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 phones, 

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Please note that late entry or reentry 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-third Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,522d Concert

National Gallery Vocal Arts Ensemble

Rosa Lamoreaux, artistic director

Smithsonian Chamber Players

Kenneth Slowilc, conductor and organist

Presented in honor ofthe exhibition

Rembrandt's Late Religious Portraits

6 February 2005

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Program

Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)

Je.su, meines Lebens Leben BuxWV 62 

Sinfonia

Aria: Jesu, meines Lebens Leben

Johann Theile (1646-1724)

Das Leiden und Sterben unseres Herren Jesu Christi

nach dem Heiligen Mattao (1673)

(The Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ

according to Saint Matthew)

Actus I

Sinfonia (orchestra and chorus): Das Leiden und Sterben unseres Herren

(The Passion and Death of our Lord).

Recitative (Evangelist, Jesus, and chorus): Und es begab sich

(Jesus’ preaching attracts the attention ofthe high priests and scribes).

Recitative (Evangelist, Jesus, and chorus): Da nun Jesus

war zu Bethanien (A woman anoints Jesus’ feet in the house

of Simon in Bethany).

Recitative (Evangelist, Judas, and chorus): Da ging hin der zwdifen einer

(Judas betrays Jesus).

Recitative (Evangelist, Jesus, and chorus): Er sprach: Gehet

hin in die Stadt (Jesus and the disciples celebrate the Passover feast).

Aria (soprano): O Gottes Sohn, du Heil der Sunder

(An observer responds to what she has just seen and heard).

Ritornello (orchestra)

Recitative (Evangelist, Jesus, Judas, and Petrus): Und da sie den Lobgesang

gesprochen hatten (Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane; Jesus is

identified by Judas and arrested).

Recitative (Evangelist, Caiphas, Jesus, and chorus):

Und der hohe Priester stand auf(Jesus is placed on trial).

Aria: Du duldig Lamm, 0 Gottes Sohn

(An observer responds to the trial scene).

Ritornello

Recitative (Ancilla I, Evangelist, Petrus, Ancilla II, and chorus):

Petrus aber saf draufen (Peter denies Jesus three times).

Aria (Petrus): Ach, wo soli ich mich hinwenden

(Peter is overcome with remorse).

Ritornello

INTERMISSION

Actus II

Recitative (Evangelist, Judas, Pilatus, and chorus):

Des Morgens aber hielten (Judas hangs himself; Jesus is

brought before Pilate).

Ritornello

Recitative (Evangelist, chorus, and Jesus): Und indem sie hinausgingen

(Jesus is taken to Golgotha and crucified).

Recitative (Evangelist and chorus): Und es waren viel Weiber da

(Jesus’ body is given to Joseph of Arimethea and placed in a tomb).

Aria (chorus): Habe Dank, 0 Gottes Sohn

(The Christian congregation thanks God for the sacrifice of Jesus 

and looks forward to the Resurrection).
The Musicians

NATIONAL GALLERY VOCAL ARTS ENSEMBLE

This concert is the second appearance by the National Gallery Vocal Arts

Ensemble in its reconstituted form as a chamber choir. Its debut took place

on 17 October 2004, in a program of nineteenth- and twentieth-century

English vocal music. It was founded in 1985 as a vocal quartet by former

Gallery music director George Manos, who presented it regularly in

that form until his retirement in 2003. Under its new artistic director Rosa

Lamoreaux, the ensemble will appear again on 26 June 2005, singing

Renaissance a cappella choral music.

Evangelist: Robert Petillo, tenor

Jesus: Steven Combs, bass-baritone 

Pilatus: James Shaffran, baritone

Caiphas: K.C. Armstrong, bass

Ancilla I (First maidservant): Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

Ancilla II (Second maidservant): Gisele Becker, soprano

Uxor Pilati (Wife of Pilate): Barbara Hollinshead, alto

Judas: Roger O. Isaacs, countertenor

Petrus: Gary Glick, tenor

4

THE SMITHSONIAN CHAMBER PLAYERS

Under the direction of Kenneth Slowik, the Smithsonian Chamber Players

have undertaken the exploration ofthe sonic, cultural, and historical aspects

ofthe master instruments in the collection of musical instruments at the 

Smithsonian Institution. Consisting of musicians who share expertise

in and deep involvement with historic performance practices, the chamber

players have been an integral part ofthe Smithsonian’s exploration of

American music-making. They fill a core function in the Smithsonian

Chamber Music Program, the largest period-instrument residency in any

museum in the world. The participating Smithsonian Chamber Players

in this program are Julie Andrijeski and Scott Metcalfe (violin), Alice

Robbins and John Moran (viola da gamba), and Patricia Neely (violone).

KENNETH SLOWIK

Organist and harpsichordist Kenneth Slowik is artistic director ofthe periodinstrument chamber music program at the National Museum ofAmerican

History. As a cellist and viola da gamba player, he was a founding member of

the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Axelrod Quartet, the Smithson String

Quartet, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and the Castle Trio. A frequent 

performer with Anner Bylsma’s Ensemble l’Archibudelli and at festivals

throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States, Slowik is increasingly in 

demand as a conductor of opera and oratorio. His solo, conducting, and

ensemble appearances have led to more than fifty recordings, many ofthem

prizewinners. Slowik is artistic director ofthe Baroque Performance Institute 

at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and conductor ofthe Santa Fe,

New Mexico, Bach Festival.

5
THE EXHIBITION

Rembrandt’s Late Religious Portraits offers a unique opportunity to explore

one ofthe most fascinating aspects of Rembrandt van Rijn's artistic career,

his brooding and pensive religious portraits painted in the late 1650s

and early 1660s. Created during a time of personal turmoil, this group of

works by Rembrandt (1606-1669) has never been shown together before.

The exhibition brings together seventeen powerfully evocative half-length 

images ofreligious figures. Many ofthese dramatic portraits depict apostles 

and evangelists, but among them are representations of Christ, the Virgin,

and unidentified saints and monks. The men and women in these powerful 

images peer out ofthe dark recesses of dimly lit interiors, burdened by the 

weight oftheir spiritual and emotional concerns. Rembrandt’s choices as

to their physical features and their surroundings were a personal response

to the stories he knew about them, which came primarily from the Bible.

In much the same way, the composers from Rembrandt’s time always

included arias and choruses in their passions and oratorios that reflected 

their personal response to the biblical texts. Both the Gallery’s juxtaposition 

of Rembrandt's late religious portraits in a single exhibition and this concert presentation of a composer’s response to the writings ofthe apostle 

Matthew are explorations ofthe ways in which creative artists respond

to the religious epics that form an important part of their environment.

Program Notes

Dietrich Buxtehude’s beautiful cantata Jesu, meines Lebens Leben was

chosen for the opening work ofthis program as an exordium, or fervent 

invitation to the listeners to focus their attention on the drama about 

to unfold. Johann Theile’s dramatic work, which follows, is the story of

Christ’s crucifixion, or passion.

6

Repetition ofthis story has been an essential part ofthe Christian liturgical year since early church history. Each ofthe four Gospels presents an 

individual account ofthe passion. From the fourth century, readings of

these texts to special reciting formulae were part ofthe Holy Week ceremony, serving both a didactic and a commemorative function. As early as the

ninth century, manuscript sources indicate that the single reciter was to

vary the pitch, dynamics, and tempi of his delivery so as to impart a greater 

sense of drama. By about 1250, the dramatic realism suggested by this differentiation was further heightened by having three singers play the roles of

the Evangelist, Jesus, and the soliloquentes, such as Pilate. By the end of

the fourteenth century, a chorus was introduced for the crowd scenes, or

turbae. From this point it was but a short step to incorporating polyphony

(already used in the church liturgy for certain Christmas lessons) into the

passion presentations.

The two surviving monumental passion settings by Johann Sebastian

Bach are universally acknowledged as the pinnacle of perfection in the 

genre. They stand at the culmination of a long series of polyphonic German

Lutheran passions with voices and instruments, in which Johann Theile’s

St. Matthew Passion, published in 1673, is an important link. Theile and 

Bach both followed the traditional assignments ofthe solo parts: the 

Evangelist is a tenor, and Jesus and Pilate are basses. In Theile’s Passion,

as in Bach’s, the words of Jesus are surrounded by what Albert Schweitzer

called a “halo ofstrings,” played in the earlier work by two violins. In

addition to the soliloquente roles and turba choruses, Theile interrupts the

narrative at four points for short strophic arias, in which he uses nonGospel texts to offer brief meditations on the passion. The work concludes 

with a chorale-like tutti aria.

Program notes by Kenneth Slowik