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.

Italian Cultural Institute

Washington, dc

www.iicwashington.esteri.it

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

www.nga.gov

Concerts at the National Gallery 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: Giovanni Cariani, A Concert (detail), c. 1518-1520,

National Gallery ofArt, Washington, Bequest of Lore Heinemann

in memory of her husband, Dr. Rudolf J. Heinemann

A Celebration ofItalian Art, Film, and Music

A collaborative presentation of

The Italian Cultural Institute in Washington, dc

and the National Gallery ofArt

Events at the Embassy of Italy 

3000 Whitehaven Street, nw

October 10 and November 1, 2012

Preconcert talks at 6:00 pm; Concerts at 7:00 pm

Events at the National Gallery ofArt

6th Street and Constitution Avenue, nw

October 14, 2012

Preconcert talk at 6:00 pm; Concert at 6:30 pm

October 21, 2012

Concert only at 6:30 pm

Admissionfree
First Concert ofthe Celebration 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Embassy ofItaly in Washington, DC

Preconcert talk

David Gariff, lecturer, National Gallery of Art

Italian Masterpieces ofthe Baroque and Rococo

in the National Gallery ofArt

6:00 pm, Embassy Auditorium

Concert

The Vivaldi Project

7:00 pm, Embassy Atrium

Orazio Gentileschi, The Lute Player, c. 1612/1620, National Gallery ofArt, Washington,

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Program

Biagio Marini (1594-1663)

From II Zontino, in Affetti Musicali

Sonata sopra la Monica (1617)

Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690)

Sonata in G Major op. 2 (“La Raspona”) (1655)

Allegro

Adagio

Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709)

Sonate a tre stromenti in mi minore, op. 1, no. 3 (1686)

Grave

Presto

Adagio 

Allegro

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)

Sonata in G Major, op. 3, no. 6 (1689)

Vivace

Grave

Allegro

Allegro

Antonio Caldara (1670-1736)

Sonata a tre in mi minore, op. 1, no. 5 (1693)

Grave

Vivace

Adagio

Vivace

4

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Sonata in E Minor, op. 1, no. 2, RV 67 (1705)

Grave

Corrente: Allegro 

Giga: Allegro 

Gavotta: Allegro

INTERMISSION

Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1700-1775)

Sonata no. 1 in A Major, op. 5 (1756)

Affettuoso -Minuet

Andrea Caporale (c. 1735-1757)

Sonata no. 3 in D Majorfor Violoncello (1746)

Adagio

Allegro

Cantabile

Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768)

From Dodici Sonate Accademiche, op. 2

Sonata no. 7 in mi minore per violino solo e basso (1744)

Allegro

Largo, e staccato 

Giga

Vivaldi

Sonata, op. 1, no. 12, RV 63 (“La Folia”) (1705)
The Musicians

A premier period instrument ensemble dedicated to seventeenth- and

eighteenth-century string repertoire, the Vivaldi Project, presents and explores 

the works ofvirtuoso violinist and composer, Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi’s

innovative contributions to string writing, the concerto genre, and programmatic orchestral music place him as a pivotal figure between baroque and

classical composers. The Vivaldi Project explores this link through both chamber and orchestral works from Stradella, Legrenzi, and Corelli, to J. S. Bach

and his sons, and ultimately to Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Since its

founding in 2006, the Vivaldi Project has performed throughout the

metropolitan Washington area and at the Boston Early Music festivals.

Vivaldi Project founder and codirector Elizabeth Field is also a member

ofthe Arcovoce Chamber Ensemble, which performs on both modern

and period instruments. Currently the concertmaster ofthe Bach Choir

of Bethlehem, she has served as concertmaster for several other period

instrument ensembles, including the Washington Bach Consort and Opera

Lafayette. Field holds a doctorate in eighteenth-century performance practice

from Cornell University.

One ofthe preeminent performers on baroque and modern violin, 

Allison Guest Edberg has been praised by the Chicago Sun Times as “impeccable, with unerring intonation and an austere beauty.” Currently the

concertmaster ofthe Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra and a founding

member ofthe early music ensemble Olde Friends, Edberg received a

bachelor ofmusic degree from the Peabody Institute ofthe Johns Hopkins

University and a master ofmusic degree from the University of Michigan,

where she studied with Camilla Wicks.

6

Cellist Stephanie Vial is the assistant director ofthe Vivaldi Project. She 

holds a doctorate in eighteenth-century performance practice from Cornell

University where she studied with John Hsu. Her book, The Art ofMusical

Phrasing in the Eighteenth Century: Punctuating the Classical “Period,” was

praised by Malcolm Bilson as “inspired scholarship” and “essential reading.”

Vial has taught at Cornell University, Duke University, and is currently an

adjunct faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Lutenist Deborah Fox is the artistic director and founder of Pegasus

Early Music, an early music concert series in Rochester, New York. A frequent guest at the Brandywine Baroque, Carmel Bach, Glimmerglass, and

Spoleto music festivals, she also performs in Australia with Pinchgut Opera

in Sydney. Fox received the certificate of advanced studies in early music at

London’s Guildhall School of Music,

A native ofCape Town, South Africa, harpischordist Leon Schelhase

holds music degrees from the University of Cape Town and Boston University, where he studied with Peter Sykes. A recipient ofthe American Bach

Soloists’ prestigious Goldberg Prize, he is a founding member of Bostonbased Cambridge Concentus, and a member ofthe faculty at the Curtis

Institute of Music.

7
Second Concert of the Celebration

2,906th Concert at the National Gallery ofArt 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Preconcert talk

David Gariff, lecturer, National Gallery ofArt

Nineteenth-Century Italian Sculpture and the Risorgimento

6:00 pm, West Building Lecture Hall

Concert

Thomas Mastroianni, pianist and narrator

Alessandra Marc, soprano

Ricardo Cyncynates, violinist

Francis Conlon, pianist

Roots ofNineteenth-Century Virtuosity

6:30 pm, West Garden Court

Romolo Liverani, Graveyard ofthe Ravenswoods, for “Lucia di Lammermoor,” 1835,

National Gallery ofArt, Washington, William B. O’Neal Fund

Program

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Tre Sonetti del Petrarca (1843-1846)

Benedetto sia’l giorno

Pace non trovo

L vidi in terra angelici costumi

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

Pace, pace, mio Dio

From La Forza del Destino

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

Vissi d’arte

From Tosca

Francesco Cilea (1866-1950)

Io son l’umile ancella

From Adriana Lecouvreur

INTERMISSION

Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840)

From Twenty-Four Caprices, op. 1 (c. 1805)

No. 1 in E Major 

No. 5 in A Minor

No. 6 in G Minor

No. 24 in A Minor

Liszt

From Etudes d’execution transcendante d’apres Paganini (1838-1840)

No. 1 in G Minor

No. 12 in A Minor
The Musicians

THOMAS MASTROIANNI

Active as a chamber musician, concerto soloist, lecturer, and recitalist throughout Europe, Latin America, Russia, and the United States, pianist Thomas

Mastroianni is an emeritus professor at the Catholic University ofAmerica,

president ofthe American Liszt Society, director ofthe piano program at the

Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival, and a member ofthe board of directors ofthe La Gesse Foundation. His many workshops and lecture-recitals

have included topics such as “Performance Anxiety,” “The Team Approach

to Wellness for the Performer,” “Chopin and Bel Canto,” “The Italian Aspect

of Liszt,” and “Musical Memory.” He has worked closely with members of

the medical profession in workshops and panel discussions, and was invited

to present a series ofsessions on wellness at the 2002 World Piano Pedagogy Conference. His article “Memory and Anxiety” recently appeared in

the Journal ofthe International Societyfor the Study ofTension in Performance,

published in London.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mastroianni studied at Juilliard,

where he was a scholarship student of Beveridge Webster. After military

service, he earned a doctorate in piano performance from Indiana University, where his teachers included Bela Nagy and Sidney Foster. Prior to 

his forty-year tenure at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at Catholic

University, he served as chairman ofthe applied music division and professor of piano at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He maintains a website at

www.thomasmastroianni.com.

10

ALESSANDRA MARC

Dramatic soprano Alessandra Marc has consistently been acclaimed as one

ofthe most outstanding singers of our day. Andrew Porter, writing in The

New Yorker, described her voice as “an instrument of unsurpassed beauty

and impact” and “perhaps the richest, fullest, most beautiful big soprano

voice around.”

Not long after her first performance at the White House in 1991, Marc 

was selected by then National Gallery music director George Manos to 

substitute for ailing soprano Arleen Auger to sing with the National Gallery 

Orchestra on the occasion ofthe Gallery’s fiftieth anniversary (and coincidentally its 2,000th concert). The resulting performance of Richard Strauss’

Four Last Songs was a resounding success with the audience and critics alike.

A frequent guest ofthe world’s leading opera houses and orchestras, Marc 

collaborated often with the late Giuseppe Sinopoli, for whose funeral mass

she sang in 2001 in Rome.

Marc performs the title roles in Aida and Turandot—her signature roles— 

at major international and United States opera houses. Ofher sold-out opening

night performance ofAida at the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Times

reported: “She displayed burnished tone and enormous volume, especially

in climactic phrases that soar above the orchestra and chorus.” Her debut

solo album, American Diva, peaked at number thirteen on Billboard magazine’s classical charts. She has also recorded Opera Gala with Andrew Litton 

and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Alessandra Marc’s longstanding commitment to her community and to

charitable causes most recently included singing at the American Red Cross 

Tiffany Circle’s annual summit conference in Washington as well as performing in the 2011 Flight 93 Memorial Concert in Alexandria, Virginia. She 

maintains a website at www.alessandramarc.com.

n
RICARDO CYNCYNATES

Violinist Ricardo Cyncynates has performed extensively as soloist, recitalist,

and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, and South

America. Appointed assistant concertmaster ofthe National Symphony

Orchestra during the tenure of Mstislav Rostropovich, he has appeared as

soloist with the orchestra in concertos by Mozart and Vivaldi as well as works 

for solo violin and orchestra by Paganini, Saint-Saens, Sarasate, and Sibelius.

Cyncynates has performed as soloist with a number of other Washingtonbased orchestras and has appeared as recitalist and chamber musician at the

area’s most prestigious concert venues, including a 1996 concert at the

National Gallery ofArt with the Ensemble da Camera ofWashington.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Cyncynates studied the violin with his father, 

Felix Cyncynates, and made his debut at age eleven as the winner of Brazil’s

National Young Soloists’ Competition. By age nineteen he had an extensive

solo career to his credit, and was appointed first concertmaster ofthe Brazilian 

Symphony Orchestra. He completed his studies at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome; Accademia Chigiana in Siena; and at Indiana University, 

studying under Arrigo Pelliccia, Salvatore Accardo, and Franco Gulli.

A renowned teacher with several students receiving prizes in national

and international competitions, Ricardo Cyncynates has given master

classes throughout the United States, Asia, and South America. He performs on a violin made in 1873 by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (“The David”)

and uses a bow specially made for him by the renowned French archetier

Benoit Rolland, winner of a 2012 MacArthur Fellowship. He maintains a

website at www.ricardocyncynates.com.

12

FRANCIS CONLON

A veteran of numerous concerts in the concert halls, churches, and universities in the greater Washington area, Francis Conlon has also performed at 

Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

in Boston, and Robin Hood Dell in Philadelphia in addition to appearances

in Canada, Central America, Europe, India, and Japan. He has played concertos 

with the Alexandria Symphony, Amadeus Orchestra, Georgetown Symphony,

Montreal Chamber Orchestra, Washington Chamber Orchestra, Washington

Pro Musica, and Washington Sinfonia as well as many local chamber music

groups, including the National Gallery of Art Vocal Ensemble. He serves as

minister ofmusic at the Church ofthe Annunciation in Washington and as

choir director, organist, and pianist at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church,

Virginia. A member ofthe faculty ofthe George Washington University, he

has also taught at the Catholic University ofAmerica, Ellington School ofthe

Arts, Levine School of Music, George Mason University, Georgetown University, and Sidwell Friends School. He has also served as artist-in-residence for 

the District of Columbia’s public school system.

9
Third Concert ofthe Celebration

2,907th Concert at the National Gallery ofArt

I Musici di Roma

October 21, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Gasparo Galliari, Stage Design, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of

William B. O’Neal, in Honor ofthe 50th Anniversary ofthe National Gallery ofArt

Program

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)

Ouverture da II Barbiere di Siviglia

Transcribed for strings by Vincenzo Gambaro

Rossini

Une Larme

Theme and variations for cello and strings

Soloist: Pietro Bosna, cello

Alessandro Rolla (1757-1841)

Divertimento per viola ed archi

Andante sostenuto

Allegro alia polacca 

Soloist: Massimo Paris, viola

Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840)

II Carnevale di Venezia

Theme and variations for violin and strings

Soloist: Antonio Anselmi, violin

Rossini

L’invito (Vieni, o Ruggiero)

From Soirees musicales

Bolero

From Peches de vieillesse

INTERMISSION
Selections from I Musici’s Oscar-winning film scores

Nino Rota (1911-1979)

Concertofor Strings

Preludio

Scherzo

Aria 

Finale

Written for Luchino Visconti’s Le notti bianche (1957)

Ryuichi Sakamoto (b. 1952)

Musicfor Strings

Written for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987)

Specially transcribed by the composer for I Musici’s

sixtieth anniversary in 2011

Luis Bacalov (b. 1933)

Concerto Grosso

Andante

Moderato

Allegro

Written for Michael Radford’s II Postino (1996)

Specially transcribed by the composer for I Musici’s

sixtieth anniversary

The Musicians

I MUSICI DI ROMA

Founded in 1951,1 Musici di Roma is the oldest continuously active chamber

group in Italy and one ofthe most respected chamber ensembles in the

world. Formed as an ensemble that performs without a conductor, I Musici

was one ofthe first groups to introduce eighteenth-century Italian music to

twentieth-century audiences. The ensemble’s first recording ofVivaldi's The

Four Seasons, cut in the early 1950s, has sold over twenty-five million copies 

in various editions, and contributed to the immense popularity ofthat work

in the second half ofthe twentieth century. At the dawn ofthe digital age,

I Musici was the first group to record a compact disc for Philips, and in

the 1970s it recorded the very first classical music video. Graduates ofthe

Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the members ofI Musici di Roma have 

brought Italian music to five continents, playing repertoire from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, including the works of contemporary

Italian composers Luis Bacalov, Valentino Bucchi, Ennio Morricone, Ennio

Porrino, and Nino Rota.

A consistent favorite at music festivals throughout the world, including

the George Enescu International Festival in Bucharest and the Spring Festival

in Budapest, I Musici di Roma continues to gamer awards for its recordings

on the Philips label. Among those are the Edison Award, Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Grand Prix de l’Academie Charles Cros, Grand Prix des Discophiles, 

and Grand Prix International du Disque. For I Musici’s famous recording of

The Four Seasons, the Recording Institute ofAmerica generated a new level of

award, the Platinum Disc with Inset Diamond.

I Musici di Roma appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with

Barrett Vantage Artists, www.barrettvantage.com.

V
Program Notes

Gioacchino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, or the Futile Precaution has, since

its premiere in Rome in 1816, remained one ofthe most popular of all operas,

appealing to audiences of all ages. The opera is based on the eponymous

play by Pierre Beaumarchais (1732-1799), which premiered in Paris in 1775.

Departing from the norm, the opera’s overture has no thematic connection

with the arias that follow. The reason for this is an incident that is peculiarly

fitting as a part ofthe history ofthis opera buffa. Following the premiere in

Rome, Rossini accompanied the troupe for subsequent performances in

Bologna. Somewhere along the way, he lost the parts for the overture, so the

Bologna audience heard another overture that he had with him—the overture to Aureliano in Palmira. The substitute overture was such a success that

Rossini decided to assign it permanently to The Barber ofSeville.

Rossini’s Une Larme (A Tear) begins with a mournful theme and variations, but his cheerful spirit takes over in a spirited finale. Rossini famously

abandoned opera composing at the height of his career at age thirty-eight.

Announcing his retirement to a dismayed and bewildered public, he proceeded to lead a life ofleisure in Bologna and Paris and to rest on his laurels.

He wrote almost nothing between 1832 and 1868 —the year ofhis death—

but he could not keep his pen totally still. In 1835 he produced Soirees musicales,

a collection of arias from his earlier operas and arrangements ofsome of

them for instruments; and, in 1868 Peches de vieillesse (Sins ofYouth), an

extensive collection of pieces for various instrumental and vocal combinations, some newly composed and some rescued from his store of previously

unpublished works.

Known in his own lifetime as a virtuoso violist, composer, and teacher,

Alessandro Rolla found enduring fame as the violin instructor ofthe legendary violinist Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840). Both Rolla and Paganini revolutionized their instruments, not only through their unprecedented skills as 

players, but through their commitment to composition. Both composed

exercises and solo pieces that would elevate the level oftechnique required

for future generations to master the violin.

18

It is fitting that I Musici di Roma brings highlights from its impressive

collection ofrecorded film scores to this Celebration of Italian Art, Film, and

Music. As the society that codified music and invented opera, it is only natural

that Italy should have developed a world-class film industry and a generation

offilm composers on the forefront of a new art form. In the 1930s, Italy followed the Hollywood model and built the huge studio complex Cinecitta, which

would provide the infrastructure for sustained commercial success. World 

War 11 could have proven a stumbling block for cinematic production, but

instead it inspired neorealist directors such as Vittorio De Sica (c. 1902-1974),

Roberto Rossellini (1906-1977), and Luchino Visconti (1906-1976) to create

their grim depictions of dismal social conditions and everyday hardships

throughout the country. A lighter mood prevailed in the 1950s and 1960s,

as films relied on stars such as Toto, Marcello Mastroianni, and Sophia Loren

for entertainment. Two other successful post-war genres were the “spaghetti”

Western, championed by Sergio Leone (1929-1989), and the art film, whose

directors and cinematographers garnered praise as intellectual visionaries.

Nino Rota composed film scores prolifically, completing more than 150

between 1930 and 1979. In 1974, he won the Academy Award for Best Original

Score for his work on The Godfather, Part 11. Alongside his film career Rota

composed orchestral, choral, and chamber music. With a sometimes elegant,

sometimes sinister tenor, his Concertofor Strings matches stylistically the

string writing of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), while offering a symphonic structure through motivic development. Rota composed Concerto

for Strings specifically for I Musici di Roma, with the ensemble’s particular

sonority in mind for the film music for Visconti’s Le notti bianche.

Ryuichi Sakamoto’s score for The Last Emperor won the Academy Award for 

Best Original Score in 1987. Sakamoto’s score blends Chinese instruments— 

erhu (violin), diza (flute), gu-zheng (zither), and pipa (lute)—with a Western

orchestral ensemble, giving the film both an eastern and western sonic

palette. Sakamoto's choice of consonant pentatonic themes identifies more

with the film’s outgoing Qing Dynasty than the revolutionary sentiment that

brought about its demise.

19
A naturalized Italian citizen born in Argentina, composer Luis Bacalov

wrote scores to various “spaghetti” Western films early in his career, and

crowned his film-score writing career by winning the Academy Award for

Best Original Score for Michael Radford’s II Postino. Bacalov collaborated

with several Italian progressive rock bands in the 1970s, first adapting the 

soundtrack of The Designated Victim into a Concerto Grosso for the rock band

New Trolls. Originally a rock concerto in eighteenth-century baroque style,

the work took on a new life when he rewrote it for and dedicated to I Musici

di Roma in honor oftheir sixtieth anniversary. In the score Bacalov writes,

“My personal thanks go to I Musici, who [have] carried their wonderfully 

sonorous world everywhere, for the honor of [having them play] this piece.

May the sixtieth anniversary be a stimulus to continue their superb career.”

Program notes by Michael Jacko, music program specialist,

National Gallery ofArt

20

Fourth Concert ofthe Celebration 

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC

Preconcert talk

David Gariff, lecturer, National Gallery ofArt

Post-World War II Italian Art and the Paintings ofFranco Samari

6:00 pm, Embassy Auditorium

Concert

Enrico Elisi, pianist

Alessandra Marc, soprano

7:00 pm, Embassy Atrium

Giorgio Morandi, Still Life, c. 1955, National Gallery ofArt, Washington,

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lenart in honor of Rusty and Nancy Powell
Program

(Performed without intermission)

Nino Rota (1911-1979)

From Fifteen Preludes (1964)

No. 6: Andante

No. 4: Andante sostenuto ed espressivo

No. 2: Allegro ma espressivo e delicato

No. 9: Allegretto quasi andantino

No. 10: Allegro mosso e marcato

Franco Cioci (b. 1940)

Foglio d’album (Album Leaf)

Bruno Bettinelli (1913-2004)

From Six Bagatelles (1986)

No. 3: Mosso

Armando Gentilucci (1939-1989)

From Fragments ofan Autumn Diary (1983)

No. 1: Lento

No. 2 [No tempo indication]

22

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)

From Six Pieces, P. 44 (1903)

Notturno

Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988)

From Forty Preludes (1930-1940)

Prelude no. 5

Prelude no. 6

Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

Wasserklavier (1965)

Brin (1990)

Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli (1882-1949)

From Deux lunaires (1915)

La Danse d’Olaf

Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957)

Primo Bacio (1889)

Text by Luigi Morandi (1844-1922)

Toscanini

Sono Sola (1885)

Text by Cesare Cantu (1804-1895)
The Musicians

ENRICO ELISI

Winner ofseven first prizes in national competitions in Italy, pianist Enrico

Elisi performs to consistent acclaim throughout the Americas, Asia, and

Europe. Recent North American performances include recitals at the Banff 

Centre for the Arts, the New York Public Library, and Weill Hall at Carnegie 

Hall. He has also performed in China, Germany, Peru, the Slovak Republic,

South Korea, Spain, and Taiwan.

Among the many orchestras that have invited Elisi to perform concertos

are those of Florence, Italy and Porto, Portugal as well as the Bay Atlantic

Symphony, Greeley Philharmonic, Penn State Philharmonic, Pennsylvania

Centre Orchestra, Penn's Woods Orchestra, and Johns Hopkins Symphony

Orchestra. In 2007 he debuted as soloist/conductor with the Green Valley

Festival Chamber Orchestra.

In addition to his honors at Italian national competitions, Elisi has won 

top prizes in the Venice Competition and the Oporto International Competition and received the La Gesse Foundation Fellowship. An active chamber

musician, he has collaborated with principal players from the Baltimore,

Chicago, and American Symphony Orchestras and has given chamber recitals

in China, Korea, France, and Peru. As a champion of new music, Elisi has

commissioned works from composers ofmany nationalities and in 2009

premiered and recorded Paul Chihara’s Images for clarinet, viola, and piano.

Elisi founded and directs an international composition competition, which 

awards the Musica Domani Prize.

A member ofthe piano faculty ofthe Eastman School of Music since 

2011, he previously taught at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. A graduate ofthe Peabody Institute ofthe Johns

Hopkins University, he studied in his native Italy with Giuseppe Fricelli in

Bologna and earned diplomas from the Conservatory of Florence and the

Incontri col Maestro International Piano Academy ofImola.

Biographies ofAlessandra Marc and Francis Conlon may be found on 

pages 11 and 13.

24

Program Notes

One ofthe best known and celebrated Italian composers ofthe twentieth

century, Nino Rota grew up surrounded by music—his mother, Ernesta 

Rinaldi, was a pianist and the daughter of composer Giovanni Rinaldi (1840-

1895). Young Nino was already composing at age eight, and by age twelve

had composed an oratorio—Linfanzia di San Giovanni Battista—that

received positive critical reviews and established him as a child prodigy.

After six years ofstudy at various schools in Milan and Rome, he came to

the United States on the advice ofArturo Toscanini. At the Curtis Institute

in Philadelphia he studied composition with Rosario Scalero and conducting

under Fritz Reiner. He formed a friendship with Aaron Copland and discovered American popular song, cinema, and the music of Gershwin.

Upon his return to Italy in the early 1930s, Rota encountered open animosity between innovators and traditionalists (the latter sustained by the 

mood established by the Fascists who were then in power in Italy). Choosing 

not to be drawn in by either side in the struggle and inspired by the example

of composer Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1978), Rota developed a style

that displayed original characteristics while maintaining an unbroken link 

with the music ofthe past. After World War 11, Rota’s career continued in

the United States, where film score commissions came his way on a regular

basis. He continued, however, to write music for the concert hall and the 

opera house, with a constant cross-fertilization between the two areas: for

a European composer this was an oblique, pioneering approach. In film

music he used his eclectic inclinations and treated the boundaries ofthe 

film medium as a challenge, thus producing some ofthe finest music of

the genre. Between 1942 and 1952, Rota created the music for sixty films,

including Federico Fellini’s (1920-1993) I vitelloni, La strada, La dolce vita,

8 54, Amarcord, and II Casanova di Federico Fellini.

Winner ofthe 2012 Prix Annelie di Man, Franco Cioci composes music

for the piano and the harpsichord. A professor at the Conservatorio Luigi

Cherubini in Florence, he has also written works for flute, voice, and chamber orchestra.

25
A graduate of Milan’s Conservatorio di Musica “Giuseppe Verdi,” where

he studied piano, choral singing, conducting, and composition, Bruno

Bettinelli won the Accademia di Santa Cecilia prize in 1941 and the Busoni

prize in 1955. His career centered in Milan, where he taught composition at 

the conservatory from 1938 to 1979. His earlier music has as its model the

neoclassical approach of Paul Hindemith (1895-1963). By the time he wrote

his Six Bagatelles in 1986, he had gone through periods in which he abandoned tonality for atonal chromaticism, adopted some techniques from

Anton Webern (1883-1945), experimented with electronic music, and

returned to a neo-Hindemithian emphasis on constructive rigor and communication with the listener.

Another composer trained at the Milan Conservatory, Armando Gentilucci

studied piano, choral music, and conducting as well as composition. He

taught at the conservatories in Bolzano and Milan from 1964 to 1969, when

he became director ofthe Istituto Musicale in Reggio nell’Emilia. Much

influenced by the music of Luigi Nono (1924-1990), Gentilucci was concerned with synthesizing timbre, harmony, and melody, out ofwhich he

derived a compositional process that evolves from moment to moment.

His approach could embrace echoes from the past (contrapuntal techniques,

quotations, quasi-tonal centers) as much as avant-garde procedures and

sounds, while retaining a coherent structure. His 1978 essay Oltre I’avanguardia:

an invito al molteplice (Beyond the Avant-garde, an Invitation to Multiplicity) 

became a reference point ofmusical theory for Italian composers in the 1980s.

Made famous by the orchestral music that he wrote in middle age,

Ottorino Respighi spent the early years of his career writing chamber and

vocal works and a number of chamber operas. When he was in his early 

twenties, he made several trips to Russia to study under Nikolai RimskyKorsakov (1844-1908), who inspired him to raise his sights to creating

music for symphony orchestra. The first large-scale orchestral suite with

which Respighi gained international recognition was Fontane di Roma

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1

(Fountains of Rome, 1914-1916), followed nine years later by Pini di Roma

(Pines of Rome, 1923-1924). Known for their picturesque, sparkling orchestration, his orchestral suites began after 1925 to reflect his new-found

interest in early music, with Vetrate di chiesa (Stained-Glass Windows, 1925),

which uses fragments of Gregorian chant, and Gli uccelli (The Birds, 1927),

based on bird pieces by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1754) and other

baroque composers. Respighi also contributed to the repertoire of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, with La Boutiquefantasque (The Magic Toy Shop), which

he arranged in 1919 from pieces by Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868).

Giacinto Scelsi’s extraordinary life encompassed most ofthe twentieth

century and embraced many aspects ofits intellectual, spiritual, and social 

upheavals. Born in 1905 into southern Italian aristocracy and inheriting the

title Conte d’Alaya Valva, he travelled extensively, moving within Europe’s

most elevated social circles. Scelsi’s early development as a composer was a

progression through some ofthe principal aesthetic tendencies oftwentiethcentury music—futurism, neoclassicism, dodecaphony, surrealism—influenced along the way by periods of private study with Respighi and pupils of

Aleksandr Skriabin (1872-1915) and Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), and by

his friendship with the poet Paul Eluard (1895-1952) and Salvador Dali

(1904-1989). Exiled to Switzerland during World War 11—he was married

to a relative ofthe British Royal Family at the time—Scelsi returned to

Rome in 1945 and spent the rest of his life there in relative seclusion, writing music that is characterized by obsessive reiteration ofindividual sounds

and is organized in movements that do not provide contrast, but rather offer

a repeated re-examination ofthe same sound object. His work was largely 

ignored by Italian performers and the general public until the 1970s, when

composers Alvin Curran (American, b. 1938) and Horatiu Radulescu (Romanian, 1942-2008) discovered Scelsi’s work and began to promote it. In

Scelsi they found an established body ofwork with approaches to composition that they were just beginning to explore.

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Born into a family of composers, Luciano Berio first studied music with

his father, before attending the Milan Music Academy. In 1951 he traveled to

the United States to study serial methods with Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-

1975) at Tanglewood. The Stravinsky-like neoclassicism of his early works

was replaced in the 1950s by a graceful serial manner, well shown in Chamber

Music for soprano and instrumental trio (1952). As his style developed further, he created music of complex, superposed serial structures, such as

Chemins 11 (1967) for viola and nine other instruments or Kol-Od (1996)

for trumpet and chamber ensemble. When Berio composed Wasserklavier in

1965, he had just accepted a post at the Juilliard School of Music that he was 

to occupy for the next six years. Although primarily concerned with the teaching of composition and analysis, he also founded the Juilliard Ensemble,

which promoted the performance of contemporary music. Both Wasserklavier

and Brin, composed twenty-five years apart demonstrate Berio’s uncanny

ability to derive an abundance ofinteresting detail from a strictly limited

palette ofmelodic and harmonic parameters.

Born in Bohemia, Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli was a two-year-old when

his family relocated to Milan. From 1896 to 1903, he studied at the Milan 

Conservatory of Music. After taking on further studies in Vienna and creating a career as a pianist in Italy and Austria, he returned to Milan to direct

its conservatory and concentrate on teaching and composition. As a composer he excelled in light ballet music. Il carillon magico, Pick-Mangiagalli’s

most successful stage work, shows his highly individual style, which features frequent unrelated triads, chromatic slithers, and unusually placed

augmented triads and diminished seventh chords. His tendency to alternate

between gentle nocturnal contemplation and sparkling mercurial exuberance

is exemplified by the two piano pieces titled Deux lunaires. The second ofthe

two,“La Danse d’Olaf,” is unmistakably the exuberant member ofthat pair.

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Known to the world as an inspiring conductor renowned for his intensity, perfectionism, and attention to orchestral detail as well as his photographic memory, Arturo Toscanini began writing songs for solo voice and

piano or orchestra during his student days, well before his path to a career

as a conductor was clear. Carrying forward the tradition ofthe canzoni da

camera established by Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835), Gaetano Donizetti (1797-

1848), and Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), the songs introduce the impassioned

romanticism found later in the art songs of Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945), 

Puccini, and Respighi. Once it became clear to him that conducting was his

destiny (following a life-changing experience while attending an 1888

performance ofWagner’s Tristan and Isolde in Bologna), Toscanini abandoned composition and even tried to prevent widespread distribution ofhis

songs. Until quite recently, they were unknown to the concert-going public,

and this is the first time they are being performed in Washington, dc.

Alessandra Marc performs two ofthe songs of Arturo Toscanini on tonight's

program and plans to record all twenty ofthem in the near future.

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Primo bacio

Si scorda la preghiera

della culla,

Vanno insieme in oblio

letizie e guai.

Si scorda Iddio, ne ci

spaventa il nulla.

Ma il primo bacio non

si scorda mai.

Mai non si scorda il bacio 

dell’amor

Finche la vita ci riscalda

il core,

Ma il bacio dell’amor

non teme oblio,

Dammi dunque il tuo bacio,

angelo mio.

First Kiss

One forgets the prayers said

in the cradle,

Delights and worries are

forgotten together.

One forgets God, nor does 

oblivion frighten us.

But one never forgets the

first kiss.

One never forgets the kiss 

oflove

As long as life warms our

heart,

But the kiss oflove fears

not oblivion,

So give me your kiss, 

my angel.

3°

Sono Sola

Sono sola in sulla terra,

Nel villaggio sono sola

Il mio babbo e morto in guerra,

Mamma piu non mi consola.

Sono sola. Ah!

La mia madre poveretta

Se la prese Iddio con se.

Son rimasta qui orfanella.

Ah!

E nessuno pensa a me.

Sempre sola. Ah!

Sono scalza e senza panni,

Senza pane e senza aita.

Ah, Signor di quanti affanni

E trapunta la mia vita.

Sono sola. Ah!

Non ho tetto e fin mi manca

Poca paglia per dormir.

Sono sola, sono stanca;

Meglio fia per me morir. 

Sempre sola. Ah!

I am Alone

I am alone on this earth.

In the village I am alone.

My father died in war.

My mother can no longer

comfort me.

I am alone. Ah!

God has taken

My poor mother.

I am left here as an orphan.

Ah!

No one cares for me.

Always alone. Ah!

I am barefoot and without

clothes,

Without bread and without

help.

Ah, God, so many troubles

Have occurred in my life.

I am alone. Ah!

I have no roof and even lack

Straw to sleep on.

I am alone, I am weary;

Ah! It would be better to die.

Always alone. Ah!

Program notes by Stephen Ackert, head, music department,

National Gallery ofArt