Next Week at the National Gallery of Art

Chatham Baroque

with

Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

“La cetra amorosa:” Love Songs from Eighteenth-Century Italy

April 6, 2008

Sunday evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:00 pm.

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.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt 

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000b South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,669th Concert

Elina Vahala, violinist

Mika Rannali, pianist

Presented in honor of In the Forest ofFontainebleau:

Painters and Photographersfrom Corot to Monet

March 30, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Sonatafor Violin and Piano in G Minor (1915)

Allegro vivo

Intermede: Fantastique et leger 

Finale: Tres anime

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Sonatafor Violin and Piano (1942-1943)

Andante semplice

Lento

Allegretto giusto

INTERMISSION

Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)

Sonatafor Violin and Piano no. 1 in A Major, op. 13 (1875-1876)

Allegro molto 

Andante

Allegro vivo

Allegro quasi presto

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Suite italienne (1932)

Introduction: Allegro moderato

Serenata: Larghetto

Tarantella: Vivace

Gavotte con due variazioni 

Scherzino: Presto alia breve

Minuetto: Finale

The Musicians

ELINA VAHALA

Bom in the United States and raised in Finland, Elina Vahala began her

violin studies at the age ofthree at the conservatory in Lahti. She later 

studied with Zinaida Gilels, Ilja Grubert, and Pavel Vernikov at the Kuhmo 

Violin School. She studied at the Sibelius Academy with Tuomas Haapanen

and in Munich with Ana Chumachenko. Vahala made her concerto debut at

the age oftwelve with the Sinfonia Lahti, and was named “Young Master

Soloist’ ofthe ensemble for 1993-1994. She continues to perform with 

them as well as with other major orchestras in Finland including the 

Helsinki, Tampere, and Turku Philharmonic orchestras, the Finnish Radio

Symphony Orchestra, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, the Tapiola

Sinfonietta, and the Virtuosi di Kuhmo Chamber Orchestra. She was the 

winner ofthe 1999 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New

York, and gave her critically acclaimed New York recital debut. She has also

won prizes in the Lipinsky-Wieniawski competition in Lublin, Poland, and 

the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover, Germany.

Vahala has appeared in chamber music concerts in Boston and New

York City. She has played with the Danish Radio Sinfonietta, the Dortmund

Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerakademie, the English 

Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Camerata, and the Northwest Chamber

Orchestra. She has performed in the Caribbean Islands, England, Finland, 

Greece, Poland, South Africa, Spain, and Turkey, working with conductors

Giordano Bellincampi, Ralf Gothoni, Juha Kangas, Jean-Jaques Kantorow,

Sakari Oramo, John Storgards, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Joseph Swensen, and

Osmo Vanska, among others. The long list offestivals at which Vahala

has been a guest artist includes the Forbidden City Music Festival in Beijing,

the Helsinki Festival, the International Classical Music Festival in South 

Africa, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Naantali, Turku, Oulu

and Korsholm music festivals, La Roque d’Antheron, and the Pablo Casals

Festivals in Prades and Paris.

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Vahala s repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary. She gave world 

premieres ofAulis Sallinen’s Chamber Concerto and Curtis Curtis-Smith’s

Double Concerto, both ofwhich were written for her and pianist-conductor

RalfGothoni. Her current season includes the Finnish premiere ofJohn

Corigliano’s Violin Concerto (“The Red Violin”) with the Turku Philharmonic;

appearances with the Korean Chamber Ensemble, Sinfonia Lahti, the Tampere 

Philharmonic, and Virtuosi di Kuhmo; and performances at the Naantali Music

Festival in Finland, the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia,

and the miagi festival in South Africa. In addition to her National Gallery

recital, her appearances in the United States this season include concertos 

with the Boise Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony,

and the West Virginia Symphony; and a recital in San Antonio, Texas.

Elina Vahala plays a 1678 Stradivarius violin, generously loaned by

the Finnish Cultural Foundation, and appears at the National Gallery with

Mika Rannali by arrangement with Jonathan Wentworth Associates of

Mount Vernon, New York.

MIKA RANNALI

Mika Rannali is one ofthe most extraordinary and intriguing pianists ofhis

generation. In December 1999 Rannali won the Artist International Auditions in New York City, then played his New York debut at Weill Recital Hall.

The concert received a rave review by Harris Goldsmith of The New York

Concert Review, who wrote: “Mika Rannali gave a truly impressive account

of himself... He is, without a doubt, destined to become an influential

denizen in the Music World.”

Rannali has toured extensively in Scandinavia, central and southern

Europe, Japan, and the United States. He has appeared with Finland’s

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Oulu Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti,

Tampere Philharmonic, and Tapiola Sinfonietta; and Switzerland’s BielBienne Symphony Orchestra and Flawiler Chamber Orchestra. He has

worked with conductors Tibor Boganyi, Bjarte Engeset, Howard Griffiths, 

Okko Kamu, Juha Kangas, Vasili Sinaiski, Ulf Soderblom, Jan Soderblom,

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Marc Tardue, and Arvo Volmer. Rannali has won many competitions in

his native Finland, including the first national Leevi Madetoja Piano Competition at age eighteen, and the Helmi-Vesa Competition. He has performed

at many festivals, including the Espoo International Piano Festival, the

Helsinki Festival, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Les Boreales de 

Normandie, the Mikkeli Music Festival, the Shandelee Music Festival, the

Sonkajarvi Soi, and the Tuusulanjarvi Chamber Music Festival.

Mika Rannali is also a composer. His works are mainly for the piano

with the exception of a song cycle called “The Ice Mirror.” His first solo disc,

Music ofLove and Death (2002), contains music by Englund, Ginastera,

Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Scriabin and Wagner-Liszt, as well as his own

works. His newest release, Intimate Garden, is a live recording ofthe world

premiere ofthe complete piano works by the Finnish composer Leevi

Madetoja on Alba Records (2005). The recording has received critical 

acclaim in the classical magazines Gramophone and American Record Guide.

Mika Rannali has an extremely varied musical and artistic background

having studied the trumpet and the violin as well as the piano, In addition, he

has been a three-time champion in Latin American-style and ballroom dancing

in Finland. Rannali earned a master ofmusic degree at the Sibelius Academy,

where he studied with Eero Heinonen, Math Raekallio, and RalfGothoni.

He then continued his studies at the Manhattan School of Music under the

guidance of Nina Svetlanova. He is also the artistic director ofthe Oulu Music

Festival, which takes place annually near the Arctic Circle in Finland.

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The Program

The name ofthe exhibition In the Forest ofFontainebleau: Painters and Photographersfrom Corot to Monet refers to an area outside Paris that served as an 

inspirational landscape for French master painters and photographers of

the nineteenth century. This forest has also witnessed historically unique

musical activity. In 1921, with help from the United States, the Schools of

Fontainebleau were established to improve the quality of United States

military band music. After World War 1, it was decided that this successful 

operation should continue. With the full support ofthe French authorities,

the “American Conservatory’’ was granted permission to open in the Louis

xv wing ofthe Chateau Fontainebleau.

The teaching staff ofthe American Conservatory has included such

luminaries as Henri Dutilleux, Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint-Saens, and one

ofthe composers whose music is included in this program, Igor Stravinsky.

Many renowned American musicians received guidance at the American

Conservatory, including Aaron Copland, whose Sonatafor Violin and Piano

is also included on this evening’s program. Gabriel Faure, although he had 

no direct connection with Fontainebleau, was a renowned educator, whose 

pupils over the years included Maurice Ravel, George Enescu, and Nadia

Boulanger, the long-time director ofthe American Conservatory.

Claude Debussy’s last work, the Sonatafor Violin and Piano, was intended 

as a part of a set ofsix sonatas. Debussy was only able to complete three of

them before his death—this sonata, a sonata for cello and piano, and a sonata

for flute, viola, and harp. There is a shift in Debussy’s style in this sonata—

he has moved toward a leaner and simpler structure, but he still uses the full

range of both instruments. The mood in the first movement is dreamy and 

rippling; the second has a repetitive playfulness to it; and in the third, reflections from the first movement can be heard, accompanied by mercurial 

thirty-second-note patterns and tremolos.

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Aaron Copland created “the American sound” in concert music, and

was one ofthe most important composers ofthe twentieth century. He lived

a long life, during which time he gained recognition not only as a composer,

but also as a conductor, pianist, teacher, author, and concert promoter. 

Copland found his own voice by absorbing everything around him, including jazz, folk-tunes, and hoedowns, and he turned those influences into 

music that was nationalistic and at the same time sophisticated. The Sonata

for Violin and Piano combines both sides ofCopland—the populist and the

aesthetic. A clearly neoclassical work in three movements with traditional

titles, the sonata is appealing and full of good tunes. The work is dedicated 

to Lieutenant Harry H. Dunham, a close friend of Copland’s who died in

battle in World War 11.

The first oftwo violin sonatas by Gabriel Faure, the Sonatafor Violin and

Piano no. 1 in A Major; is optimistic and full ofdrive and energetic character.

The piano part is highly virtuosic, and the violin gets to sing throughout the 

work. The sonata is in four movements, with the piano opening the piece by

introducing the main theme. The violin soon joins the piano by presenting the

contrasting second theme. The mood in the second movement is darker and 

more sustained, but one can feel the constant “heartbeat” in the background.

The scherzo is full oflife and brilliance, with a more relaxed F-sharp minor

section. The finale presents some dramatic moments, but maintains a goodhumored swing throughout.

Russian composer Igor Stravinsky is sometimes compared to his near

contemporary Pablo Picasso, in that he mastered a number of contrasting

styles throughout his long career. Stravinsky’s Suite italienne, consists ofsix

dances from his ballet Pulcinella (1920), and begins the composer’s neoclassical period. The original music belonged to an eighteenth-century Comedia

dell'arte, attributed variously to Gallo, Monza, Parisotti, and Pergolesi, but

Stravinsky added modern rhythms, cadences, and harmonies to this older 

music, to make it his own.

Program notes by Elina Vahdla