\

75TH SEASON 

OF CONCERTS

OCTOBER 8, 2016 • NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
PROGRAM

2:00 • West Building, West Garden Court

Sphinx Virtuosi

Violin I

Karla Donehew Perez, concertmaster

Stephanie Matthews

Alex Gonzalez

Hannah White

Cello

Karlos Rodriguez, principal

Erica Snowden-Rodriguez 

Sterling Elliott

Caleb Vaughn-Jones

Violin II

Suliman Tekalli, principal

Rainel Joubert

Meredith Riley

Maria Sanderson

Viola

Paul Laraia, principal

Celia Hatton

Drew Alexander Forde

Salwa Bachar

Bass

Xavier Foley, principal

Patricia Silva Weitzel

Catalyst Quartet

Suliman Tekalli, violin

Karla Donehew-Perez, violin

Paul Laraia, viola

Karlos Rodriguez, cello

Latin Voyages: Viajes Latinos

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)

Libertango

Arr. Thomas Kalb

Javier Alvarez Fuentes (b. 1956)

Metro Chabacano

Cesar Espejo (1892-1988)

Prelude Iberique

Hannah White, violin

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, Aria

Arr. Catalyst Quartet

Catalyst Quartet

Astor Piazzolla

La Muerte del Angel

Arr. Catalyst Quartet

Catalyst Quartet

Osvaldo Golijov (b. 1960)

Last Round, for two string quartets

and double bass

Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) 

Finale Furioso from Concerto per

Corde, op. 33

The Musicians

Sphinx Virtuosi

The Sphinx Virtuosi, led by the Catalyst Quartet, is one of the nation's most dynamic professional chamber orchestras. Comprised of eighteen of the nation's top black and Latino 

classical soloists, these alumni of the internationally renowned Sphinx Competition come 

together each fall as cultural ambassadors to reach new audiences. The New York Times

raved about this unique ensemble's debut at Carnegie Hall in December 2004. Allan Kozinn

described the performance as "first-rate in every way," and "the ensemble produced a more

beautiful, precise, and carefully shaped sound than some fully professional orchestras that

come through Carnegie Hall in the course of the year."

The Sphinx Virtuosi have returned to Carnegie Hall annually since 2006, performing

to sold-out halls and continuing to earn outstanding reviews from the New York Times. At

once a bridge between minority communities and the classical music establishment, the 

Sphinx Virtuosi garners critical acclaim during its annual national tours to leading venues

around the country. The ensemble works to advance diversity in classical music while engaging

young and new audiences through performances of varied repertoire. Masterpieces by Bach,

Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, and Mozart are performed alongside the less often heard works by

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, George Walker, Michael Abels, and Astor Piazzolla.

The four principals of the Sphinx Virtuosi are members of the Catalyst Quartet,

which has independently garnered acclaim in performances around the world. Members of 

the Sphinx Virtuosi have performed as soloists with America's major orchestras, including

the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland, Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Seattle, and

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. Members also hold professional orchestral positions and

several have been named laureates of other prestigious international competitions, such as

the Queen Elisabeth and the Yehudi Menuhin competitions. Roster members have completed

and continue to pursue advanced study at the nation's top music schools, including Juilliard,

Curtis, Eastman, Peabody, Harvard, and the University of Michigan.

The Sphinx Virtuosi's first recording was released in 2011 on the White Pine label and

features music of Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Gabriela Lena Frank, and George Walker.

Catalyst Quartet

The Catalyst Quartet, prizewinners of the 2012 Gianni Bergamo Classical Music Award, is

comprised of top laureates and alumni of the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Competition.

Known for rhythmic energy, polyphonic clarity, and tight ensemble playing, the quartet has

toured with sold-out performances at the Kennedy Center, the Harris Theater in Chicago,

the New World Center in Miami, and Carnegie Hall. They have appeared on numerous radio 

and television broadcasts, including American Public Media's Performance Today, and have

contributed to online and print media. The Catalyst Quartet has held concert residencies at

numerous universities and music schools, and its members serve as principal faculty at

the Sphinx Performance Academy. They have been guest artists at Festival del Sole, Great 

Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Sitka Music Festival, Juneau Jazz and Classics, Juilliard 

String Quartet Seminar, Strings Music Festival, the Grand Canyon Music Festival, and the

75th Season • 3
Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. Catalyst Quartet's debut album, The Bach/Gould

Project (Azica Records), features its own arrangement of J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations and

Glenn Gould's String Quartet. They are also featured on the album STRUM, performing the 

string works of Jessie Montgomery.

Hannah White

Hannah White, Laureate Fellow and recipient of the highest merit scholarship at Chicago's 

Academy of Music Institute, studies with Almita Vamos and Hye-Sun Lee. She is the 

recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship, Isaac Stern Award, Puth Foundation Scholarship, and Farwell Trust Award and has soloed with many orchestras, including the Cleveland 

Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, and

Dexter Community Orchestra.

White has won first place at numerous competitions, including Sphinx Competition

Junior Division, St. Paul String Quartet Chamber Competition, Milwaukee Symphony 

Orchestra Young Artists, Jules M. Laser Chamber Competition, Madison Youth Concerto

Competition, Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra Senior Symphony Concerto Competition, Chinese Fine Arts Music Competition, Granquist Competition, Sejong Competition

(twice), Walgreens National Concerto Competition, DePaul Competition, Milwaukee

Symphony Orchestra Bach Double Competition, and Music Teachers National Association

at the national, regional, and state levels.

4 • National Gallery of Art

Program Notes

Latin Voyages: Viajes Latinos takes the listener on a journey —a quest from the tantalizing

Argentine tango to the nocturnal imagery of Mexico —along with a tribute to the great

Piazzolla. We invite you to explore the exciting palette of the string medium through the 

prism of renowned composers of Latin heritage as well as those heard less often. Celebrate 

through music the intricate mosaic of sounds and colors that pay homage to our vastly

diverse heritage.

Astor Piazzolla, born in 1921 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, was an only child. In 1925,

the family moved to New York City and remained there until 1936. At the age of eight, 

Piazzolla was given his first bandoneon, which his father had purchased at a pawnshop.

After a year of studying the instrument with Andres D'Aquila, Piazzolla produced his first

phonograph disk, Marionette Spagnol, in New York's Radio Recording Studio. Two years later,

in 1933, he studied with Hungarian pianist Bela Wilda. Later, he became friends with Carlos

Gardel, the legendary tango singer in the 1935 movie El dfa que me quieras.

Piazzolla recorded and published Libertango in 1974. The piece represents a pinnacle

in his career, as it came to symbolize his departure from classical tango to nuevo tango.

Originally performed on the bandoneon, this arrangement by German conductor, pianist,

and bassoonist Thomas Kalb is set for a chamber string ensemble. We invite you to listen

for the exquisite melodic lines and robust rhythms: the piece demands consummate

musicianship from its performers while simultaneously being beautifully accessible to

the audience.

Born in Mexico City in 1956, Javier Alvarez Fuentes is known for his ability to

combine musical styles from around the world, unusual instrumentation, and new music 

technologies. The celebrated composer John Adams has said, "The music of Javier Alvarez

reveals influences of popular cultures that go beyond the borders of our own time and place.”

Alvarez studied composition and clarinet with Mario Lavista before moving to the

United States in the early 1980s. Later, he studied at the Royal College of Music and the City

University, both in London. In 1984, Alvarez wrote an electroacoustic work for tape and maracas

titled Temazcal. Then, in 1988, sculptor Marcos Liminez commissioned Metro Chabacano for

the Cuarteto Latinoamericano. (Chabacano means apricot in Mexican-Spanish.) The piece

references a train station in Mexico City and is punctuated with brief solos from each instrument that showcase the rhythmical insistence of repetitive eighth notes. Sounds simplistic?

Deceptively so...the work is rather rich in its complexity.

Cesar Espejo was a gifted Spanish violinist and conductor, rather obscure in today's

world of musical literature. He authored many works, mostly for the violin, including a scale

book. Espejo identified as a Spaniard, despite residing most of his life in France. He dedicated 

his Prelude Iberique to the violin virtuoso, Henryk Szeryng (1918-1988). The work offers a

serious virtuosic challenge for the artist and an absolute treat for the audience. The work also

pays homage to the composer's heritage while audibly connecting with some of the best

Spanish composers, such as Joaquin Turina and Isaac Albeniz. The Prelude is likely inspired

by Malagueha, a song by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona. The song has since become a

standard of sorts, completely outside of its original realm (performed by drum corps and

marching bands). The inspiration behind programming this work came from a spectacular

75th Season • 5
album, Capricho Latino, by violin virtuoso and a longtime artistic advisor to Sphinx, Rachel

Barton Pine.

Heitor Villa-Lobos was a well-known Brazilian composer whose music meets with

prominence to this day. He composed over two thousand vocal, orchestral, chamber, and

instrumental pieces and was heavily influenced by elements of European classical folklore

and Brazilian folk music, hence the name Bachianas Brasileiras given to a series of works

he created. The arrangement of this popular work by the Catalyst Quartet showcases the 

group's individual playing styles and also captures the dynamic quality of the piece, transporting listeners to the depths of Brazilian rainforests through the use of astonishing and

moving classical traditions.

Written in the 1960s, La Muerte del Angel (from a series of "angel" pieces) has been

immortalized by artists of several generations in a variety of instrumental transcriptions. In

this work, Piazzolla transcends the traditional genre of tango with his innovative, sultry style 

that clearly asserted a new musical language. One can hear a kind of a jazz swing, some

wonderful sophistication in the harmonies and beautiful chromatic lines, all of which

constitute the composer's move in a new direction.

Osvaldo Golijov grew up listening to the music of Astor Piazzolla, which moved him

deeply. As a young person, Golijov studied piano and composition, including in Israel and

the United States, under such greats as George Crumb, Oliver Knussen, and Lucas Foss. His

incredible masterpiece, Last Round, is inspired by the great Astor Piazzolla, as well as the 

St. Lawrence String Quartet. Tragically, it was Piazzolla's terminal illness that precipitated the

birth of the work's slow movement. With the encouragement of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, 

Golijov finished the work in 1996, scoring it specifically for its current instrumental configuration and preceding the slow movement with a fiery, fast movement. Golijov wrote the 

following excerpt in the liner notes to the St. Lawrence String Quartet's recording of the piece:

The title is borrowed from a short story on boxing by Julio Cortazar; the

idea was to give Piazzolla's spirit an imaginary challenge to fight one

more time (he used to get into fistfights throughout his life). The piece is

conceived as an idealized bandoneon. The first movement represents a

violent compression of the instrument and the second a final, seemingly

endless opening sigh (it is actually a fantasy over the refrain of the song

"My Beloved Buenos Aires," composed by the legendary Carlos Gardel in

the 1930s). But Last Round is also a sublimated tango dance. Two quartets 

confront each other separated by the focal bass, with violins and violas

standing up as in the traditional tango orchestras.

Alberto Ginastera composed his String Quartet no. 2 in 1958. His Concerto per Corde,

op. 33, came seven years after, as an adaptation of the quartet for full string orchestra. The

concluding movement, Finale Furioso, is colorful, rhythmic, and almost breathless. This movement showcases folk idioms, changing meters, and hidden melodic ideas from preceding

movements, all expressed through excellent writing for the string medium —much like Bartok —

an inspiration behind much of Ginastera's work.

Program notes by Afa S. Dworkin with contributions by Adriana Acosta

tional Gallery of Ar

Upcoming Events of the SeventyFifth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Curtis on Tour

Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch

October 16, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

LeStrange Viols

The Duarte Family: A Musical Household

in the Age of Rembrandt

Presented in honor of Drawings for

Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt

October 23, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Anderson & Roe Piano Duo

Danse Macabre

October 30, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Four Goldberg Variations

Spend an afternoon immersed in Bach's

iconic keyboard variations on a G-major

theme. The monumental work has inspired

numerous transcriptions, each one bringing

new aspects of its genius to light. Come for

your favorite, or stay to hear them all.

November 6

Ignacio Prego, harpsichord

12:00, West Building Lecture Hall

Aspen String Trio

1:30, West Building, West Garden Court

Atlantic Reed Consort

3:00, West Building Lecture Hall

Dan Tepfer, jazz pianist

4:30, West Building, West Garden Court

General Information

Admission to the National Gallery of Art

and all of its programs is free of charge,

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equipment

during the performance is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic

devices are turned off.

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

of their support. Please contact the

development office at (202) 842-6450 or

circle@nga.gov for more information.

www.nga.gov

www.instagram.com/ngadc

www.twitter.com/ngadc

www.facebook.com/nationalgalleryofart

The department of music produced these

program notes. Copyright © 2016 Board of

Trustees, National Gallery ofArt, Washington

Cover Alfredo Ximinez, The Dancers (detail),

National Gallery of Art, Washington, Reba

and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba

and Dave Williams

Back cover West Building, Constitution

Avenue entrance, viewed from Sixth Street NW,

1941, National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Gallery Archives