74TH SEASON 

OF CONCERTS

MAY 19, 2016 • NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

1
Photo by Amy Carmichael Smith

• National Gallery of Art

12:30 • West Building, West Garden Court

Aphrodite Mitsopoulou, piano

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Mazurka in G Minor, op. 67, no. 2

Scherzo no. 2 in B-flat Minor, op. 31

Nikos Skalkottas (1904-1949)

"The Trawler," from The Land and the Sea of Greece, a ballet suite for piano 

Yannis Costantinidis (1903-1984)

Eight Dances from the Greek Islands — Suite on Dodecanese Folktunes

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Etude no. 2, La leggierezza

Etude no. 6 in A Minor

Cosponsored by the Embassy of Greece for the European Month of Culture
The Musicians

Aphrodite Mitsopoulou was born in Greece and started her musical studies in the National

Conservatory of Athens. In 2006, she earned her soloist's diploma from the Conservatory

of Art and Technology and in 2009 her master's degree from the Boston Conservatory. 

Mitsopoulou is the recipient of several awards and honors, including first prize in the 

Golden Muse Competition for her interpretation in Greek and contemporary music. Her

notable teachers include Valery Sagaidachny, Janice Weber, Anna Ouspenskaya, and

Thomas Mastroianni. Highly trained as an educator, Mitsopoulou has worked as a faculty

tutor while at the Boston Conservatory, and her students have had success in major

national and international events. Mitsopoulou has performed as an accompanist and solo

performer in numerous venues including the 1898 Intimate Chapel concert series, the

Angels Concert series, the Holy Trinity Church of Christ, the Kreeger Museum, the Baha'i

Center of Sterling, and the Steinert Hall in Boston.

4 * National Gallery of Art

Program Notes

Romanticism was an intellectual and artistic movement found in literature, music, painting,

and architecture. It originated in Western Europe in the late eighteenth century and continued through the mid-nineteenth century. A rejection of the aesthetic of classicism —

balance, order, science, and rationality — romanticism emphasized the individual, spontaneity, imagination, and emotion. In music, Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt were among the

most important representatives of the romantic style. Chopin was known for his elegant

and fragile melodic lines, in which he used a harmonic texture and a musical language that

highlighted the element of dignity in pain and the nostalgia for your homeland. Liszt's

contribution as an innovator of piano technique changed our perspective on the limitations

of the human body and the human spirit. Through his technical experimentation, he created 

transcendental pieces that celebrate the unlimited possibilities of both instrument and

human potential. Within this rich European influence, Greek composers of the twentieth

century tried to create their own musical identity. Many Greek composers, including Yannis

Costantinidis, emphasize the intense nationalistic elements of their country and present the

unique folkloric tradition of Greek culture. Nikos Skalkottas —greatly influenced by his teacher 

Arnold Schoenberg — composes in a style closer to Igor Stravinsky and the second Viennese

school. The juxtaposition of the music of Chopin and Skalkottas exposes the musical innovation that happened between the romantic period and the second Viennese school.

Before Chopin, the mazurka was an unknown genre outside of Poland. It originated

as a peasant dance in Mazovia, the region of the composer's birthplace. As a child, Chopin 

often visited the countryside, where he became familiar with the local folk melodies. He

published forty-one mazurkas in eleven opuses and two other pieces without opus number.

A triple meter is one of the basic characteristics of the traditional Polish mazurka, often

with an accent on the third weak beat. Chopin doesn't experiment with the form, but he

added chromaticism, dissonance, and unexpected modulations to create his personal 

mazurka style. The Mazurka in G Minor is considered his last in this genre and expresses

the sadness, artistic doubts, and loneliness of the composer in his last years.

The second of Chopin's four scherzi is among the most celebrated pieces of the

pianist repertoire. Chopin was the first to imagine the scherzo as an independent genre.

Before Chopin, scherzi were part of larger works, such as symphonies and sonatas. The

Scherzo in B-flat Minor was composed and published in 1837, five years after the first one.

Chopin's student, Wilhelm von Lenz, said about the sotto voce opening: "For Chopin it

was never questioning enough, never soft enough, never sufficiently weighted.''

Nikos Skalkottas was born on the small island of Chalki and at age five took his first

violin lessons from his father. He continued his studies in the Athens Conservatory, where

he graduated with distinction in 1920. A scholarship allowed him to study at the Prussian

Academy of Arts in Berlin, first in violin but later in composition with Paul Juon, Kurt Weill,

and Arnold Schoenberg. Skalkottas used traditional forms but also experimented with

harmony. Throughout his career he used the techniques of tonality, atonality, and twelvetone theory. His love and dedication to his Greek heritage are prominent in such works as

74th Season • 5
the Thirty-Six Greek Dances. "The Trawler," is part of his ballet suite for piano, The Land and

the Sea of Greece. Composed in 1949, it is tonal yet has many unexpected harmonic color

changes. A trawler is a small fishing boat, often employed during the night. Seen from the

shore, it appears as a small light in the middle of the dark ocean.

Yannis Costantinidis was born in Smyrna in 1903 but moved to Athens toward the end

of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). In 1923, he moved to Berlin to continue his studies

and returned to Greece in 1931. Costantinidis composed chamber music, symphonic works,

operettas, and popular music. The Eight Dances from the Greek Islands is a work with intense

nationalistic and folkloric elements. Each dance has a different rhythmic and melodic pattern,

representing the style of its island's dance. The meter (5/4,7/8), the notation, the grace

notes, and the harmonic and dynamic changes create a unique color for each dance. Most

Greek dances are performed in a circular way with the dancers holding each other's hands

to symbolize the continuation of the generations. For a Greek, it is hard to listen to this work

without remembering the color of Greece's seas, its volcanic rocks, wild beauty, and feeling

of freedom.

La Ieggierezza is the second of the Three Concert Etudes by Franz Liszt, published in

1849 with the titles, II lamento, La Ieggierezza, and Un sospiro. The word Ieggierezza originates

from the Italian word, leggero, meaning light, thus light and sensitive touch. In this work,

Liszt seems to be influenced by the fine legato and the melodic singing passages of Chopin's

compositions. In the romantic period, etudes were supposed to challenge the pianist;

however, they weren't merely virtuosic showpieces but also character pieces intended for

public performances. The work is a masterful combination of beautiful melodic lines and

technical challenges for the pianist, such as melody on the left hand and thirds on the right,

or irregular rhythmic groupings and virtuosic runs.

Program notes by Aphrodite Mitsopoulou

6 • National Gallery of Art

Upcoming Events of the SeventyFourth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Jenny Scheinman's

Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait

Original score accompanying

a documentary

May 22, Sunday, 4:30 

East Building Auditorium

Winners of the 2016 Joseph and Goldie

Feder Memorial String Competition

and Misbin Family Memorial Chamber

Music Competition

Presented in cooperation with

Washington Performing Arts

June 5, Sunday, 2:00 and 4:00

West Building, West Garden Court

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.

www.nga.gov

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The department of music produced these

program notes. Copyright © 2016 Board of

Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Cover William H. Johnson, Blind Singer (detail),

c. 1940, National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Florian Carr 

Fund and Gift of the Print Research Foundation

Back cover West Building, East Garden 

Court, Photo by Rob Shelley, National Gallery

of Art, Washington