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 ofArt

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 ofArt through The Circle. Reserved seating is

available in recognition oftheir support. Please contact the development

office at (202) 842-6450 or cirde@nga.gov for more information.

The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,951st Concert

National Gallery ofArt Chamber Players

Presented in collaboration with the 

Delegation ofthe European Union to the United States

May 29, 2013

Wednesday, 12:10 pm 

East Building Auditorium

Admissionfree
Program

Steven Joseph Psaila (Maltese, b. 1984)

Waves

Ilona Brege (Latvian, b. 1959)

Barefoot Soul

Arvo Part (Estonian, b. 1935)

Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirrors in a Mirror)

Jacques Brel (Belgian, 1929-1978)

Ne me Quitte Pas

Bruxelles

Amsterdam

La Bouree du Celibataire

Au Printemps

Django Reinhardt (Belgian-born French, 1910-1953)

Nuages (Clouds)

Dusan Martincek (Slovak, 1936-2006)

Sonatina No. 1

Marcel Wengler (Luxembourgish, b. 1946)

Hundert Takte Walzer

The Musicians

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART CHAMBER PLAYERS

Consisting primarily ofsmall ensembles from within the National Gallery

ofArt Orchestra, members ofthe National Gallery ofArt Chamber Players

have provided appropriate chamber music in conjunction with a number of

recent Gallery exhibitions, including music by nineteenth-century French

and Belgian composers in honor of The Darker Side ofLight: Arts ofPrivacy,

1850-1900 (2009); Renaissance Spanish music in honor of The Art ofPower:

Royal Armor and Portraitsfrom Imperial Spain (2009); Music by Gershwin, 

Joplin, and Milhaud in honor of From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester

Dale Collection (2011); and music for silent films from Catalonia in honor

ofJoan Miro: The Ladder ofEscape (2012). Chamber Players participating in 

tonight’s concert are violinist Bruno Nasta, percussionist Mark Carson, and

pianist Danielle DeSwert Hahn.

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Program Notes

This afternoon’s concert concludes a series generated by the Delegation of

the European Union to the United States in collaboration with the National

Gallery ofArt and the Katzen Arts Center at American University, the Kennedy

Center, and the Phillips Collection. Dubbing the month of May as “The European Month ofCulture,” the Delegation has presented twenty-nine concerts

in the above-mentioned venues, representing all twenty-seven countries in

the European Union. In this program, Belgium and France are represented

by composers as well as by Belgian-born American pianist Danielle DeSwert

Hahn, while each offive other eu countries—Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg,

Malta, and Slovakia—is represented by a composer.

A music teacher at Saint Benedict’s College and the Johann Strauss School

of Music, Steven Joseph Psaila started studying piano with Antoinette Berg

at the age ofsix. He graduated from the University of Malta with a degree in

music studies, specializing in musicology and composition. He has written

a number ofshort works for strings and piano, as well as sacred and liturgical compositions. Psaila expresses his love for nature in compositions such

as The Storm and Whispering Winds, which were premiered by the Malta

Philharmonic Orchestra in February 2011. He has also composed works for 

voice and chamber orchestra, including The Forsaken, based on a poem by

William Wordsworth. Psaila’s interest in poetry inspired him to compose an

orchestral suite, Katrin Tal-Imdina, based on the poem by Dwardu Cachia 

(1857-1907). The work garnered first place in the Second National Music

Competition for Maltese composers, organised by aps Bank. Of Waves,

the composer writes: “... [it] is composed with a different picture in mind,

specifically, sunset on the beautiful beaches of Malta. One must not forget,

though the sea may seem calm, deep below something perilous may be 

brewing, harboring power ofincalculable proportions and this is heard

during the climax ofthe piece. The melody, which is sometimes hidden,

portrays the mystical nature ofthe sea with all its hidden treasure.”

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Composer, pianist, and musicologist Ilona Brege graduated from the Latvian Music Academy in Riga with doctoral degrees in piano and composition.

Resident pianist ofthe Latvian Philharmonic Orchestra, she subsequently

served as a researcher at the Latvian Science Academy, specializing in art, 

folklore, and literature. In 2006 she was appointed general manager ofthe

Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and managing director ofthe Riga

Professional Symphonic Band.

Born in Paide, Jarva County, Estonia, Arvo Part spent his formative years

in an environment in which Estonian composers had ready access only to

musical influences from inside the Soviet Union, with the exception of a few 

illegal tapes and scores. Determined to exercise greater intellectual freedom,

Part left his native country in 1980 with his wife and two sons. After a year 

in Vienna, Austria, he found a home in Germany and lived and worked there

for twenty years. In 2001 he returned to Estonia, which had in the meantime

become a welcoming environment for innovative intellectuals, and now maintains homes in both Talinn and Berlin.

Since the late 1970s, Part has worked in a minimalist style that often draws 

inspiration from Gregorian chant and employs a compositional technique

that he originated—tintinnabuli—in which two voices interact, one (dubbed

the “tintinnabular voice”) arpeggiating the tonic triad, and the other moving

diatonically in stepwise motion. Spiegel im Spiegel (1978) is one ofhis first

works to use tintinnabuli. Originally written for violin and piano, it has often

been performed by other combinations ofinstruments. The piano provides

the arpeggiated triads, and the violin plays alternately rising and falling diatonic scales, all ofwhich end on the note A. A form ofmusical punctuation

is provided by low notes in the piano, responding in syncopation to the violin

part. Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirrors in a Mirror) refers to the infinity ofimages

produced by parallel plane mirrors. The infinite reflections are represented

in music by the endlessly repeated triads with minimal variations.

An internationally popular singer and songwriter whose style was marked

by stark lyrics and emotional performances, Jacques Brel is widely considered a master ofthe modern chanson. Although he recorded most of his

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songs in French, he became a major influence on English-speaking songwriters and performers such as Marc Almond, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen,

and Rod McKuen. English translations ofhis songs were recorded by many

top performers in the United States, including Ray Charles, Judy Collins, 

John Denver, the Kingston Trio, Frank Sinatra, and Andy Williams. In Frenchspeaking countries, Brel was also a successful actor, appearing in ten films.

He also directed two films, one ofwhich, Le Far West, was nominated for the

Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973.

Regarded as one ofthe greatest guitarists of all time, Django Reinhardt

was the first European jazz musician to have had a lasting impact on the

genre. He invented an entirely new style ofjazz guitar playing (sometimes

called hot jazz guitar) that has since become a living musical tradition within

French Gypsy culture. At age eighteen, he was injured in a fire that ravaged

the caravan he shared with his first wife. Even though his family and neighbors were quick to pull him to safety, he received first- and second-degree

burns over halfhis body. His right leg was paralyzed and the third and fourth

fingers ofhis left hand were badly burned. As his burns healed, Django

started to relearn his craft in a completely new way, even as his third and

fourth fingers remained partially paralyzed. He played all of his guitar solos 

with only two fingers, and used the two injured digits only for chord work.

Reinhardt played and recorded with many American jazz musicians,

including Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, and Rex Stewart, and participated

in a jam-session and radio performance with Louis Armstrong. After about

fifteen years in the international spotlight, Reinhardt began to revert to his

Gypsy life style, having found it difficult to adjust to the modern world. He

would sometimes show up for concerts without a guitar or amp, or wander

offto the park or beach when he was supposed to be at a theater, and on a

few occasions he refused even to get out ofbed. During this period he did, 

however, frequently attend an artistic salon in Montmartre known as R-26,

improvising with his devoted collaborator, jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli

(1908-1997).

Prominent Slovak pianist, pedagogue, and composer of contemporary

classical music Dusan Martincek studied piano in Bratislava at the Conservatory and the School of Musical Arts. A student of composition under Jan

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Cikker, Martincek completed his studies in 1961. He remained at the university

as an assistant, and spent most ofhis life as a university teacher, becoming a

professor in 1986. At the same time, he worked on his own compositions and

performed as concert pianist both home and abroad. He composed mostly

piano and chamber music, in addition to several symphonic works.

Born in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, composer, guitarist, and conductor Marcel Wengler studied at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels

and the Musikhochschule in Cologne, where his teachers were Igor Markevitch

and Sergiu Celibidache. From 1972 to 1997, he headed the Conservatoire de 

Luxembourg, and since 2000 he has served as director ofthe Luxembourg

Music Information Center. His compositions include symphonies, concertos,

chamber music, and musicals.

At the beginning ofthe nineteenth century, the waltz was a fairly subdued

dance in 3/4 time, a descendant ofthe slow, countrified handler. As the century progressed, the expected tempo ofthe waltz increased, and the dancers

and players came to feel the rhythm as one pulse per measure. In 1900 waltz 

tempo was officially clocked at 100 measures per minute (“hundert Takte

pro Minute” in German). Wengler published his briefwaltz with this playful 

reference to music history in its title and an equally playful poem:

Take 150 g offlour, 6 eggs and 100 g sugar,

and don’t forget a pinch ofsalt; do not use schmaltz* or lard,

but 100 g of best butter.

Bake the special birthday cake in the oven for about an hour

for a birthday celebration in good company.

Recommended accompanying music: Hundert Takte Walzer,

played with a light touch: But caution: stumbling is guaranteed!

*schmalz has two meanings in German: 1) chicken fat; 2) overly

sentimental interpretation ofmusic

Program notes by Stephen Ackert, head, music department, National Gallery ofArt

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