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

Concerts are made possible in part through the generosity of donors

to the National Gallery ofArt through The Circle. Reserved seating is

available in recognition oftheir support. Please contact the development 

office at (202) 842-6450 or circle@nga.gov for more information.

COVER: Salvador Dali, Les Chants de Maldoror (detail), 1934 (signed 1936),

National Gallery ofArt, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

\

The Seventy-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,977th Concert

Dali Quartet

Simon Gollo and Carlos Rubio, violins

Adriana Linares, viola

Jesus A. Morales, cello

January 26, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Efrain Amaya (b. 1959)

Angelica (2000)

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

String Quartet in A Minor, op. 51, no. 2 (1873)

Allegro non troppo 

Andante moderato

Quasi minuetto, moderato; allegretto vivace

Finale: Allegro non assai

INTERMISSION

Joaquin Turina (1882-1949)

La Oracion del torero, op. 34 (The Bullfighter’s Prayer)

Juan Bautista Plaza (1898-1965)

Fuga criolla (Creole Fugue) (1931)

Abelardito Valdes (1911-1958)

Danzon Almendra (Dance for the Almond Orchestra) (1938)

Arranged for string quartet by N. Aponte

Carlos Gardel (1890-1935)

El dia que me quieras (The Day You Love Me) (1935)

Arranged for string quartet by N. Aponte

Carlos Almaran (1918-2013)

La Historia de un amor (The Story of a Love) (1956)

Arranged for string quartet by by Javier Montiel

Rafael Hernandez (1892-1965)

El Cumbanchero (Good-time Charley)

Arranged for string quartet by N. Aponte

The Musicians

With artful grace and a Caribbean soul, the Dali Quartet is a fresh voice in

classical and Latin-American music for string quartet. Anchored in both El

Sistema, Venezuela’s social and music education movement, and the 

American classical conservatory tradition, this young quartet combines the 

best of both worlds. In the spirit of Salvador Dali, the quartet embraces 

imagination, excellence, and innovation as central to its artistic endeavors.

Comprised of award-winning solo and chamber artists, the ensemble

has been invited to perform works that emphasize the Latin-classical connection for television, festivals, and presenting organizations in Canada, the 

United States, and Venezuela. It serves as quartet-in-residence for the Elite

Strings Program in North Wales, Pennsylvania, where it hosts the Dali String

Quartet Summer Music Camp and Festival. It is also a resident ensemble

ofthe Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia, which is dedicated to

fostering minority participation in classical music. A part ofthe Dali Quartet’s

mission includes interactive educational concerts for students in grades K-12.

In addition to their excellent early training in Venezuela, the members of

the quartet have studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Conservatoire 

de Musique de Geneve, Indiana University in Bloomington, and the Simon 

Bolivar Conservatory in Caracas.

3
Program Notes

A graduate ofIndiana and Rice universities, Venezuelan-born American

composer and conductor Efrain Amaya is the music director of Pennsylvania

Dance Theater as well as the founder and music director ofthe Point Chamber

Orchestra in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. In 2010 he was selected to be one

ofseven composers to contribute to Decameron, an opera project sponsored

by American Composers’ Forum New Voices and International Opera Theater. 

Amaya’s Angelica, originally conceived for string orchestra, features a mix of

Latin dance rhythms. It received its world premiere in 2000 at the hands of

the BACHfest Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Sarah O’Boyle.

As if creating a foil for his first string quartet, in which the gloomy gray

ofwinter predominates, Johannes Brahms created in his second (Quartet in

A Minor, op. 51. no. 2) a sunny work with the crisp brightness ofIndian summer. The opening theme consists ofthe notes A-F-A-E, which some interpreters think is a reference to “frei, aber einsam” (free, but lonely), a motto

that Brahms often heard uttered by his close friend, the great German violinist

Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), and by which he himselflived. Drenched with

parallel thirds and sixths, the first movement is reminiscent ofthe duets

from operas of Bellini or Rossini. In the slow second movement (Andante

moderato), the composer places a rest on many ofthe downbeats, giving the

melodic line an insistent quality. The unusual minuet that is the third movement is modal, featuring bare open fifths and drooping cadences. All ofthis

is interrupted, however, by a lively interlude (allegretto vivace), which is a

surprise in the context of a minuet, unless the listener has already taken a

hint from Brahms’ tempo marking for the movement—“Quasi minuetto.”

The exuberant last movement is made even more dynamic by syncopations,

cross accents, and other pulsations that defy the basic beat.

4

Joaquin Turina was bom in Seville, Spain, but his early life was spent

in northern Italy. In 1905, after completing his music studies in Seville and

Madrid, he relocated to Paris in order to study composition with Vincent

d’Indy (1851-1931) and piano with Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925). While

in Paris, he met and was deeply influenced by Debussy and Ravel. Turina

returned to Madrid in 1914, working as a composer, teacher, and critic. From

1931 until his death in 1949, he served as professor ofcomposition at the Madrid 

Royal Conservatory. Much ofhis work shows the influence oftraditional

Andalusian music.

A native ofCaracas, Juan Bautista Plaza began his studies as a medical

student at the Central University ofVenezuela, but left before completing a

degree in order to dedicate himselfto music. After studying sacred music in

Rome in the early 1920s, he returned to Venezuela, where he accepted the

post ofMaster ofthe Chapel at Caracas Cathedral and taught music history

and music appreciation at the Caracas Superior Music School. Among his

students were composer Antonio Lauro and singer Morelia Munoz.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Abelardito Valdes studied music theory and flute

throughout his childhood, surrounded by the rich dance culture known

as danzon. As an adult, he played in several leading dance orchestras and

founded one ofhis own—Orquestra Almendra, which flourished from 1938

to 1956. He also published twenty-seven works in the style of danzon, all of

which were markedly different from previously published works ofthat type.

Known for the musicality ofhis baritone voice and his dramatic phrasing

ofthe lyrics in his songs, composer, singer, and actor Carlos Gardel (born

Charles Romuald Gardes) was a prominent figure in the history oftango. At

first singing only in bars and at private parties, he eventually made an impression upon and performed with Argentine guitarist Francisco Martino (1884-

1938) and Uruguayan singer and composer Jose Razzano (1887-1960). Written

in 1935, not long before Gardel died, “El dia que me quieras” is a tango-cancion,

a genre that he created. His tragic death in an airplane crash at the height

ofhis career made him a cultural hero in Latin America, remembered long

afterward through his music.

5
The author ofmany love songs in Spanish and English, among them

“Nostalgia,” “Away from you,” and “Forgive Her, Lord,” Panamanian composer Carlos Eleta Almaran also wrote sound tracks for Mexican films in the

1950s. Written shortly after the death ofAlmaran’s sister-in-law, “La Historia 

de un amor” (The Story of a Love) tells of a man’s suffering after his love

has disappeared.

Rafael Hernandez was working as a musician in North Carolina when

the United States entered World War 1. He and sixteen other Puerto Rican

musicians were recruited by jazz bandleader fames Reese Europe (1881-1919)

to form an Army jazz band as a part ofthe war effort. Assigned to the 369th

Infantry Regiment, the unit was called the United States Army’s Harlem

Hell Fighters. Distinguishing itself on the battlefield as well as on stage, the 

369th was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry by the president

of France.

After the war, Hernandez moved to New York City, where he collaborated with fellow Puerto Ricans Pedro Flores (1894-1979) and Myrta Silva

(1917-1987), undertaking numerous tours ofthe Americas. In 1932 Hernandez

moved to Mexico, where he directed an orchestra and enrolled in Mexico’s

National Music Conservatory. A successful actor as well as a musician,

Hernandez created many ofthe musical scores in Mexico’s “golden age” of

film (1936-1969). The Mexicans ofthe state of Puebla consider his composition “Que Chula es Puebla” to be their unofficial anthem. The popular lore

around his song “El Cumbanchero” (Good-time Charley) included the rumor

that its text was autobiographical. In a tribute to Hernandez, delivered on 

the occasion of a visit to Puerto Rico, President John F. Kennedy referred to

him “Mr. Cumbanchero.”

Program notes by Stephen Ackert, head, music department, National Gallery ofArt

6

Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone

Russell Ryan, pianist

Schubert: Schwanengesang

February 2, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Building Court

Fine Arts Quartet

Music by Kreisler and Zimbalist

February 9, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Building Court

Aron Zelkowicz, cellist

Ryo Yanagitani, pianist

Music by Barber, Chopin, 

and other composers

February 16, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court