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 ofthe 

West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

For the convenience of concertgoers, 

the Garden Cafe remains open for light refreshments

until 6:00 pm on Sundays.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

www.nga.gov

COVER: Canaletto, The “Giovedi Grasso” Festival before the

Ducal Palace in Venice, c. 1765, National Gallery ofArt, Washington,

Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Paul Mellon Fund

The Sixty-ninth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,828th Concert

Red Priest

Piers Adams, recorders

David Greenberg, violin

Angela East, cello

David Wright, harpsichord

February 27, 2011

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

“A Venetian Carnival”

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Concerto in G Minor, “La Notte” (The Night), rv 439

Largo

Phantoms (Presto; largo; presto)

Sleep (Largo)

The Chase (Allegro)

Giovanni Bassano (1558-1617)

Divisions on “Onques Amour”

Giovanni Paolo Cima (c. 1570-1622)

Sonata

Dario Castello (c. 1590-c. 1630)

Sonata Seconda

Maurizio Cazzati (1620-1677)

Ciaccona

Domenico Gabrielli (1651-1690)

Sonata in G for Cello

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)

Variations on “La Folia,” op. 5, no. 12

INTERMISSION

Vivaldi

The Four Seasons

Concerto in E Major, “La Primavera” (Spring) 

Allegro 

Largo

Allegro

Concerto in G Minor, “L’Estate” (Summer)

Allegro non molto

Adagio; presto

Presto

Concerto in F Major, “LAutunno” (Autumn)

Allegro 

Adagio molto

Allegro

Concerto in F Minor, “L’Inverno” (Winter)

Allegro non molto

Largo

Allegro
The Musicians

THE ENSEMBLE

With comparisons to Cirque du Soleil, Jackson Pollock, the Marx Brothers,

and the Rolling Stones, Red Priest has been described by music critics as

visionary, heretical, outrageous, compulsive, wholly irreverent, and highly

enlightened. Other critical comments have included “completely wild and

deeply imaginative,” “[with a] red-hot wicked sense of humor,” and “[taking 

a] break-all-rules, rock-chamber concert approach to early music.”

Founded in 1997 and named after Antonio Vivaldi, the flame-haired

composer who was also a priest, this iconoclastic foursome has performed

at festivals in Bermuda, Hong Kong, Moscow, and Prague, as well as at the

Ravinia and Schwetzingen music festivals. The ensemble’s concert tours

have taken it to Australia, Europe, Japan, and North and Central America.

It is currently on its twenty-ninth coast-to-coast tour ofthe United States, 

and will shortly make its fourth tour ofJapan and its debut in Taiwan. The

group has been the subject of hour-long profiles for the Japanese national

network nhk and itv in the United Kingdom, launching the latter network’s Red Hot Baroque Show, an electrifying marriage of old music and

the latest light and video technology.

In 2008 Red Priest launched its owm record label, Red Priest Recordings, 

which has attracted much attention in the music press worldwide. Recent 

releases have included Pirates ofthe Baroque and the group’s all-Bach recording, Johann, I’m Only Dancing. More fully described at wuw.redpriest.com, the

ensemble appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Lisa Sapinkopf

Artists, www.chambermuse.com.

4

PIERS ADAMS

Heralded by The Washington Post as “the reigning recorder virtuoso in

the world today,” Piers Adams has performed at numerous festivals and

in concert halls throughout the world, including London’s Royal Festival,

Wigmore, and Queen Elizabeth halls, and as concerto soloist with the

Academy of Ancient Music, the bbc Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia

Orchestra, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. He has made several

solo CDs, ranging from his award-winning Vivaldi debut disc to a recording

of David Bedford’s Recorder Concerto—one ofmany major works w7ritten

for and premiered by Adams. He has also researched, arranged, and performed virtuoso recorder solos from classical, romantic, and folk repertoire.

DAVID GREENBERG

A native of Maryland who now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, David Greenberg

taught himselffolk fiddle tunes by ear as a young child. In the mid-1980s, he

studied baroque violin with Stanley Ritchie. In tire 1990s, while developing a

specialty in Scottish baroque folk music, Greenberg worked with the Canadian

early music ensemble Tafelmusik, recording three groundbreaking CDs in that

genre with the group Puirt A Baroque. With his wife, Kate Dunlay, Greenberg

co-authored a treatise on Cape Breton fiddle music, The DunGreen Collection.

In addition to Red Priest, Greenberg performs with Doug MacPhee, David

McGuinness, and Chris Nonnan as well as with his own Tempest Ensemble.

5
ANGELA EAST

Praised by The Times of London for the “elemental power” ofher cello playing, 

Angela East is widely respected as one ofthe most brilliant and dynamic performers in the period instrument world. She has given numerous concerto

performances in London's Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore halls, and has

performed as soloist and continuo cellist with many of Europe’s leading

baroque orchestras as well as with her own ensemble, The Revolutionary

Drawing Room. Tire famous venues in which she has played include the

Glyndeboume, La Scala, and Sydney opera houses and the Palace ofVersailles.

Her interpretations ofJ. S. Bach’s cello suites and several popular baroque

sonatas were recently released on two CDs by Red Priest Recordings.

DAVID WRIGHT

Having joined the group in January 2011, David Wright is the newest member of Red Priest. He was almost entirely self-taught as a musician before

gaining a scholarship to attend the Royal College of Music. In addition to the

scholarship, he won several prizes as a student, including the International

Broadwood Competition, and graduated with distinction. Since then he

has worked with Emma Kirkby, James Bowman, and Steven Varcoe, and

appeared as a soloist with many groups ofinternational renown. He has

directed concerts from the harpsichord, including the first modern performance ofThomas Augustine Arne’s The Blind Beggar ofBethnal Green. In

addition to guest-conducting several European orchestras, Wright spends

a good deal ofhis time performing J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, wThich

he recorded in 2007 and has since performed on radio and television.

6

Program Notes

By the eighteenth century, Venetians could claim a heritage ofmore than

two hundred years of glorious music and illustrious composers. Looking 

back to the sixteenth century, they could point to Adrian Willaert (1490-

1562) and his pupils Andrea (1532-1585) and Giovanni (1554-1612) Gabrieli,

all ofwhom served as music director at the Cathedral of Saint Mark. From

the seventeenth century, they could boast ofClaudio Monteverdi (1567-

1643), Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676), and Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690).

During the course ofthe eighteenth century, the era ofAntonio Vivaldi,

Tomaso Albinoni, and the superstar castrato Carlo Broschi, popularly known

as Farinelli, the city’s vibrant cultural life also inspired a school of cityscape 

painters whose achievements are among the most brilliant ofthe period.

The exhibition Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals celebrates the rich variety 

ofthese painted views ofVenice, known as vedute, through masterworks

by Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768), popularly known as Canaletto,

and his rivals, including Michele Marieschi (1710-1743), Francesco Guardi

(1712-1793), and Bernardo Bellotto (1720-1780). Responding to an art

market fueled largely by the Grand Tour, these gifted painters depicted the

famous monuments and vistas ofVenice in different moods and seasons.

Remaining on view in the East Building until May 30, 2011, the exhibition

will be complemented by two additional concerts, performed by the National

Gallery of Art Vocal Ensemble (March 13), and the Venice Baroque Orchestra

(April 10).

The word baroque means many different things—irregular, strange,

bizarre, florid, over-the-top, extravagant—all words that describe one ofthe

most extraordinary' periods in the history ofmusic. The baroque era began

around 1600 with the operas of Claudio Monteverdi, and from this dramatic

new style ofwriting sprang a torrent ofinstrumental and vocal works in

which composers explored new means ofmusical expression. Their style

became known as the stilus phantasticus—music without rigid form or 

structure, prone to eccentricities and flights offancy, and often requiring

7
unprecedented virtuosity to perform. The idea ofregularity—a fixed beat, 

even phrases, predictable harmonies—was anathema to these musical

pioneers, and this rebellious spirit of adventure was a hallmark ofthe

baroque era.

Italy in general and Venice in particular were at the forefront ofthis new

kind ofmusical extravagance. Today’s program traces its development from

the late sixteenth century to its culmination in the writing ofthe original Red

Priest ofVenice, Antonio Vivaldi, who flourished in the first halfofthe eighteenth century. His Concerto in G Minor, “La Notte,” sounds as shocking today

as it must have sounded when it was written. Jagged rhythms and unexpected

harmonies conjure up a night of ghosts and fitful sleep, and the effect is

reminiscent of a horror film score. Arguably no other musical work captures

as vividly the shadow)7 side of a city in the throes ofCarnival excess. Behind

the festivities and the masks ofVenice lurks the more sinister face of a bureaucratic republic ruled by inquisition and execution, with rumors of occult ritual

and sexual decadence.

Giovanni Bassano’s music spans the divide between the late Renaissance and early baroque eras. A celebrated cornetto player and musical

director at Saint Mark’s Cathedral, Bassano was one ofthe first musicians

to develop the concept ofvirtuoso instrumental music as an art form in

its own right, through the composition ofsolo ricercars and his own highly

decorated instrumental versions ofvocal works. His divisions on Thomas

Crequillon’s chanson “Onques Amour” show instrumental technique used

to lyrical rather than virtuoso effect.

One ofthe earliest examples ofthe stilus phantasticus, the sonata by the

Milanese organist Giovanni Paolo Cima combines elements ofdance, song, 

and operatic gesture in a freewheeling, unpredictable fashion. The Sonata

seconda by Dario Castello, a Venetian musician who succeeded Bassano as the

“wind-master” in Saint Mark’s Cathedral, carries the style to its logical conclusion, producing some ofthe truly fantastic chamber music ofthe era. The

brief Ciaccona by another Venetian, violin virtuoso Maurizio Cazzati, is a lively

dance fitted over a jaunty bass riffpopular with many composers ofthe time.

A native ofBologna, Domenico Gabrielli was one ofthe earliest virtuosi of

tire cello, for which he composed several notable works including the Sonata

in G. His unaccompanied ricercars are often viewed as the precursors to the

cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach. The title ofthe sonata does not include

the words “major” or “minor” after the “G,” because Gabrielli, like many composers ofthe seventeenth century in Italy, was still conceiving music theory in

terms ofmodes, rather than keys. In that context, it was customary to identify 

the mode in which the piece wras written by its starting note.

Highly revered by subsequent generations of Italian composers, violinist

and composer Arcangelo Corelli was the first to develop the concerto grosso

format. This served as a model for Vivaldi’s concertos, which subsequently

became the model for instrumental solo concertos ofthe later eighteenth

century. Described in contemporary accounts as an astonishing musician

and performer, Corelli pushed violin technique to previously unimagined

limits. His set oftwelve sonatas published in 1700 as Opus 5 is considered

the precursor to Vivaldi’s Tire Four Seasons. In arranging and interpreting the

last piece in the set, Valuations on “La Folia,” Red Priest has applied baroque

concepts offantasy and invention and added to the mix some modern-day

musical folly.

The second half ofthis evening’s program is devoted to Vivaldi’s most

celebrated work, The Four Seasons, recognized to this day as one ofthe

crowning achievements ofthe golden age ofVenetian baroque music. In

this work, the composer skillfully depicts a year in the Italian countryside.

This musical scene-painting appeals as much to audiences today as it did in

the eighteenth century. In arranging Vivaldi’s orchestral score for four parts,

Red Priest has taken care to preserve the theatrical essence ofthe work and

the full carnivalesque spirit ofVenice in the baroque era.

In the first concerto, “Spring,” the scene is set in the first movement

(Allegro) with improvised birdsong and a preview ofthe main theme on 

the harpsichord—a joyful song celebrating the arrival ofthe season. More 

birdsong follows, and a stream can be heard trielding over the keys ofthe

harpsichord, until the wreather turns stormy. Birds reappear tentatively

as the spring tempest comes to an end. The scene changes for the serene

9
second movement (Largo), in which, accompanied by the barking of his

dog (violin) and the gentle waving ofthe spring grasses (painted by the cello

and violin), a shepherd boy plays a melody on his recorder. The first concerto closes with a rustic dance (Allegro), evoking the sound of bagpipes.

As the second concerto ('‘Summer”) begins, the sun shines fiercely,

causing earth to crack and man and beast to wilt in the heat. Birds are heard

again in this season—first a chorus of cuckoos, then a cooing dove and a

chirping goldfinch (on a tiny garklein recorder). A summer breeze begins to

blow, gaining strength and becoming a violent gale. The shepherd boy cries 

out in fear ofthe ensuing storm, his dog barks in a frenzy at his side, and

the winds rage. In the second movement, (Adagio; presto), all is calm in the

eye ofthe storm. The shepherd tries to sleep in the meadow (a sleepy tune

on the recorder), but his dreams are disturbed by the sound ofmosquitoes

(harpsichord) and bursts ofthunder (violin and cello). The shepherd’s

restlessness is justified as the summer storm breaks once again in the third

movement (Presto). Wind, rain, hail, thunder, and lightning abound in this

turbulent movement.

The harvest celebration is in full swing as the third movement (“Autumn”)

opens. A folk band plays, and a piper juggles two recorders at once. Wine 

begins to flow freely, a drunkard swaggers in, and the result is merry chaos.

Tire revelers pass out briefly before a patriotic keyboardist rudely wakes everyone up for the final dance. Exhausted, everyone sleeps offthe effects ofthe

liquor in the second movement (Adagio molto). Strange dreams are implied

by a disturbing harpsichord lullaby. The third movement (Allegro) brings tire

break of dawn and an autumn hunt. The riders blow their hunting horns and

set off at a brisk canter, soon sighting a wild stag (recorder) which starts to flee

in panic. Tire hounds growl, and a chase ensues. Rifles are fired, and finally

the pack catches up with its wounded victim, which struggles vainly to escape 

but is overcome. Its soul ascends gracefully to heaven and tire victorious hunt

rides into the distance.

Jagged chords depict the ice and frost in the first movement of “Winter.”

The cold north wind begins to blow, and there is much running and stamping offeet to keep warm. During a moment oficy calm, one can hear teeth

10

chattering noisily. In the second movement (Largo), freezing rain falls

outside (cello, bass recorder, and harpsichord) while the violinist plays

beside a roaring log fire, perhaps dreaming of a holiday in sunny Sicily.

In the third movement (Allegro), the action moves to a frozen lake, where

a skater gracefully turns. Others join him, taking careful steps and falling

over a few times, before gaining confidence and playing joyfully together.

But the ice cracks suddenly and starts to break up, and the party swiftly

comes to an end. The first breath offreezing wind heralds a winter gale,

bringing the work to its chilling conclusion!

Program notes based on material provided by Red Priest

Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Wilhem Latchoumia, pianist

Music by Debussy, Hahn, Villa-Lobos, and other composers

Presented in honor of Gauguin: Maker ofMyth

March 2, 2011

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

East Building Auditorium

Leipzig String Quartet

Music by Beethoven

March 6, 2011

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court