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.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

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 of Art 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: Paul Signac, Barges on the Seine at Samois, 1900, watercolor and gouache

over black chalk, National Gallery ofArt, Washington, Dyke Collection

The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,941st Concert

Duo Leroy-Moubarak

Presented in honor of Color; Line, Light:

French Drawings, Watercolors, and Pastelsfrom Delacroix to Signac

April 24, 2013

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Admissionfree
Program

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Sonata in D Minorfor Cello and Piano (1915)

Prologue

Serenade et finale

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)

Romance

From Sonata in F Majorfor Cello and Piano, op. 123 (1905)

Cesar Franck (1822-1890)

Sonata in A Minorfor Cello and Piano, op. 75 (1886)

Allegretto ben moderato

Allegro

Recitativo-Fantasia: Ben moderato

Allegretto poco mosso

This concert is made possible in part by support from the mcufeu,

cultural services ofthe French Embassy in Washington, DC, and its

partner Safran usa.

The Musicians

DUO IEROY-MOUBARAK

Concertizing together as a husband-and-wife team, cellist Anthony Leroy

and pianist Sandra Moubarak have moved quickly into the international

spotlight. They were recently selected as artists-of-the-year by Le Monde de la

Musique, an honor that in previous years has been bestowed on Cecilia Bartoli

and Evgeni Kissin. Writing about the duo in Diapason d’Or magazine, Jerome 

Bastianelli said, “In their interpretations, these young musicians manage

to combine plastic beauty and assertive temper.” A frequent guest at prestigious festivals in France (Folle Journee de Nantes, Roque d’Antheron), the

duo has also performed at Finland’s Kuhmo and Spain’s Musika festivals. 

Their recitals have been heard in the Musee D’Orsay, Tokyo’s Century Hall, 

and principal concert halls in Belgium, Canada, Japan, South America, and

the United Kingdom.

Leroy-Moubarak’s recordings have received awards from many of France’s

most important review magazines— Choc du Monde de la Musique, Coup de

Coeur Piano, Diapason d’Or, Recommande Classica, Repertoire, Selection Arte,

and Selection le Monde. Its most recent recording, released in 2012, is an exploration of Marcel Proust’s imaginary “Vinteuil Sonata,” created in collaboration

with actors Romane Bohringer, Michael Lonsdale, and Didier Sandre; soprano

Magali Leger; and violinist Tedi Papavrami.

The duo was the subject of a musical documentary, Best ofSummer Festivals

2000, and it has been invited to provide the music for an upcoming documentary, Russian Composers in Exile, to be produced by Pierre Boulez, Jean-Claude 

Casadesus, and Manuel Rosenthal. Leroy and Moubarak are the artistic codirectors ofthe Saint-Riquier-Baie de Somme Festival in Saint Riquier, France.

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Program Notes

Drawn from the collection ofJames T. Dyke, one ofthe most astute American collectors of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French works on paper, 

Color, Line, Light: French Drawings, Watercolors, and Pastelsfrom Delacroix to

Signac includes sheets he and his wife, Helen L. Porter, have given to the

National Gallery ofArt as well as others acquired by the Gallery with funds

they donated. Showcasing the broad development ofmodem draftsmanship

in France, the exhibition includes drawings and watercolors by French

artists working from 1830 to 1930—including Delacroix, Monet, Degas, 

Cezanne, and Signac—and reveals a rich diversity ofsubjects, styles, and

techniques from romanticism and realism through the impressionists,

Nabis, and neo-impressionists. For their recital in honor ofthe exhibition,

Anthony Leroy and Sandra Moubarak have selected music from French

composers who were important in the full flowering ofromanticism in

French music—Saint-Saens and Franck—and Claude Debussy, who was, 

like all Frenchmen ofhis time, under the spell ofboth impressionist and

post-impressionist artists.

As he entered his fifties and felt signs ofdeclining health, Claude

Debussy made plans to compose sonatas for six different instruments and

piano. He lived to complete only three ofthe six, including the Sonata in D

Minorfor Cello and Piano. The Prologue takes its inspiration from medieval

music: a melismatic vox principalis (principal voice) is assigned to the cello,

while the piano imitates an accompanying vox organalis (two voices singing

in parallel fifths). In some manuscripts, Debussy added a subtitle for the

second movement (Serenade): “Pierrot Angry with the Moon.” The subtitle

refers to Pierrot, a character in the Commedia dell’Arte, who is wont to sing

forlorn love songs to the moon, accompanying himself on the mandolin.

The Finale, which follows without pause, reiterates material from the first

two movements. The sonata was a favorite ofthe great cellist Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-1976), who wrote, near the end ofhis long career, “I still marvel

at its subtle descriptiveness, compactness ofform, and translucent beauty.”

One ofthe most prolific French composers, with more than 300 works

to his credit, Camille Saint-Saens began his compositional career as a child

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prodigy, completing his first piece for piano at age four. He had already learned

to read and write at age three, and he played his first public concert at age 

five, accompanying a violinist in a Beethoven sonata. Known throughout his

life for his unrelenting energy and productivity, he gained fame as a church

and concert organist while writing and publishing poetry and scholarly articles 

on acoustics, ancient musical instruments, occult sciences, and Roman theater

decoration. He was an officer ofthe Academie des Beaux-Arts and in 1913

received France’s highest honor, the Grand-Croix de la Legion d’Honneur.

Among his rarely played chamber works, Saint-Saens’ Sonata in F Major,

op. 123, contains one ofthe most rhapsodic Romances in the cello repertoire.

The French master took great pride in his lyrical movements for cello, including his earlier Romanzafor Cello, op. 36, and “The Swan” from Carnival of

the Animals (the only movement from the suite that he released for publication during his lifetime). Knowing that he had taken full advantage ofthe

cello’s potential emotional range in this movement, Saint-Saens sent the

sonata to his publisher, Jacques Durand, with a note: “The Adagio will bring

tears to your eyes.”

Belgian-born Cesar Franck spent most of his adult life in Paris, and took

a place in the pantheon of French composers even before his untimely death

in 1890, due to a carriage accident. His Sonata in A Minor, op. 75, originally

written for the violin, was transcribed for cello during Franck’s lifetime by

cellist Jules Delsart (1844-1900). That version, sanctioned by the composer,

has become a staple ofthe cello repertoire. Franck delivered the completed

score for violin and piano to the home of his friend and compatriot, Belgian 

violinist Eugene Ysaye, as a wedding present. The composer no doubt had

Ysaye’s prodigious skill as well as his own keyboard prowess in mind as he

wrote the sonata. To give structural unity to the work, he employed a device

that music theorists call cyclic form. All ofthe main themes in all four

movements are derived from three short motifs. By reintroducing the motifs

with varying harmonies and tonal ranges, the composer maintains freshness within overall unity.

Program notes on Saint-Saens by Michael Jacko, music program specialist,

National Gallery ofArt; other notes by Stephen Ackert, head, music department

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Upcoming Concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

Katherine Chi, pianist

Music by Bach, Beethoven, Mallia,

Scriabin, and Vonorov

April 28, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Ignacio Prego, harpsichordist

Music by Frescobaldi, Scarlatti,

and Spanish composers

Presented in collaboration with the 

Delegation ofthe European Union to the United States

May 1, 2013

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

National Gallery Orchestra

Paul Badura-Skoda, pianist and guest conductor

Music by Mozart

Presented in collaboration with the 

Delegation ofthe European Union to the United States

May 5, 2013

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Capella de la Torre

Music from the time ofAlbrecht Diirer

Presented in honor ofAlbrecht Durer:

Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Printsfrom the Albertina

Sponsored by the Embassy ofthe Federal Republic of Germany

May 6, 2013

Monday, 12:00, 2:00, and 4:00 pm

East Building, Mezzanine