78TH SEASON OF

CONCERTS

national gallery of art | february 9, 2020 
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PROGRAM

Nordic Voices 

Tone Elisabeth Braaten, soprano 

Ingrid Hanken, soprano 

Ebba Ryd, mezzo-soprano 

Per Kristian Amundrød, tenor 

Frank Havrøy, baritone 

Rolf Magne Asser, bass

Music from the Time of Carlos V

February 9, 2020 | 3:30 p.m.

West Building, West Garden Court

Celebrating Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain, on view 

through February 17, 2020

Fra Olavsmusikken (c. 1100)

“Predicasti”

Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548 – 1611)

“Vidi speciosam”

Jacob Clemens non Papa (1510 – 1555) 

“O magnum mysterium”

Tomás Luis de Victoria 

“Nigra sum sed Formosa”

Tomás Luis de Victoria 

“Quem vidistis pastores dicite”

Carlo Gesualdo (1556 – 1613)

“Tenebrae factae sunt”

Intermission

Fra Olavsmusikken

“Alleluia”

Cristóbal de Morales (1500 – 1553)

“Exaltata est sancta Dei Genitrix”

Tomás Luis de Victoria 

“Congratulamini mihi”

Tomás Luis de Victoria 

“Ardens est cor meum”

Carlo Gesualdo

“Ardens est cor meum”

Tomás Luis de Victoria 

“Vadam et circuibo civitatem”

Nordic Voices, photo by Fredrik Arff
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THE MUSICIANS PROGRAM NOTES

Nordic Voices has created a musical world that explores vocal expression through the 

centuries of written composition. The acclaimed six-voice a cappella ensemble takes 

the art form into unheard territory with new commissions and collaborations on stage 

and on disc, using vocal techniques from ordinary classical sounds to Mongolian 

overtone singing.

Nordic Voices is based in Oslo, Norway. Hailed internationally for its performances 

on stage and on award-winning recordings, the ensemble’s vast repertoire ranges from 

the medieval era to the present, featuring works of composers from Orlando di Lasso 

and Monteverdi to Ligeti, Messiaen, Thoresen, and Kverndokk. The musicians’ performance style is smart and stylish, employing a playful yet sophisticated approach that 

enhances their already remarkable singing. Nordic Voices has appeared in major series 

and concert halls from Kyoto to New York, from Munich to Toronto, and from South 

Africa to Taiwan. 

Recent explorations have included collaborations with some of Europe’s most 

acclaimed jazz artists, including trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, with whom they have 

recorded Bójrn Bolstad Skjelbred’s The Bee Madrigals, a call for action in a song cycle. 

Recent European and North American tours have included the group’s work with the 

Gryphon Trio, for which Canadian composer Jeffrey Ryan created Scar Tissue for 

piano trio and six voices, with text by Canadian poet Michael Redhill.

Formed in 1996, Nordic Voices comprises six graduates from the Norwegian 

Academy of Music and the Norwegian Academy of Opera, who, in addition to their 

singing backgrounds, have a broad range of experience from choral conducting to 

teacher training and composition. It is perhaps this range of interests that leads the 

artists to explore a wider than usual spectrum of musical expression, from plainchant 

to new works commissioned from leading Norwegian composers; from the most 

sacred of religious texts to the strongly secular.

Alonso Berruguete is one of the most underrated artists of the Renaissance. Between 

the early 1520s and his death in 1561, he transformed the arts of Castile, his home 

region in Spain, with a dramatic style of painting and sculpture that drew from his 

experiences working in Italy during the 1510s. His specialty was an art form unique to 

Spain: large, multistory altarpieces decorated with painted wooden figures and reliefs 

(called retablos in Spanish). Berruguete produced several major retablos during the 

1520s and 1530s that sealed his reputation as the most inventive sculptor then active 

on the Iberian Peninsula. In his later career, his production expanded into other areas 

of sculpture. For the archbishop of Toledo, he undertook an array of impressive works, 

including the monumental group in the alabaster of the Transfiguration of Christ that 

crowns the choir stall in Toledo Cathedral. 

Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain is the first exhibition 

outside Spain devoted to the artist. Paintings and sculptures from his most ambitious 

retablo, which decorated the high altar of the Church of the Monastery of San Benito 

el Real in Valladolid, form the centerpiece. Dismantled during the nineteenth century, 

the altarpiece is now preserved in the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid, which 

has lent more than twenty works to the exhibition, including Berruguete’s masterful 

Sacrifice of Isaac. 

To illuminate the experience of seeing these sculptures at the National Gallery, 

we’ve invited Nordic Voices to perform works from the group’s recent recording 

of music by Tomás Luis de Victoria, undoubtedly the most famous composer from 

sixteenth-century Spain. The title of the program, Music from the Time of Carlos V, 

refers to the ruler of the Spanish Empire (1516 – 1556), the Holy Roman Empire (1519 – 

1558), and the Habsburg Netherlands (1506 – 1556). The famous saying, “I speak Spanish 

to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse” is attributed to 

Carlos V. He was undoubtedly the most powerful man in sixteenth-century Europe, 

from his teens until his death in 1558.

Music for today’s program dates mainly to the period of Carlos V’s reign and 

Berruguete’s work, with the exception of Fra Olavsmusikken’s “Predicasti” and “Alleluia,” 

which are based on a Norwegian Gregorian chant from the twelfth century. Cristóbal 

Morales was considered to be the most influential Spanish composer before Tomás 

Luis de Victoria. Carlo Gesualdo indeed provides contrast on this program and shows 

a chromatic language not heard again until the late nineteenth century. 

Program note on Alonso Berruguete by C. D. Dickerson III, Curator and Head of Sculpture 

and Decorative Arts, National Gallery of Art; Program note on Carlos V and composers 

provided by Nordic Voices.
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Upcoming Events of the SeventyEighth Season of The William Nelson 

Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, concerts 

are held in the West Building, West 

Garden Court.

Eighth Blackbird

Ice ‘n’ SPICE

Works by Nina Shekhar, Fjola Evans, 

Andy Akiho, and others. 

February 16, 3:30 p.m.

Third Coast Percussion

Music of Devonté Hynes (aka Blood 

Orange), Ryan Lott (aka Son Lux), 

and iconic composer Philip Glass. 

February 23, 3:30 p.m.

Sound Sketch 

Suspicious Cheeselords

From the Heavens

Music illuminating the Gallery’s holdings 

of images of heavenly beings. 

February 28, 12:10 p.m.

West Building Rotunda

McGill-McHale Trio

Music by Poulenc, Debussy, and contemporary composers Chris Rogerson, 

Valerie Coleman, Guillaume Connesson, 

and Paul Schoenfield.

March 1, 3:30 p.m.

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 © 2020 

Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, 

Washington

Benton Murdoch Spruance, Arrangement for Drums, 1941, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Reba and Dave 

Williams Collection, Florian Carr Fund and Gift of the Print Research Foundation, 2008.115.269
NGA.GOV/MUSIC