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 of

the 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 of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue NW

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, MD 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-eighth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,792nd Concert

Joaquin Achucarro, pianist

June 6, 2010

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm 

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Symphonic Studies, op. 13 (1834/1852)

Theme: Andante

Variation 1: Un poco piu vivo

Variation 2: Marcato il canto

Etude 1: Vivace

Etude 2

Etude 3

Etude 4: Agitato 

Etude 5: Allegro molto

Variation 3

Etude 6: Presto possibile

Variation 4

Variation 5: Con espressione

Finale: Allegro brillante

INTERMISSION

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Vaises nobles et sentimentales (1911)

Modere

Assez lent

Modere

Assez anime

Presque lent

Vif

Moins vif

Epilogue: Lent

Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909)

Sevilla

From Iberia, Book I (1906)

Evocacion

From Iberia, Book I

El Albaicm

From Iberia, Book III (1907)

This concert is presented in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain

obseivance ofSpain's president in 2010 ofthe European Union.
The Musician

Internationally acclaimed pianist Joaquin Achucarro has performed with

many ofthe world’s leading orchestras, including the BBC Symphony

Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, La Scala

Orchestra of Milan, the London Symphony and London Philharmonic

Orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New Philharmonia Orchestra,

and the New York Philharmonic. He gives solo recitals regularly in Europe

and the United States and performs in the dual role ofsoloist and conductor

with many chamber orchestras throughout Europe.

In his home country, Achucarro has achieved the highest honors in the

arts. In 1992 the Spanish government awarded him the Premio Nacional

de Musica, and in 1996 he was knighted by King Juan Carlos with the Gold

Medal of Fine Arts. In 1997 he was awarded the Premio Larios for Musical 

Excellence and performed at the inauguration ofthe Bilbao Guggenheim

Museum. UNESCO named him “Artist for Peace” in recognition of his

“extraordinary artistic achievement,” and in 2003, the king presented him

with the Great Cross of Civil Merit, honoring a lifetime of achievement. He 

is also Commendador ofthe Order of Isabel la Catolica and member ofthe

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.

Achucarro is the subject of a DVD just released by Opus Arte that commemorates the fiftieth anniversary ofhis debut with the London Symphony

Orchestra and features a performance of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with

that ensemble under the baton of Sir Colin Davis. The DVD also includes a

solo performance filmed among the paintings in the Goya gallery ofthe Prado

Museum in Madrid. In 1997, following the express wish of composer Joaquin 

Rodrigo (1901-1999), Achucarro completed and recorded for Sony Classical

his revision of Rodrigo’s Piano Concerto. His discography also features prizewinning BMG-RCA recordings of Enrique Granados’ (1867-1916) Goyescas and

the complete piano works of Manuel de Falla (1876-1946), including Nights in

the Gardens ofSpain and Harpsichord Concerto.

4

Born in Bilbao, Spain, and a descendant of Edvard Grieg through a

Norwegian great-grandfather, Achucarro displayed exceptional musical talent

as a child, but, following a family tradition ofscientific pursuits, he entered La

Autonoma University in Madrid to prepare for a future in physics. His musical proclivity prevailed, however, as the physics major took gold medals in a

succession ofinternational piano competitions, including the Gontaut Biron

in Paris, the Geneva International Competition, and the Viotti International

Competition in Italy. Since September 1989 Achucarro has held the specially

endowed Joel Estes Tate Chair at Southern Methodist University. He is also a

professor ofpiano at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy.

Program Notes

Robert Schumann’s contributions to the literature ofthe piano study

(etude) —a genre just beginning to blossom in the mid-nineteenth century

at the hands ofChopin and Liszt—came in three productive bursts, after

which he abandoned the genre forever. With the twelve studies that make

up his opus 13 (1834, rev. 1852), Schumann achieved a remarkable level of

expressivity and technical achievement that has made the work a perennial

if digitally formidable recital favorite. Schumann originally provided eighteen studies, but he found the set so exhausting for the pianist that he

removed five ofthe pieces prior to publication. Johannes Brahms selected

five ofthe missing six etudes for publication during the 1890s, and these

have since joined the original twelve in many performances and recordings.

Schumann presented the studies as “Etudes en forme de variations”

(Studies in the form ofvariations). The theme, a melody in C sharp minor,

was composed by the Baron von Fricken, an amateur musician and the

father of Schumann’s first fiancee, Ernestine. The first and second variations

enhance the tragic atmosphere ofthe theme, and the third variation, entitled

Etude I and marked Vivace, draws upon energetic staccato textures. The next 

four variations (all called Etudes) employ different musical and technical tools,

5
including canon, imitation, syncopated rhythms, major modulation, and 

repetitive finger-work. The eighth employs a thinner texture but is filled

with intricate ornamentation. The ninth variation, a scherzo ofsorts marked 

Presto possibile (as fast as possible), is one ofthe most challenging ofthe set;

the theme is present only in the vaguest outline. The tenth is articulate and

humorous, and the eleventh is the only one cast in a key other than C-sharp

minor; its foreboding left-hand texture taking the listener into the despairing 

depths of Schumann’s troubled mind. The final variation is cast in the 

enharmonic key of D-flat major, and employs an energetic theme from an

opera by Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861) as its basic material.

Ravel’s Vaises nobles et sentimentales received its premiere performance

under unusual circumstances. At the concert in which it was first played,

the identity of each composer on the program was kept secret from the 

audience. At the end ofthe concert, the listeners were invited to guess who

had written each work. For the Vaises nobles, the registered guesses were

evenly divided among Ravel, Erik Satie (1866-1925), and Zoltan Kodaly

(1882-1967). Ravel placed a prefix in the original score that reveals the 

extent to which he was influenced by the symbolist poets and the bohemian

eccentricity of his hero, Satie: “Le plaisir delideux et toujours nouveau dune

occupation inutile” (The delightful and always novel pleasure of a useless 

occupation). Satie, always ready to enter into witty repartee, soon published

a work of his own entitled Trois valses distinguees du precieux degoute (Three

Distinguished Waltzes of a Jaded Dandy), a gentle poke at Ravel’s reputation

for fussiness in dress and grooming and at Satie’s own habit ofwearing fine

clothes in a disheveled condition.

The suite oftwelve characteristic pieces titled Iberia is the magnum opus

ofthe Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz. Each movement is inspired by a

place in Spain or a traditional Spanish dance. The composer called the city

of Seville a “rainbow of all the human joys,” but the march tune he employs

in the movement titled Sevilla is actually from Burgos, a city in northern

Spain that is, like Seville, a destination ofreligious pilgrims. The piece

depicts the progress of a religious procession, heard first in the distance

6

as the piano imitates drumbeats gradually coming closer. The excitement 

builds, bells peal in the high and low registers ofthe keyboard, and the 

pious revelers join in singing the hymn Tantum ergo. This forms the movement’s central section, a soaring, quiet melody with restless Spanish counter-rhythms. The piece ends with a long, serene coda.

Tire first piece from Book I of Iberia, Evocacion, lacks a geographically

specific title. It could be understood as a general introduction to the suite,

although it does include elements ofthejota, a characteristic dance from 

the region of Navarra, and thefandanguillo. one ofthe variants ofsinging in

the flamenco tradition. Evocacion features a drifting, drowsy theme that is

accompanied by rich harmonies and adorned with a constant filigree ofnotes.

El Albaicln is the gypsy quarter of Granada, where mournful guitar and 

violin music is heard wafting out ofmany doorways. Albeniz, though raised 

in a different part of Spain (Catalonia), was a frequent visitor to Granada and

this exotic neighborhood.

Program notes by Stephen Ackert, head, music department.

National Gallery ofArt

Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

resume in September 2010

Carlos Rodriguez, pianist

Music by Latin American composers

Presented in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month

September 26, 2010

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court