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The Seventy-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

3,007th Concert

Jose Ramos Santana and Jose Caceres, duo-pianists

June 15, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

“Puerto Rico in 176 Keys”

Juan Morel Campos (1857-1896)

Four Puerto Rican Dances

El ciclon (The Cyclone)

jTambien lo dudo! (I Doubt It Also)

Noche deliciosa (Delicious Evening)

La traviesa (The Mischievous Girl)

Jack Delano (1914-1997)

La bruja de Loiza (The Witch of Loiza)

Ballet Suite for Two Pianos

Fiesta en el pueblo (A Feast in the Village)

La novia desconsolada (The Disconsolate Bride)

Noche de brujeria (Night ofWitchcraft)

Las viejas chismosas (The Old Gossips)

Muerte de la bruja-bella (Death ofthe Beautiful Witch)

INTERMISSION

Narciso Figueroa (1906-2004)

Suite de canciones infantiles (Suite on Children’s Tunes)

Mambru se fue a la guerra; Hilo verde; Las cortinas;

A la limon; Alfonso xn; La cojita; Ambos a dos; Doha Ana;

La pastora; La tablita; La caraquena; Arroz con leche; Nanas;

El hijo del conde

Hector Campos Parsi (1922-1998)

Ballet Suite no. 1: Juan Bobo y lasfiestas (Juan Bobo and the Festivities) 

Plena (Full Ensemble - Folk Dance)

Mazurca (Mazurka)

Pas de deux (Duo)

Danza festiva (Festive Dance)
The Musicians

JOSE CACERES

Critically acclaimed as a musician ofvirtuosity and versatility, pianist Jose

Caceres has appeared throughout the Caribbean region, Central and South 

America, Europe, and the United States. He has been heard in recital in

Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall; the Concert Hall at the Fine Arts Center in

San Juan, Puerto Rico; the Kennedy Center; and the Sala Manuel M. Ponce at

the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. A featured soloist with the American

Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and the Fairfax, National, and Puerto Rico

symphony orchestras, his repertoire encompasses a wide array ofstyles. For

championing some ofthe most ambitious and challenging music oflesserknown contemporary Fatin American composers, he has received a grant for 

further study from the Ford Foundation and the Johns Hopkins University

Fatin American Studies Program. Selected awards include major prizes in the

Kennedy Center’s Fellowships ofthe Americas National Program, the Teresa

Carreno International Piano Competition ofVenezuela, and the Young

Soloists’ Competition ofthe National Symphony Orchestra.

As a collaborator in chamber and art song recitals, Caceres has appeared

twice at the National Gallery with soprano Carmen Balthrop as well as at the

Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Fibrary ofCongress,

the Marian Anderson International Vocal Arts Competition and Festival, the

San Antonio Music Festival, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Caceres received his bachelor and master ofmusic degrees from the

University of Maryland, where he was a scholarship student ofThomas

Schumacher, winning the Elizabeth Davis, Homer Ulrich, and Theodore

Presser Foundation awards. In conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution’s 2001 exhibition celebrating the tricentennial ofthe invention ofthe

piano (Piano 300: Celebrating Three Hundred Years ofPeople and Pianos),

Caceres was one offour pianists engaged to explore Spanish and Latin

American repertoire.

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Acknowledged as a master of Spanish music, Puerto Rico native Jose Ramos 

Santana performs a wide and diverse repertoire. A top prizewinner ofthe

Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, he has performed extensively

throughout Europe, the Far East, Latin America, and the United States. Music 

festivals at which he has been a featured pianist include the Caramoor, Casals,

Grant Park, and Spoleto festivals as well as Festival de Musica Contemporanea

in El Salvador and Festival Bravissimo in Guatemala.

Returning for his third concert at the National Gallery, Ramos Santana has

appeared at Bosendorfer Hall in Osaka, Japan; Cherbourg’s fiftieth Anniversary of D-Day; the Center for the Arts in Hong Kong, China; and the TwentyFifth Anniversary ofthe Musica de Camara Series at Merlcin Hall. Among

his many concerto appearances are concerts with the Baltimore, Detroit,

Puerto Rico, Saint Louis, and San Antonio symphony orchestras; the Moscow,

New York, Rochester, and Royal philharmonic orchestras; the Casals Festival

Orchestra; the Hermitage Museum Orchestra in Saint Petersburg, Russia; and

The New York Virtuosi. He has collaborated with composers and conductors

John Adams, Dennis Russell Davies, and Krzysztof Penderecki; conductors

Jerzy Semkow and Joseph Silverstein; cellist Arto Noras; violinist Gregory 

Zhislin; and pianist Vladimir Viardo.

In 1997 he gave three performances at Carnegie Hall, including a guest

appearance at the Sonidos de las Americas Festival, which Allan Kozinn of

the New York Times described as “... powerful... Mr. Ramos Santana played 

with virtuosity and precision.”

A graduate ofthe Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Adele

Marcus, William Masselos, and Sylvia Rabinof, Ramos Santana has also 

coached with Leon Fleisher and Alicia de Larrocha. He is an artist faculty

member ofthe International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes

College in New York City, and a member ofthe faculty ofCatholic University

in Washington, DC.

JOSE RAMOS SANTANA

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Program Notes

Inspired by nineteenth-century European dance traditions, the Puerto Rican

danza is considered the ultimate expression ofthe musical culture ofthe

island. Traditionally, the danza consists offour or more sections. The first is

known as paseo or promenade, where the gentleman “promenades” the hall 

with his dancing partner. When a dominant chord is heard at the end ofthe

paseo, both dancers bow to each other and then proceed to the full body ofthe

dance. All sections, including the paseo, are usually repeated. The most prolific 

composer ofthis genre, Juan Morel Campos, was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

The examples ofhis work that begin tonight’s concert range from nostalgic

and romantic (Noche deliciosa) to playful, cheerful, and vivacious (El ciclon,

jTambien lo dudo!, and La traviesa).

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1914, Jack Delano immigrated with his family 

to the United States at age eight, settling in Philadelphia, where he studied

music. After receiving a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, he traveled 

to Puerto Rico in 1946, remaining there until his death in 1997. His interest in

photography and film production led to his appointment as head ofthe film

department of Puerto Rico’s Division de Educacion de la Comunidad. During

his tenure, he produced a series offilms and composed the scores as well.

His ballet, La bruja de Loiza (The Witch ofLoiza) was commissioned in 1955

by choreographers Ana Garcia and Gilda Navarra, then codirectors ofBallets

de San Juan. The suite presented on this program is a condensed version of

the complete ballet music, which is also scored for two pianos four hands.

The plot ofthe ballet is based on a folk story collected by Puerto Rican 

anthropologist and archaeologist Ricardo Alegria. A beautiful woman

named Bella appears mysteriously in the town of Loiza, located in the northeastern area of Puerto Rico. Juan, a young man from Loiza, falls in love with

her during the Feasts of Saint James, and the couple soon wed. Every night,

Bella prepares a draught so that Juan can drink it and fall into deep sleep.

As soon as her husband is asleep, Bella changes into a witch, shedding her

skin and joining other witches in their night dance. Three village gossips

find out Bella’s real identity and tell Juan about it. The next night, Juan,

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feigning sleep, observes his wife during the transformation and sprinkles

pepper on the skin she had shed. When she returns from her wanderings

and gets back into her skin, she is possessed by violent itching. With the

crowing ofthe roosters at dawn, she vanishes forever into dust. At the

ballet’s premiere on April 26,1956, the music was performed by Puerto

Rican pianists Irma Isern and Nydia Font.

Famous for his art songs and danzas, Narciso Figueroa is considered

one of Puerto Rico’s most important musicians and pedagogues. Originally

scored for voice and piano, his Suite de canciones infantiles (Suite on Children’s Songs) was composed in New York around 1953. Collected and harmonized by Figueroa, the pieces that comprise this suite are inspired by

children’s songs from Puerto Rican folklore.

Hector Campos Parsi’s Juan Bobo y lasfiestas (Juan Bobo and the Festivities) was commissioned by Ballets de San Juan and premiered in 1957 within

the framework ofthe first Casals Festival in San Juan. The choreography is

inspired by one ofthe stories about the traditional Puerto Rican character

Juan Bobo, an ostensibly naive person whose misadventures reveal a hidden

virtue or helpful way to approach life. In this story, Juan Bobo is invited to

two parties taking place on the same day and time on a coffee plantation.

One party is hosted by the daughter ofthe plantation’s master; the other by

the plantation butler’s daughter. Since Juan Bobo loves to attend parties, he

accepts both invitations.

The suite opens with a Plena featuring a dance rhythm attributed to the

southern city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. A mazurca and a pas de deux ensue,

both fully ingrained in the nineteenth-century European ballet tradition. The

suite ends with a festive dance, inspired by the Puerto Rican national dance

form, the danza. Campos Parsi studied at the New England Conservatory

with Francis Judd Cook and privately with Aaron Copland, Nadia Boulanger, 

Paul Hindemith, and Olivier Messiaen. His musical output encompasses

diverse genres, including works for orchestra, art song, solo piano, and

chamber music.

Program notes by Jose Caceres