Concerts at The National Gallery ofArt

Under the Direction of George Manos

March 1998

8 Christian Tetzlaff,

violinist

J.S. Bach: Partita No. 2

Sonata No. 3

Partita No. 3

15 Paul Badura-Skoda,/>fc7//tf/ Mozart:

Beethoven:

Chopin:

C Minor Fantasy

“Waldstein”

Sonata

24 Preludes

22 Mark Kosower, cellist

Jee-Won Oh, pianist

Brahms:

Francoeur:

Freund:

D Major Sonata

Sonata in E Major

Epicfor Solo

Cello

29 Jeffrey Multer, violinist

James Tocco, pianist

Corigliano:

Schumann:

Mozart:

Sonatafor Violin

and Piano

Sonata in D Minor

Sonata, K 481

April 1998

5 National Gallery Orchestra

George Manos, conductor

Jason Stearns, baritone

Chabrier:

Debussy:

Saint-Saens:

Suitepastorale

Trois ballades de

Franqois

Villon

Symphony No. 2

The use ofcameras orrecording equipment

during theperformance is not allowed.

Forthe convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30pm.

The Fifty-sixth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and 

E LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2261st Concert

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

GEORGE MANOS, conductor

Sunday Evening, March 1, 1998

at Seven O’Clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission Free
PROGRAM

Robert Schumann Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major (“Spring”)

(1810-1856) Opus 38 (1841)

Andante un poco maestoso; allegro molto vivace

Larghetto

Scherzo: Molto vivace

Allegro animato e grazioso

INTERMISSION

Frederick Delius On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

(1862-1934) (1911-1912)

Antonin Dvorak

(1841-1904)

Scherzo capriccioso

Opus 66 (1883)

First convened in 1942 using members of the National Symphony, the NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA has presented concerts on a regular basis ever since. As the number of

professional orchestras in the Washington area has grown, so has

the number ofsources from which the Gallery Orchestra draws

prime freelance professional musicians. In the context of the

American Music Festival, it has presented the world premiere

and Washington premiere performances ofmore than 150 works,

including thirty-four symphonies and fifteen concertos. Under

the direction of Gallery music director George Manos, the orchestra also regularly includes works by American composers in

its concerts with mixed repertoire.

During the long courtship between Robert Schumann and Clara

Wieck, she often urged him to expand his range ofcompositions by 

producing a symphony. It was not long after their marriage in August of 1840 that Schumann started working on his first symphony, 

and he provided some evidence in his writings that it was an outgrowth of marital bliss. Writing to his friend and fellow composer,

Ludwig Spohr, Schumann said: “I wrote the [ “Spring”] Symphony

toward the end of the winter of 1841, and, if I may say so, in the

vernal passion that sways men until they are very old, and surprises

them again with each year. . . I believe firmly that the period in

which the symphony was produced influenced its form and character, and shaped it as it is.” Writing in 1843 to the conductorWilhelm

Taubert, who was to conduct the symphony in Berlin, he said: “Could

you infuse into your orchestra in the performance a sort of longing

for the spring, which I had chiefly in mind when I wrote it in February 1841? I should like to have the first entrance of trumpets

sounded as though it were from high above, like a call to awakening.

In the rest ofthe introduction, I should like [the orchestra to] read

between the lines: everywhere it begins to grow green; a butterfly

takes wing; and, in the Allegro, little by little all things come that in

any way belong to spring.”

Frederick Delius was the son of a stern English merchant who

did not consider music a fit profession for any of his children.

Frederick was enrolled in liberal arts studies at the International

College at Isleworth, but he studied music informally on the side

and spent his free time attending concerts and operas. In 1884 his 

father sent him to Florida to purchase and supervise orange groves

nearJacksonville. He spent almost no time attending to business;

instead, he sought out and took lessons from one of the few musicians who lived and worked in Florida at the time, a pianist and

composer by the name ofThomasWard. Delius laterstated that he

owed a great deal to Ward’s instruction as well as to the AfricanAmerican folk music that he heard while in Florida. Delius eventually returned to Europe, where he lived for a time in Paris. While

there, he married an artist (Jelka Rosen) and established friendships with Paul Gaugin and Edvard Munch. Delius and his wife

remained close friends with Munch until Delius died in 1934. At

certain times in Munch’s career, when his works were out of favor,

the Deliuses were virtually his only patrons and supporters.

Dvorak’s instrumental music is often compared to that ofSchubert,

since both composers wrote abundantly and spontaneouslyand tended

to excel in short, lyrical pieces. Listening to the Scherzo capriccioso,

one would not suspect that Dvorak wrote it shortly after the death of

his mother. Behind the work’s abundant vitality and richness of invention, however, there is a hint ofmelancholy in the dark orchestral

tone colors, provided to a great extent by the English horn and the

bass clarinet. The work is a tribute to Dvorak’s ability to rise above 

everyday circumstances to produce compositions that are multi-faceted as well as brilliant.