77TH SEASON OF

CONCERTS

national gallery of art | march 3, 2019
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Noah Getz and Friends

Anne Donaldson, violin 

Noah Getz, alto and tenor saxophones 

Natalia Kazaryan, piano 

Evan Ross Solomon, clarinet

March 3, 2019 | 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Absolute Art and Jazz between the Wars

Anton Webern (1883 – 1945)

Quartet, op. 22

sehr massig

sehr schvungwoll

Erwin Schulhoff (1894 – 1942)

Hot-Sonate Ł = 66 Š = 112 Ł = 80 Š = 132

Stefan Wolpe (1902 – 1972)

Zwei Tänze für Klavier

Blues

Tango

Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945)

Contrasts

Verbunkos

Pihenö

Sebes

PROGRAM

Photo by Roy Cox 
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THE MUSICIANS

Anne Donaldson

Anne Donaldson received her bachelor of music degree from the Cleveland Institute of 

Music, where she studied with David Updegraff. She received her master’s degree from 

Northwestern University and was the teaching assistant of Blair Milton. Donaldson was 

a member of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2012 and cofounded 

and was the assistant director of the Suzuki Talent Education Program of Birmingham, 

Alabama, for six years. She has trained extensively in the Suzuki Method and teaches at 

Suzuki workshops and institutes across the country. Currently living in Washington, DC, 

Donaldson plays frequently with the Baltimore and National Symphony Orchestras, as 

well as with Sound Impact and Inscape Chamber Orchestra. During the summer season, 

she performs with the Grant Park Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, and the 

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. In her free time, she enjoys flying trapeze and 

playing traditional Irish music.

Noah Getz

Hailed as “a highly skillful and an even more highly adventurous player” (Washington 

City Paper) with “virtuosity, sensitivity, and beauty of tone” (Fanfare), Noah Getz has 

performed and lectured worldwide, including at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Carnegie 

Hall, the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, the Polish Woodwind Festival, and the Teatro 

Degollado in Guadalajara, Mexico. Getz’s premiere of in every way I remember you at 

the National Gallery of Art was praised as “spectacular and wonderfully provocative” 

(Washington Post). In 2016, Grammy-winning composer Stephen Hartke wrote Willow 

Run, a new concerto for saxophone that Getz premiered at the Oberlin Conservatory 

and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

An avid chamber musician, Getz is a member of the National Gallery New Music 

Ensemble, the Zohn Collective, and Interference/Intermedia. He has performed with 

the 21st Century Consort, the PostClassical Ensemble, the Empyrean Ensemble, and 

members of the International Contemporary Ensemble. He received a first-round 

Grammy nomination with the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet. He is a musician-inresidence at American University in Washington, DC.

Natalia Kazaryan

Natalia Kazaryan has performed across Europe, in Salzburg’s Schloss Mirabell, Monaco’s 

Théâtre des Variétés, Madrid’s Auditorio Sony, Florence’s Palazzo Tornabuoni, and 

Paris’s Musée Carnavalet and Salle Cortot. She has received top prizes from Eastman 

Young Artists International, Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin, and New York’s piano 

competitions, as well as from the Concours FLAME and the Concours international de 

piano d’Île de France. She studied at the Juilliard School and the Escuela Superior de 

Música Reina Sofia and recently completed doctoral studies at the University of Michigan. 

A Fulbright grant recipient, she also received a Sobresaliente award for excellence and 

outstanding work from Queen Sofia of Spain. Kazaryan currently serves on the adjunct 

piano faculty of Howard University.

Evan Ross Solomon

Evan Ross Solomon is widely known for his versatility, depth of tone, and technical 

brilliance on both clarinet and bass clarinet. Recognized for his compelling performances of works by Brahms, Mozart, and Messiaen, Solomon is equally at home in 

works of contemporary music. As principal clarinet of Inscape Chamber Orchestra, his 

performances have been praised by such publications as the Washington Post, the 

New York Times, and Gramophon Magazine. Solomon appears prominently on all four 

of Inscape Chamber Orchestra’s recordings, including the 2014 Grammy-nominated 

Sprung Rhythm and the 2016 recording of Petrushka for seventeen solo players.

Recently, Solomon has performed on both coasts of the United States in touring 

programs, as well as in Santiago and Frutillar, Chile. He appears frequently with the 

Delaware Symphony, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony, and many prominent, regional 

ensembles. He has performed at the Kennedy Center, Strathmore, and the National 

Gallery of Art. Since 2005, Solomon has served as executive director of Inscape. He 

also serves as the artistic director of the DC Youth Orchestra Program.
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Quartet, op. 22 

Completed in September 1930, Anton Webern’s Quartet, op. 22 for violin, clarinet, 

tenor saxophone, and piano, was written at the height of Webern’s compositional 

powers. While it was not well received by critics, fellow composers Alban Berg and 

Arnold Schoenberg considered it a masterpiece. Berg wrote, “This Quartet is a miracle. 

What amazes me above all is its originality. One can assert with confidence that there 

is nothing in the entire world of music production that attains even approximately 

such a degree of originality, i.e., a full hundred percent.”

The pitches selected by Webern in the first movement, sehr massig (very moderate), are strictly dictated by a tone row with a central pitch F-sharp, which is stated 

first as two articulated unaccompanied notes by the clarinet. All of the instruments 

selected for this ensemble have a wide dynamic and tonal palette, which the composer 

emphasizes by using large intervals. Three of the four instruments perform a rhythmic 

canon with one overlapping note. This small overlap creates the inchoate suggestion 

of fundamental elements of chamber music, including blend, balance, and intonation. 

The fourth instrument, first performed by the tenor saxophone, presents rhythmic 

contrast suggesting a soloist role.

Berg considered the second movement, sehr schwungvoll (with much momentum), an “exact analogy” to Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, op. 14, which is in rondo form. 

In contrast with the first movement and with other works by Webern, this second 

movement is remarkably flexible in its composition. Considered to be one of his most 

unrestrained and unconventional movements, it contains unexpected tempo changes, 

alterations in the canonic form, and the use of classical compositional structures as 

inspiration. 

Hot-Sonate

Erwin Schulhoff was perhaps the most ardent advocate for the inclusion of jazz in his 

works. Like many veterans of World War I, Schulhoff was disillusioned by the horrors 

of war and became interested in artistic movements that protested the bourgeois 

conventions he felt had led to the conflict. Jazz, with its sexual and racial overtones, 

embodied the expression of this anti-authoritarian stance for Europeans who were just 

being introduced to this music. The saxophone — said by the composer to be “of the 

strongest necessity with regard to sexual ethos”— was the musical and cultural icon 

for this subversive music. However, by the time Schulhoff wrote Hot-Sonate in 1930, 

his perception of the saxophone allowed him to see more possibilities for the instrument. By then, a conservatory class for the saxophone had been established in Berlin, 

which led to renewed interest in the instrument’s use in classical music.

PROGRAM NOTES Schulhoff’s choice of the name Hot-Sonate for this work derives from the use 

of the term “hot” by jazz musicians to distinguish authentic jazz from bands that 

performed light jazz and traditional arrangements for broader appeal. Playing “hot” 

often included emotionally charged technical lines that were highly syncopated and 

anticipated the beat, like those in Louis Armstrong’s “Hot Fives” and Jelly Roll Morton’s “Red Hot Peppers.” In the Hot-Sonate, four movements feature rhythmic and 

stylistic elements of jazz in the 1920s, but the form and phrasing are more closely 

aligned with classical music. 

This is one of the few works in the saxophone repertoire that is written in a 

large-scale sonata form. The first movement explores classical and jazz styles through 

melodic ideas derived from the impressionistic-sounding whole tone scale and 

syncopated “hot” rhythms. The second movement contains a syncopated melody in 

cut time reminiscent of songs like George Gershwin’s “Fascinating Rhythm.” The third 

movement approximates the vocal quality of the blues by indicating scoops in the 

saxophone part with the performance indication of lamentuoso ma molto grottesco. 

The final movement combines the rhythmic sensibility of the second movement with 

a recapitulation of material from the first movement. 

Zwei Tänze für Klavier

Stefan Wolpe’s musical and artistic interests spanned the modernist trends of Europe 

between the wars. His compositional excellence along with his willingness to adapt to 

an ever-changing world allowed him to compose significant works in a number of styles. 

Wolpe’s early association with Dadaists and the Novembergruppen, a radical left-wing 

group of writers and painters, led to his desire to be a “socially committed” modernist. 

Attendance at Bauhaus lectures, led by famous artists including Klee and Kandinsky, 

would also have a lasting impact by defining modernist ideas like “total art” and color 

movement through space. Wolpe’s performances at this time emphasized music that 

was “formally experimental in nature,” but his political inclinations led him towards 

popular music and writing music for the general population. 

Kunstjazz, or art jazz, was compatible with Wolpe’s musical interests by combining 

the rigor of contemporary musical and artistic concepts with popular music. Newly 

available recordings of jazz along with arranging books for dance bands, such as those 

written by American Arthur Lange, led to a flowering of music that combined these 

elements. Zwei Tänze für Klavier is a two-movement work that was written in 1926 

during this transition in Wolpe’s compositional life. In the first movement, entitled 

Blues, Wolpe deconstructs the tension between the major and minor third at the 

essence of this musical form with the repeated use of a grace note and descending 

chromatic figure. The rhythmic interplay between the left and right hands echoes 

common piano writing in ragtime, blues, and stride styles. Tango, the second move-
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ment, emphasizes the sharp lines that punctuate this sensual dance with several bass 

figures that clarify the composer’s musical intentions. Using similar musical styles 

including the blues, tango, and the Charleston, Wolpe wrote one of his most significant 

early works, the zeitoper Zues and Elida, two years later.

After being displaced by World War II, Wolpe moved to the United States where 

he became an important teacher. He influenced modern compositional style in the 

United States by teaching such composers as Milton Babbitt, Morton Feldman, and 

Charles Wourinen. He also taught European serialist composers through his lectures at 

the Darmstadt International Summer Courses in New Music (known as the Darmstadt 

School), in Darmstadt, Germany. Wolpe also maintained a connection to jazz by 

teaching composers who arranged and wrote tunes for some of Miles Davis’s most 

important recordings.

Contrasts

By the beginning of World War I, Hungarian composer Belá Bartók had already 

assimilated his extensive ethnomusicological studies of Hungarian, Romanian, and 

Slovakian folk music into his own unique musical style. He spoke frequently about the 

importance of assimilating folk music and described his compositions as “impregnated 

with this spirit.” His one-act opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle had been completed in 1911, 

and he had been appointed a teacher of piano at the Royal Academy of Music in 

Budapest in 1907. He would hold this post for more than thirty years.

In the years leading up to World War II, Bartók was at the height of his creative 

powers, but also faced some of the most challenging years of his life due to the 

political climate. He refused to perform in Hungary between 1930 and 1934 because of 

the poor reception he received resulting from his refusal to conform to the country’s 

nationalist tendencies between the wars. In the past, Germany had provided consistent 

opportunities for performances of Bartók’s music. However, with the rise of the Nazi 

party, Bartók was asked to provide proof that he was not Jewish before further performances were permitted. Bartók refused this request and a series of delays and leaked 

private letters exacerbated the situation. Bartók ultimately decided to emigrate to the 

United States when he was offered a research position at Columbia University.

It was in this atmosphere that Bartók received a letter from violinist Joseph Szigeti, 

a friend of the composer, to write a piece for him and the American jazz clarinetist 

Benny Goodman, with piano accompaniment. Szigeti requested that the work be two 

movements of six or seven minutes that could be performed independently to showcase each instrument. The first movement, Verbunkos (Recruiting Dance), contains a 

virtuosic clarinet cadenza, and the second movement, Sebes (Fast Dance), contains a 

violin cadenza. This two-movement version, entitled Rhapsody (Two Dances), was premiered by Szigeti and Goodman with pianist Endre Petri at Carnegie Hall in 1939. Bartók 

later added a slow, middle movement, Pihenö (Relaxation), and the resulting threemovement work was given the title Contrasts. Bartók was somewhat apologetic about 

presenting a piece that was much larger in scope than the original request, but the 

addition of the slower movement elevated the work from a concert piece to a chamber 

work with better musical balance.

Program notes by Noah Getz
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Upcoming Events of the SeventySeventh Season of The William Nelson 

Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, concerts 

are held in the West Building, West 

Garden Court.

Peter Vinograde, piano

J. S. Bach’s Seven Keyboard Toccatas

March 10, 3:30

Parthenia 

with Ryland Angel, countertenor

Celebrating Drawing in Tintoretto’s 

Venice and Venetian Prints in the 

Time of Tintoretto

Tomb Sonnets

Featuring works by Martin Kennedy, 

Luca Marenzio, Philippe Verdelot, 

Jacques Arcadelt, Cipriano de Rore, 

Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Andrea and 

Giovanni Gabrieli

March 17, 3:30

Eya

Sound Sketches 

Location will be posted the day 

of the concert.

March 22, 3:30

Natalie Clein, cello 

Dina Vainshtein, piano

Clein’s debut United States tour, with 

works by Nadia Boulanger, Frank Bridge, 

Rebecca Clarke, and Elisabeth Lutyens

March 24, 3:30

Fauré Quartett

Works by Fauré, Mahler, and Frank Bridge

March 31, 3:30

General Information

Admission to the National Gallery of Art 

and all of its programs is free of charge, 

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording 

equipment during the performance 

is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic 

devices are turned off.

—

Concerts are made possible in part 

through the generosity of donors to the 

National Gallery of Art through The Circle. 

Reserved seating is available in recognition 

of their support. Please contact the 

development office at (202) 842-6450 or 

circle@nga.gov for more information.

—

The department of music produced 

these program notes. Copyright © 2019 

Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, 

Washington

Claude Flight, Street Singers, 1925, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen 
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NGA.GOV/MUSIC