The Sixty-third Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,506th Concert

The New York Chamber Soloists

Jennifer Grim, flute, Melvin Kaplan, oboe

Allen Blustine, clarinet, Andrew Schwartz, bassoon

Curt Macomber, violin, Ynez Lynch, viola

Adam Grabois, cello, Elizabeth Metcalfe, keyboard Music Department 11

National Gallery of Art 

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

October 24, 2004

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm 

West Building, West Garden Court

www.nga.gov

Admission flree
2,506th Concert

October 24, 2004, 6:30 pm

Walter Piston (1894-1976)

Sonatina for Violin and Harpsichord (1946)

Allegro leggiero

Adagio espressivo

Allegro vivo

Mel Powell (1923-1998)

Eight Miniatures for Baroque Ensemble (1959)

Moderato

Mosso

Giusto

Brioso

Freely, but very slow

Allegro ritmico

Moderato 

Energico

Arthur Berger (1912-2003)

Quartet in C Major for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon (1941)

Allegro moderato

Andante

Allegro vivace e leggermente

Intermission

Elliott Carter (b. 1908)

Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord (1952)

Risoluto (un poco rubato)

Lento

Allegro

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1941-1942)

Grazioso

Andantino; Vivace e leggiero

Hugh Aitken (b. 1924)

Ferdinand the Bull

For flute, oboe, violin, cello, and piano

Ynez Lynch, narrator

Washington Premiere Performance
The Musicians

For more than three decades, the New York Chamber Soloists have been

acclaimed as an outstanding ensemble of distinguished virtuosi, performing widely diverse repertoire in creatively programmed concerts. An elevenmember ensemble ofstrings, winds, and keyboard, increasing to as many

as twenty with the addition of guest artists, the Chamber Soloists have the

flexibility to offer many works that are seldom heard due to the unusual

instrumental combinations for which they were written.

With more than 250 works in their repertoire, the Chamber Soloists have 

made a valuable contribution to the musical life ofthe United States and have 

helped to expand the audience for chamber music. The ensemble has added

substantially to the catalog oftwentieth- and twenty-first-century works, with

more than twenty-five compositions written for the Chamber Soloists by

such significant composers as Gunther Schuller, Mario Davidovsky, Ezra

Laderman, Elliott Schwartz, and Mel Powell. The ensemble has compiled

an impressive record ofrepeat engagements in the United States and abroad, 

including eleven European tours, six Latin American tours, and numerous

tours ofthe Far East and South Pacific. It undertook an extensive tour of

South America in the fall of 1995 and performed throughout Spain in May

1996 and October 2000. In the United States, the Chamber Soloists have 

appeared frequently at the Metropolitan Museum ofArt in New York, the

Library ofCongress in Washington, major universities across the country

from Boston to Berkeley, and at the Mostly Mozart, Sun Valley, and Caramoor

Festivals. They have been in residence at the Vermont Mozart Festival every

summer since its inception in 1972. This is the ensemble’s second appearance at the National Gallery; it opened the Gallery’s 2000-2001 concert

season on October 1, 2000.

Program Notes

The texture ofWalter Piston’s Sonatinafor Violin and Harpsichord is thinner

than that of most of his compositions, revealing the composer’s sensitivity

to the strengths and limitations ofthe harpsichord. In the notes for the first

long-playing record that included this work, Piston wrote: “[This piece is]

an etching, in that it is concerned with expression through line and design.

The forms ofthe movements are not complex, the first being that ofthe

sonata with little development, the second consisting offive long phrases

in dialogue between the two instruments, and the third a rondo with two 

themes.” Ifthe work were a full-blown sonata, an additional movement

might have taken the form of a scherzo. The lack ofsuch a movement is

addressed by a briefscherzando interlude in the first movement.

Mel Powell wrote Eight Miniaturesfor Baroque Ensemble for the New

York Chamber Soloists’ European tour of 1959. Powell began his musical

life as a prodigious jazz artist, working as pianist and arranger with the

Benny Goodman Orchestra and Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. Soon 

a strong compositional instinct prompted his matriculation at Yale University, where he studied with Paul Hindemith. Under Hindemith and subsequently throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, Powell composed primarily

in a neoclassic style. By 1959, however, he had developed an affinity for 

the music ofAnton Webern that manifested itselfin brevity offorms and

transparency oftextures. He introduced such innovations as extended string

techniques, novel notations that presented chords, pitch sequences, rhythms,

and colors in musical blocks, and electronically produced sounds on tape.

Powell was one ofthe principal founders ofthe California Institute ofthe

Arts. He served as dean ofthe institute’s music school from 1969 to 1978.

At the time ofhis death in 1998, he held the Roy E. Disney endowed chair

in music composition.

3
Arthur Berger’s Quartet in C Majorfor Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon

was commissioned for a performance by members ofthe San Francisco 

Symphony Orchestra and is dedicated to Aaron Copland. Because ofthe

conservative style and easy accessibility ofthis work, the casual listener

might miss the great skill with which its intricate rhythms and contrapuntal

lines are created and controlled. The three movements ofthe quartet are an

extended Allegro moderato, followed by a calm Andante and a finale, Allegro

vivace e leggermente. Berger’s career as an influential composer, critic, and

teacher lasted more than half a century. He exhibited a consistent preference

for short musical forms and produced numerous pieces for chamber and

symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, voice with piano, and piano

solo. He studied at New York University, the Longy School, and Harvard

University, as well as with Nadia Boulanger. In addition to his long tenure

at Brandeis University, he also taught at Mills College, Brooklyn College, the

Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory, and Harvard University.

Elliott Carter’s Sonatafor Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Flarpsichord was commissioned by the Harpsichord Quartet of New York and uses the instruments

played by that ensemble. The composer provided the following notes for the

Nonesuch recording ofthe sonata: “My idea was to stress as much as possible the vast and wonderful array oftone colors available on the modem harpsichord (the large Pleyel, for which this was first written, produces thirty-six 

different colors, many ofwhich can be played in pairs, one for each hand).

The three other instruments are treated for the most part as a frame for the

harpsichord. This aim ofusing the wide variety ofthe harpsichord involved 

many tone-colors which can only be produced very softly and therefore

conditioned very drastically the type and range ofmusical expression, all the

details ofshape, phrasing, rhythm, texture, as well as the large form. At that

time (in 1952, before the harpsichord had made its way into pop) it seemed

very important to have the harpsichord speak in a new voice, expressing

characters unfamiliar to its extensive baroque repertory.

4

The music starts, Risoluto, with a splashing dramatic gesture whose

subsiding ripples form the rest ofthe movement. The Lento is an expressive

dialogue between the harpsichord and the others with an undercurrent

offast music that bursts out briefly near the end. The Allegro, with its

gondolier’s dance fading into other dance movements, is cross-cut like a

movie—at times it superimposes one dance on another.”

Leonard Bernstein’s Sonatafor Clarinet and Piano dates from the winter

of 1941-1942, when he was a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in

Philadelphia. Bernstein’s first published work, the sonata was premiered on

April 22, 1942, in Boston by clarinetist David Glazer, with the composer at 

the piano. The first ofthe two movements is reminiscent ofthe music of

Paul Hindemith in its counterpoint and melodic line. The second, with its

s/8 rhythm and jazz characteristics, shows the influence of Igor Stravinsky’s

Three Piecesfor Solo Clarinet (1919) and hints ofthe Bernstein to come,

particularly West Side Story.

The New York Chamber Soloists played and Ynez Lynch narrated the

world premiere performance of Hugh Aitken’s Ferdinand the Bull on August 1,

2004, at the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory in Shelburne, Vermont. It is a retelling in music and narration of Munro Leaf’s classic children’s story of a

bull that prefers peace and contentment.

Program notes provided by Melvin Kaplan, Inc.

For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:00 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 concerts now begin at 6:30 pm.

Late entry or reentry after 6:30 pm is not permitted.