allegro moderato ma energico

The Performers

FEDERICO AGOSTINI

World-renowned as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concertmaster (1979-

2002) ofthe legendary Italian string ensemble I Musici Italiani, Federico 

Agostini studied violin at the Conservatory of Music in his native Trieste, 

Italy; in Venice; and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, where

Salvatore Accardo and Franco Gulli were among his teachers. Having made

his debut as a soloist at age sixteen, Agostini has appeared in prominent

international music festivals in Europe, Japan, and the United States, and

has performed chamber music with many distinguished artists, including

Bruno Giuranna, Jaime Laredo, Joseph Silverstein, and Janos Starker as well

as with members ofthe American, Emerson, Fine Arts, Tokyo, and Guameri

string quartets. In 2004 he joined violinist Yosuke Kawasaki, violist James

Creitz, and cellist Sadao Harada to found the D’Amici String Quartet.

Agostini’s recordings on the Philips label include Bach and Vivaldi violin

concertos as well as The Four Seasons, which was filmed on location in Venice

and is available on dvd. More recent recordings include Gabriel Faure’s

piano quartets and a selection offavorite virtuoso violin pieces published by

Live Notes in Japan.

A member ofthe Eastman School of Music faculty since 2012, Agostini

has taught at the conservatories ofVenice and Trieste, Indiana University’s

Jacobs School ofMusic, and the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik in Trossingen, 

Germany. He has conducted master classes at the Orford Art Centre in Canada 

and the Round Top Festival Hill Institute in Texas, as well as in Australia,

Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Sweden.

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ENRICO ELISI

Winner of nine first prizes in international competitions in Italy, Portugal,

and the United States, pianist Enrico Elisi performs to consistent acclaim

throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Recent North American performances include recitals at the BanffCentre for the Arts, the Italian Embassy

in Washington, the New York Public Library, and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall.

He has also performed in China, Germany, Peru, the Slovak Republic, South

Korea, Spain, and Taiwan.

Among the many orchestras that have invited Elisi to perform concertos

are those of Florence, Italy, and Porto, Portugal, as well as the Bay-Atlantic

Symphony, Greeley Philharmonic, Hopkins Symphony, Penn State Philharmonic, Pennsylvania Centre, and Penn’s Woods orchestras. In 2007 he

debuted as soloist and conductor with the Green Valley Music Festival

Chamber Orchestra in Las Vegas.

The recipient of a La Gesse Foundation Fellowship, Elisi is an active

chamber musician, having collaborated with principal players from the

Baltimore, Chicago, and American Symphony orchestras. He has also 

performed chamber recitals in China, Korea, France, and Peru. A champion

ofnew music, Elisi has commissioned works from composers ofmany

nationalities. In 2009 he premiered and recorded Paul Chihara’s Images

for clarinet, viola, and piano, and he founded and directs an international

composition competition, which awards the Musica Domani Prize.

A member ofthe piano faculty ofthe Eastman School of Music since 2011,

Elisi is a graduate ofthe Peabody Institute ofthe Johns Hopkins University. 

He also studied in his native Bologna with Giuseppe Fricelli and earned

diplomas from the Conservatory of Florence and the “Incontri col Maestro”

International Piano Academy ofImola, where he worked extensively with

Joaquin Achucarro, Lazar Berman, Alexander Lonquich, Boris Petrushansky,

and Franco Scala. Enrico Elisi appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Arioso Artists Management.

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Program Notes

In 2015 Italians mark the 100th anniversary oftheir nation’s entry into

World War 1, allying with France and England in what was then known as

the Triple Entente. The first year ofItaly’s participation in the war was 

tumultuous—more than half ofItalians were opposed to involvement, and

their fears were confirmed by a series ofbattles in the Carso, the Tyrol, and

other regions of northern Italy that resulted in 60,000 casualties and no

territorial gain. By the end ofthe war, the number ofvictims had grown to

650,000, and the country found itselfin a state of economic crisis and

political instability.

All three ofthe composers selected for today’s program by Federico Agostini

and Enrico Elisi lived through the unsettling World War 1 period in Italy and

its equally traumatic aftermath. Ottorino Respighi lived in Rome from 1913,

having received that year a coveted appointment as professor of composition

at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia. His fame grew quickly during the years

1914-1918. His Fountains ofRome and Antique Dances and Airs—both ofwhich

achieved immediate popular success—date from 1916 and 1917, respectively, 

and his ballet La Boutiquefantasque (Magic Toyshop) dates from 1918. It is

perhaps no coincidence that Respighi turned to poems ofthe Englishman

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) for several ofthe songs that he wrote

between 1914 and 1917.

Luigi Dallapiccola was still a child when Italy entered World War 1, but

he and his family were directly affected by it, living in Pisino, Istria (today,

Pazan, Croatia). That town was disputed territory throughout the war, changing hands several times between the Austro-Hungarian occupying forces and

the Italians. In 1916 Dallapiccola’s father’s school was closed by the Austrian

government, and in March 1917 the family was interned in Graz, Austria,

being suspected ofItalian nationalism. Only after the war could they return

to Pisino, which had been restored to Italy. Ironically, the period of exile in

Graz gave the young Dallapiccola his first exposure to opera. Although his

Tartiniana seconda dates from the early 1950s, it harks back to 1920, when he

5
was a pupil of composer Antonio Illersberg (1882-1953), who encouraged

him to look to earlier Italian music for inspiration. Dallapiccola’s works of

this type also include Sonata canonica (after Paganini).

In the 1930s, the abuses ofItaly’s Fascist regime—in particular its support

of Fascist brutality in the Spanish Civil War and its anti-Semitic rhetoric—

reawakened Dallapiccola’s abhorrence oftyranny and led to the composition

of Canti diprigionia (Songs ofImprisonment) and II prigioniero (The Prisoner),

both ofwhich displeased the Fascists. Harrassed by the Italian government

throughout the remainder of Mussolini’s regime, Dallapiccola was forced to

live in hiding for much of1944.

Like Dallapiccola, Gian Francesco Malipiero was deeply and directly

affected by his experiences in World War 1. In 1910 he selected a little town

in the Veneto region, Asolo, as his venue for a quiet life devoted to composition, 

but that area, too, became disputed territory as soon as Italy entered the war.

Malipiero and his family were forced to flee. Fie later wrote: “In 1914 the war

disrupted my whole life, which remained, until 1920, a perennial tragedy.

The works ofthese years perhaps reflect my agitation; however, I consider

that ifI have created something new in my art (formally and stylistically) it

happened precisely in this period.” In addition to Canto della lontananza,

Malipiero’s works from the World War 1 period include the opera L’Orfeide

(1918), the ballet Pantea (1917-1919), and the orchestral works Armenia (1917)

and Ditirambo tragico (Tragic Dithyramb) (1917), all ofwhich are marked by

turbulence and stark contrasts.

Program Notes by Stephen Ackert, Senior Music Program Advisor,

National Gallery ofArt.

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Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

National Gallery ofArt Vocal Ensemble and Chamber Players

with Laura Benedetti and Peter Lukehart, lecturers

II Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda,

by Claudio Monteverdi

Presented in conjunction with

the Italian Cultural Institute

in celebration of

the Year ofItalian Culture

January 25, 2015

Sunday, 6:00 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

National Gallery ofArt Chamber Players

Music by Lorenzo de’ Medici and

other Italian Renaissance composers

In honor of

Piero di Cosimo:

The Poetry ofPainting in Renaissance Florence

February 1, 2015

Sunday, 3:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court