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

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

cover: Paul Stevenson Oles, 1971, National Gallery ofArt Archives

The Sixty-eighth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

64th American Music Festival

Presented in honor of The Robert and Jane

MeyerhoffCollection: Selected Works

November 22 and 29, 2009

Sunday Evenings, 6:30 pm

November 25 and December 2, 2009

Wednesdays, 12:10 pm

East Building Auditorium

Admissionfree
‘Here are the cantos, eighteen ofthem, each one different in form, mood, 

color, beat, scale, and key. There are no cadenzas.” (Barnett Newman, 

Preface to Eighteen Cantos, 1964)

Barnett Newman, Canto vi, 1963, published 1964,

National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Robert and Jane Meyerhoff

A message from guest artistic director Peter Robles

Greetings and welcome to the 64th American Music Festival at the National

Gallery of Art. It is indeed a rare honor to be working with such an esteemed

institution and have an opportunity to be involved in a celebration of one

ofthe great post-World War 11 collections of American art. Programming

music that in some way reflects the spirit of The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff

Collection: Selected Works has not been a simple undertaking. It has involved

bringing together performers and composers who define at a technical and

symbolic level the convergence ofmusic and art while expressing the life

and pulse of a culture constantly in flux. Like the artists represented in the 

exhibition, the composers whose works were selected for the festival share 

an aesthetic search that begins and ends with a sense ofstriking immediacy.

The music of William Bolcom, John Corigliano, and Steve Reich testifies

that composers living in the same country can create thoroughly different 

music even though their level of achievement is comparable—all three of

them are recipients ofthe Pulitzer Prize in music. Just as Frank Stella and 

Jasper Johns (born, like Bolcom, Corigliano, and Reich, in the 1930s) have

helped to redefine the American experience of art in the twentieth century 

and moved with raucous abandon through minimalism, abstract expressionism, and an almost wild baroque display of colors, those three composers 

have shown how brash individualism can open the way for others to follow

iconoclastic paths without concern for an aesthetic hierarchy.

The other composers presented in this festival add to its diversity of

music and style, all ofit residing at the highest possible level. From Fred

Lerdahl’s brilliantly wrought waves for chamber orchestra to Elliott Carter’s

groundbreaking Piano Sonata to Derek Bermel’s thoroughly fresh Funk

Etudes to James Aikman’s brand-new Lines in Motion: a Concert Piecefor

Violin and Orchestra, we experience the most remarkable aspect of being a

creative person in the United States, which is total freedom of expression 

without fear ofreprisal.

3
I also wish to extend special thanks to Richard Stoltzman and Yehudi 

Wyner for offering their incredible talents to the festival; to my colleague

Vladimir Lande, guest music director ofthe festival, for whom I have 

developed a deep and abiding respect; and to Stephen Ackert, head of the

National Gallery music department, who continues to maintain this long

tradition ofAmerican Music Festivals at the Gallery.

The National Gallery ofArt has presented festivals ofmusic by American

composers since 1944, making this the longest continuous American music

festival in existence. These festivals have been the setting for more than 150

world premiere performances, notably the first performance ofCharles Ives’

Symphony no. 1 (performed at the festival in 1953—fifty years after it was

written—by the National Gallery Orchestra under the baton ofthe festival’s

founder and the Gallery’s first head ofmusic, Richard Bales). Recent festivals

have been specially programmed to coincide with and enhance exhibitions of

American art at the Gallery. The 63rd American Music Festival took place in

March 2009 in honor ofthe exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank’s "The Americans.” It included a concert appearance by composer David Amram, who as a

young composer in 1958 collaborated with Frank in creating the film Pull My

Daisy. In February 2007 the 62nd American Music Festival featured American

music written between 1955 and 1965 in honor ofJasper Johns: An Allegoiy of

Painting, 1955-1965.

The 64th American Music festival honors The Robert and Jane Meyerhojf

Collection: Selected Works. Through remarkable acuity, exhaustive study, and

close relationships with artists, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff amassed a unique

collection with an emphasis on six American masters: Jasper Johns, Ellsworth 

Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella,

in addition to important works by leading abstract expressionists and younger

artists. The festival marks the presence ofthis major exhibition at the Gallery

by featuring the music ofsix significant American composers ofthe late 

twentieth century as well as important compositions by younger composers.

The Robert and Jane MeyerhoffCollection: Selected Works remains on view in

the East Building until May 2, 2010.

4

2,750th Concert

November 22, 2009

Richard Stoltzman, clarinetist 

Yehudi Wyner, pianist

Performed without intermission

Elliott Carter (b. 1908)

Pastorale (1941)

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Sonatafor Clarinet and Piano (1942)

Grazioso; un poco piu mosso

Andantino; vivace e leggiero

Lukas Foss (1922-2009)

Dedication (1944)

Steve Reich (b. 1936)

New York Counterpointfor Clarinet and Tape (1985)

Yehudi Wyner (b. 1929)

Commediafor Clarinet and Piano (2003)

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Three Preludesfor Piano, adapted for clarinet and piano

(arr. Jay Gach) (1926)

Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

Andante con moto e poco rubato

Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

Elliott Carter (b. 1908)

Gra (1993)
The Musicians

RICHARD STOLTZMAN

As a soloist with more than a hundred orchestras, a captivating recitalist, an

innovative jazz artist, and a prolific recording artist, two-time Grammy®

award-winning clarinetist Richard Stolzman has defied categorization, dazzling critics and audiences alike throughout many musical genres. Stoltzman’s

unique way with the clarinet has opened up unprecedented possibilities for 

the instrument. He gave the first clarinet recitals at both the Hollywood Bowl

and Carnegie Hall, and became the first wind player to receive the Avery Fisher

Prize. He has performed or recorded with such jazz and pop greats as Gary

Burton, Chick Corea, Judy Collins, Eddie Gomez, Woody Herman, Keith Jarrett,

Mel Torme, and Spyro Gyra founder Jeremy Wall.

Stoltzman’s commitment to new music has resulted in numerous premieres, including acclaimed clarinet works by Stephen Hartke, Einojuhani

Rautavaara, Steve Reich, and Torn Takemitsu. This season he will premiere

a new trio written for him, along with cellist Lynn Harrell and pianist Robert

Levin, by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner as well as a new

work for clarinet and choir by William Thomas McKinley. Stoltzman’s discography numbers well over sixty recordings and he has won Grammy®

awards for his recordings ofthe Brahms clarinet sonatas with Richard Goode

and clarinet trios by Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms with cellist Yo-Yo Ma

and pianist Emanuel Ax. Stoltzman, who resides in Massachusetts and is

a passionate Boston Red Sox baseball fan and a Cordon Bleu trained pastry 

chef, appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Frank Salomon 

Associates ofNew York City.

6

YEHUDI WYNER

Composer, pianist, conductor, and educator Yehudi Wyner, was born in 1929

in western Canada, but grew up in New York City. His father, Lazar Weiner,

was the preeminent composer ofYiddish art song in the twentieth century as

well as a notable creator ofliturgical music for the modem synagogue. Yehudi

Wyner received his early training as pianist and composer at the Juilliard 

School of Music and went on to study at Yale University and Harvard College

with composers Richard Donovan, Walter Piston, and Paul Hindemith. A

Handel course at Harvard brought Wyner to the attention of composer

Randall Thompson, who became a staunch supporter and friend. In 1953

Wyner won the Rome Prize in composition, enabling him to live for the next 

three years at the American Academy in Rome while composing, performing,

and traveling. Upon his return to America he embarked on an active career

as a composer, chamber musician, collaborator with singers and instrumentalists, conductor ofnumerous chamber and vocal ensembles, director oftwo

opera companies, and teacher. Since 1968 Wyner has been keyboard artist for

the Bach Aria Group. In this capacity he has played and conducted a substantial number ofthe cantatas, concertos, and motets ofJohann Sebastian Bach.

In recognition and support ofhis work, Wyner has received prestigious

awards, including a grant from the American Institute ofArts and Letters, the

Brandeis Creative Arts Award, two Guggenheim fellowships, and numerous

commissions from other notable organizations. In 1998 he received the Elise

Stoeger Award from the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society for

his lifetime contribution to chamber music. The following year Wyner was

elected to the American Academy ofArts and Letters. His music is published

by Associated Music Publishers, Inc.

7
Program Notes

Elliott Carter was born in New York City on December n, 1908. His serious

interest in music developed while he was attending the Horace Mann

School. He was encouraged at that time by Charles Ives (1874-1954), who

had sold insurance to Carter’s parents while pursuing his primary occupation as an insurance executive. As a protege ofIves, Carter was exposed to

a new sonic landscape that included music ofArnold Schoenberg (1874-

195i), Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), and Edgar Varese (1183-1965) as well as

Ives’ own music. Carter attended Harvard from 1926 to 1932, where he

studied with Walter Piston and received a bachelor’s degree in English and

a master’s degree in music.

After graduating from Harvard, Carter went to Paris where, like many

ofthe great composers of his generation, he honed his technique under the

tutelage ofthe legendary French pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. He studied

privately with her from 1932 to 1935 and received a doctorate in music from

the Ecole Normale in Paris upon completion ofthose studies. He then

returned to America to teach and compose, holding teaching positions at 

Saint John’s College in Annapolis; the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore;

Columbia University, Queens College, and the Juilliard School of Music 

in New York City; Yale University in New Haven; and Cornell University

in Ithaca, New York.

Now at age 101 the eldest statesman among American composers, Elliott

Carter has received the highest honors: the Gold Medal for Music awarded by

the National Institute ofArts and Letters, the National Medal ofArts, membership in the American Academy ofArts and Letters and the American Academy ofArts and Sciences, and honorary degrees from many universities.

The recipient of commissions from many prestigious organizations, Carter 

has won two Pulitzer Prizes in music: for his visionary and ground-breaking

String Quartet no. 2 (i960), and for his String Quartet no. 3 (1972). His Pastorale

for English hom and piano, composed in 1940, was first published in a

transcription for viola and piano, but it later appeared in a version for clarinet

and piano, the instruments on which it is most often performed.

Composer, conductor, and educator Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) 

emerged as one of a handful offigures in the twentieth century who truly 

changed the face ofmusic. He left a far-reaching legacy that includes three

symphonies, a film score ofsingular distinction (On the Waterfront), and an

important body ofstage works, including one ofthe cornerstones ofAmerican

musical theater, West Side Story (1957)- The first American-bom conductor to

attain international superstardom, Bernstein made a profound impression on

audiences throughout the world. His podium manner was dynamic—even 

flamboyant—a phenomenon rarely seen since the days of Hector Berlioz and

other early romantic conductor/composers.

Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Bernstein attended Harvard University, where he studied with Walter Piston. Occasionally he wrote popular

songs, using the pseudonym Lenny Amber (“amber” being the English

translation ofthe German word “Bernstein”). His works ofthe 1940s

brought him considerable acclaim. In 1944 he premiered two especially

well-received scores, the Symphony no. 1 (“Jeremiah"), and the ballet Fancy

Free. When he wrote his Sonatafor Clarinet and Piano in 1942, Bernstein

was still a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, but his

promise as a composer was already apparent. The sonata demonstrates

his interest in forms and techniques both old and new and in the musical

vernacular ofthe day. With the eclecticism that remained with him throughout his life as a composer, Bernstein begins his sonata in the manner of his

sometime teacher Paul Hindemith, but finishes it with music that is both

contemporary and American, full ofjazzy syncopations.

German-born American composer, conductor, pianist, and educator

Lukas Foss began his musical studies in Berlin, where he studied piano

and theory with Julius Goldstein. Foss began to compose at age seven and

published his first composition at fifteen. When he was twenty-two, he won

the New York Music Critics’ Award for his cantata Prairie. From 1944 to 1950

he served as the pianist ofthe Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1945 he was 

the youngest composer ever to receive a Guggenheim fellowship. During

the 1950-1951 academic year, he was a fellow at the American Academy in

9
Rome, and he was also a recipient of a Fulbright fellowship. In February 1953

Foss received an appointment as professor ofmusic at the University of

California at Los Angeles, where he taught composition and conducting. He 

served as music director and conductor ofthe Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra,

the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Kol Israel Orchestra ofJerusalem, and the

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He was a member ofthe American Academy 

ofArts and Letters, and he served as composer-in-residence at the Manhattan

School of Music in New York, and at the Tanglewood Music Center.

Lukas Foss contributed profoundly to the circulation and appreciation

ofmusic ofthe twentieth century. His compositions fall into three main

periods of artistic development. The works of his first period are predominantly neoclassic in style, and reflect his love ofJohann Sebastian Bach and

Igor Stravinsky. Dedication, written in 1944, exemplifies his work in this

period. In the second period, which extended through the 1950s, 1960s, and

1970s, Foss fused elements of controlled improvisation and chance operations with twelve-tone and serial techniques. His later period works embrace

a wide variety ofmusical references, displaying a keen awareness ofidioms

and styles that span the history ofwestern art music.

About New York Counterpoint, Richard Stoltzman writes: “[It] was written

for me by Steve Reich in 1985. The music is conceived for eleven clarinets

(four ofthem bass) and I recorded all except one on the tape you hear. The

music is in three movements, [which are] performed attacca [and] connected

by an underlying uniform pulse. After a chordal introduction of clarinets

playing in overlapping waves ofrepeated eighth notes, the first movement

gradually builds a tonal tapestry from small melodic patterns initiated by my 

clarinet and then passed on and integrated into the clarinet ensemble. From 

this tapestry, Reich chooses single threads ofmelody and gives each one to

me to play for a few moments. The second movement applies this idea to new

melodic groups and an undulating rhythm. The first movement introduction

is recalled. In the third movement, Reich plays with the ambiguity between a

fixed melody felt in groups oftwo and groups ofthree. It finishes with a riding

riffvery reminiscent ofthe American big bands and revealing a bit of Steve

Reich’s (and my own) American Jazz background.”

10

Yehudi Wyner provides the following commentary for his Commediafor

Clarinet and Piano: “The impulse for the creation of a new composition for

clarinet and piano came from Richard Stoltzman. He wanted something to

help him celebrate a significant birthday, something he could receive and

participate in, but also something he could pass on to others. He also wanted

to share this experience with his treasured colleague, Emanuel Ax. And so he

proposed this project to me, and with great enthusiasm I embraced the idea.

With Richard, my friendship goes back many years, beginning in the 1960s.

In recent times we’ve done some recordings together and even exchanged 

pastry recipes. With Manny [Ax] the friendship is more recent, but towards

both these artists I’ve harbored an enduring and unclouded admiration.

Commedia is dedicated to both men.

“Commedia was written during the summer months of 2002, largely in

Tuscany and Leipzig, Germany. As I began working on the piece I had no

idea what its form or shape would be. But I felt that it must begin on a note

of high—even frantic—energy, and that the organizing motivic sonority

would be a major seventh enclosing a minor third. (In recognition ofthe

cascading onslaught ofthe opening attack, the tempo direction is Taboo h,’

a mysterious word of obscure origin, possibly derived from the expression

‘Like a bat out of hell.’)

“Eventually the motoric thrust runs out ofsteam and undergoes a

transformation into something more suspended and expressive. This is

followed by a lengthy stretch ofmusic that is lyric and flexible, with the

clarinet and piano engaging each other in melodic and figurative exchanges.

The harmony is rich and progressively inflected, but the music is never just

one thing: it is in constant flux, now amorous, now insistent, now timid and

hesitant, now despairing. There is a brief chorale with commentary, and a

semi-improvised scherzando duet. The music moves toward a passionate

climax, and then recedes into private sadness, as ifin reminiscence. Almost

as an afterthought, the quick music of the opening is brought back as if to 

say: ‘perhaps it was only a joke!’

“According to the Ojxford] E[nglish] Dictionary], Macaulay called Dante’s

Divine Comedy a personal narrative. Dante himself called his poem La

n
Commedia because ‘in the conclusion, it is prosperous, pleasant and desirable,’ and in its style ‘lax and unpretending... written in the vulgar tongue

in which women and children speak.’ I infer from this that not all of La

Commedia is sweetness and light, and that the style, ‘lax and unpretending... 

in tire vulgar tongue in which women and children speak,’ implies that

it avoids learned pedantry and embraces the vernacular, the direct and

unpretentious language of everyday speech.”

Born Jacob Gershowitz to Russian Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, 

George Gershwin is one of America’s most revered composers. He showed

prodigious musical talent at a young age, and at fifteen dropped out of

school for his first job as a “song plugger” on Tin Pan Alley. During the

1920s Gershwin wrote for several of George White’s Scandals, an annual

variety show which introduced songs such as “I’ll Build a Stairway to

Paradise” and “Somebody Loves Me.” Before long, Gershwin and his lyricist

brother Ira were producing hit musicals on their own: Lady Be Good (1924),

which introduced the song “Fascinatin’ Rhythm”; Oh, Kay! (1926), in which

Gertrude Lawrence introduced “Someone to Watch Over Me”; Funny Face

(1927) with its hit “S’Wonderful”; Strike Up the Band (1930) with “I’ve

Got a Crush on You”; and Girl Crazy (1930), which introduced “But Not for 

Me,” “Embraceable You,” and “I Got Rhythm.”

Concurrent with this feverish and highly successful composition for the 

theater, Gershwin also studied classical music. His Three Preludesfor Piano date 

from 1926 and are deemed by some to be his best works in the non-jazz idiom. 

His desire to develop the skills demonstrated in these pieces led him to move 

to Paris in 1927, where he hoped to study with Nadia Boulanger and Maurice 

Ravel. These composers were so intrigued by Gershwin’s jazz-influenced

compositional style that they refused to tutor him, afraid that he would lose

that aspect ofhis writing with too much rigorous classical training.

George and Ira Gershwin finished their career as a team in Hollywood, 

where they wrote for several films, foremost among them the Fred Astaire/

Ginger Rogers classic Shall We Dance? (1937). George Gershwin died in 1939

at the age offorty-one from a brain tumor, ending what might otherwise

have been an even more prolific collaboration.

12

2,751st Concert

November 25, 2009

Enso String Quartet

Maureen Nelson, violin

John Marcus, violin

Melissa Reardon, viola

Richard Belcher, cello

Pierre Jalbert (b. 1967)

Icefield Sonnets (2006)

Cold is a Cell

Glass is a Place

North is a Notion

Paul Moravec (b. 1957)

Vince and Jan: 1945 (2002)

John Corigliano (b. 1938)

Snapshot circa lpog (2003)

Steve Reich (b. 1936)

Different Trains (1988)

America—Before the War

Europe—During the War

After the War
The Musicians

Formed in 1999 at Yale University, the Enso String Quartet earned multiple

honors at the 2004 Banff International String Quartet Competition and

victories at the 2003 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the

Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and the Chamber Music

Yellow Springs Competition. The members ofthe quartet hold degrees from

the Curtis Institute of Music, the Guildhall School of Music in London,

the Juilliard School of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music, and

the University of Canterbury School of Music in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The quartet has been featured in the “American Ensembles” column of

Chamber Music magazine, and its live performances have been broadcast on

PBS, Chicago’s wfmt, Wisconsin Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio’s

“Saint Paul Sunday” program, Houston’s kuhf, Australia’s abc Classic fm,

Radio New Zealand, and Canada’s cbc radio.

Since the quartet’s founding, new music has played an important part in

its life. It won the Piece-de-Concert Prize at the 2004 Banff International

Competition for the best performance ofthe commissioned piece; premiered

Joan Tower’s Piano Quintet in 2008; and in 2009 released premiere recordings

ofworks by composers Anthony Brandt and Karim al Zand on Albany Records.

The Enso Quartet’s members are sought after as teachers and chamber

music coaches. Institutions with which they have been associated include

Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute, Interlochen’s Adult Amateur

Chamber Music Camp, Rice University, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The quartet is proud ofits continued collaboration with Connecticut’s

Music for Youth program, with which it has developed a meaningful curricula

for string students in public schools in Bridgeport and Weston. The ensemble’s name, Enso, is derived from the Japanese Zen painting ofthe circle

which represents many things; perfection and imperfection, the moment of

chaos that is creation, the emptiness ofthe void, the endless circle oflife,

and the fullness ofthe spirit. The Enso String Quartet appears at the National 

Gallery by arrangement with Vantage Artists Management, Inc., of Brooklyn,

New York.

14

Program Notes

Although his music is not programmatic, Pierre Jalbert draws inspiration

from a variety ofsources, including natural phenomena. In Icefield Sonnets

for string quartet, he has created transparent, glassy textures in response

to poems by Anthony Hawley about life in northern latitudes. The Baltimore

Sun called Icefield Sonnets “fresh [and] dynamic,” praising its “luminous

colors and propulsive rhythms.” Jalbert’s music is tonally centered, incorporating modal, tonal, and sometimes quite dissonant harmonies while

retaining a sense of harmonic motion and arrival. Jalbert also set Hawley’s

texts directly in a 2005 song cycle ofthe same title, scored for soprano,

baritone, and piano trio with percussion.

Bom in Manchester, New Hampshire, Jalbert grew up in northern Vermont; his family originally came from Quebec. He began piano lessons at age

five, immersing himselfin the classical repertoire. Following undergraduate

studies in piano and composition at the Oberlin College Conservatory of

music, Jalbert earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Pennsylvania, 

where his principal teacher was George Cmmb. He won the Rome Prize in

2000-2001 and the bbc Masterprize in 2001 for his orchestral work In

Aetemam. The jury for that prize, which consisted of Marin Alsop, Sir John

Eliot Gardiner, and Sir Charles Mackerras, selected the winner from among

more than 1,100 scores. Most recently, he was honored with the Chamber

Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2007 Stoeger Award, given biennially “in

recognition ofsignificant contributions to the chamber music repertory.”

Jalbert has served as composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles

Chamber Orchestra (2002-2005), Chicago’s Music in the Loft Chamber

Music Series (2003), and the California Symphony (1999-2002). He is an

associate professor of composition and music theory at Rice University’s

Shepherd School of Music in Houston, where he has taught since 1996.

His music is published by the Theodore Presser Company.

Paul Moravec, winner ofthe 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music, has composed more than a hundred orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric, film, and

electro-acoustic works. His music has been described as “tuneful, ebullient,

15
and wonderfully energetic” (San Francisco Chronicle), “riveting and fascinating” (National Public Radio), and “assured, virtuosic” (The Wall Street

Journal). His quartet Vince and Jan: 1945, was described in the New York

Times as “[a] masterly miniature [that] conveyed warm nostalgia, buoyant

swing, and wartime unease.” Moravec teaches at Adelphi University in

Long Island, New York, and recently served as artist-in-residence with the

Institute for Advanced Study.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize for music, Moravec has received two

fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Camargo

Foundation Residency Fellowship, a fellowship in music composition from

the National Endowment for the Arts, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, and the Rome Prize. A graduate ofColumbia University and Harvard

University, he has taught at both ofthose institutions as well as Adelphi

University, Dartmouth College, and Hunter College. Paul Moravec’s music

is featured in recordings on the Albany Records, bmg/rca Red Seal, and

Naxos American Classics labels.

John Corigliano’s quartet Snapshot: Circa 1909 was inspired by a photograph ofCorigliano’s father, at about age eight, playing the violin and standing

next to his older brother, who is playing the guitar. The father, who was also

named John, eventually became concertmaster ofthe New York Philharmonic

Orchestra. The sensation ofyearning is created by an evocative violin melody

that soars over guitarlike strumming, and the work fades away with a dreamy, 

delicate melody played in the highest violin register.

John Corigliano has one ofthe richest, most unusual, and most widely 

celebrated bodies ofwork created over the last forty years. His numerous

scores—including three symphonies, eight concerti, and more than one

hundred chamber, vocal, and choral works—have been performed and

recorded by many ofthe most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber

musicians in the world. Recent scores include Conjurer (2008) for percussion and string orchestra, commissioned for and introduced by Dame

Evelyn Glennie; Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: The Red Violin (2005),

developed from the themes ofthe score to the Francois Girard film ofthe

same name, which won Corigliano an Oscar in 1999; Mr. Tambourine Man:

16

Seven Poems ofBob Dylan (2000) for orchestra and amplified soprano;

Symphony No. j: Circus Maximus (2004), scored simultaneously for wind

orchestra and a multitude ofwind ensembles; and Symphony no. 2 (2001),

winner ofthe Pulitzer Prize in Music for that year. The last-mentioned work

will be presented in concert this Sunday at the National Gallery, as the 64th

American Music Festival continues.

One ofthe few living composers to have a string quartet named for him,

Corigliano serves on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School of Music 

and holds the position of distinguished professor ofmusic at Lehman College,

City University of New York, which has established a scholarship in his name.

More information about the composer is available at www.johncorigliano.com.

Steve Reich’s Different Trains introduced a compositional method that

was new for its time (the early 1980s). It is rooted in his earlier works It's

Gonna Rain and Come Out, in which speech recordings generate the musical

material for musical instruments. The New York Times hailed Different Trains

as “a work ofsuch astonishing originality that breakthrough seems the

only possible description.... possesses an absolutely harrowing emotional

impact.” In speaking ofthe quartet, Reich observes that, although it was bad 

enough that he spent the first years ofWorld War 11 being shuttled between

divorced parents in New York and Los Angeles, if he had been in Europe,

he would as a Jew have been riding trains to concentration camps. Two

distinct sonic entities—taped phrases (from conversations with the nanny

who accompanied Reich on his childhood trips, an American railroad

worker from the war years, and archival recordings of holocaust survivors) 

and a string quartet—interact in a striking combination of pathos and

psychic distance.

Abstraction ofspeech into purely musical components represented a

new and apparently stimulating stylistic development for Reich, who has

explored it further in text-based works like The Cave (1994) and City Life

(1995). The emotional impact of Different Trains is heightened by sound

effects that evoke the era ofWorld War 11—most memorably, train whistles

that become more ominous as the piece progresses from America to

17
Europe—and by the manipulation ofthe text, which skillfully points out the 

ambiguity ofthe work’s central theme. Reich eschews overt drama throughout, increasing the emotional impact by allowing the facts ofthe Holocaust,

and the persecution that preceded it, to speak for themselves. In 1990 Reich

received a Grammy® Award for Best Contemporary Composition for Different Trains as recorded by the Kronos Quartet on the Nonesuch label.

Steve Reich was recently hailed by the New York Times as “our greatest 

living composer.” Similar accolades have appeared previously in other major

publications: “America’s greatest living composer” (The Village voice) and

“the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New Yorker). From his

early taped speech pieces—It’s Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) —

to his digital video opera Three Tales (2002), a collaboration with video artist

Beryl Korot, Reich’s path has embraced not only aspects ofWestern Classical

music, but the structures, harmonies, and rhythms of non-Western and

American vernacular music, particularly jazz. Winner ofthe 2004 Pulitzer 

Prize in Music, Reich was awarded the Preamium Imperial Award in Music

in 2006 in Tokyo. This important international award targets areas in the

arts not covered by the Nobel Prize. In 2008 he was elected to the Royal

Swedish Academy of Music.

Born in New York and raised there and in California, Reich graduated 

with honors in philosophy from Cornell University in 1957. For the next

two years, he studied composition with Hall Overton, and from 1958 to

1961 he studied at the Juilliard School of Music with William Bergsma and 

Vincent Persichetti. A graduate of Mills College in Oakland, California, he 

worked with Luciano Berio and Darius Milhaud. During the summer of

1970, with a grant from the Institute for International Education, Reich

studied drumming at the Institute for African Studies at the University of

Ghana in Accra. In 1966 he founded his own ensemble ofthree musicians,

which rapidly grew to eighteen or more members. Since 1971, Steve Reich

and Musicians has frequently toured the world, and has the distinction

of performing to sold-out houses at venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall and 

the Bottom Line Cabaret.

18

The winner oftwo Grammy® awards, Reich has also earned the Montgomery Fellowship from Dartmouth College, the Regent’s Lectureship at

the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley, and the Schuman Prize from

Columbia University as well as an honorary doctorate from the California

Institute ofthe Arts. In 2007 he was named composer ofthe year by

Musical America magazine.
2,752Rd Concert 

November 29, 2009

National Gallery Orchestra

Vladimir Lande, guest conductor

Charles Wetherbee, violinist

John Corigliano (b. 1938)

Symphony no. 2 for String Orchestra

Prelude 

Scherzo

Nocturne 

Fugue

INTERMISSION

Fred Lerdahl (b. 1943)

waves (1988)

James Whitton Aikman (b. 1959)

Lines in Motion, a Concert Piecefor Violin and Orchestra

Prologue/improvisation/prologue 

Quasi una fantasia...

Toccata c

20

The Musicians

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

The National Gallery Orchestra was founded in 1943 and initially consisted 

of approximately twenty-five players drawn from the National Symphony

Orchestra. Gradually growing in numbers, the Gallery orchestra eventually

reached the size and status of a large chamber orchestra. The ensemble has

undertaken the full range of chamber and symphonic repertoire and has

frequently presented first performances ofworks by American composers, 

most notably the 1953 premiere ofCharles Ives’ Symphony no. 1 under the

direction of Richard Bales, the 1990 premiere of Daniel Pinkham’s Symphony

no. 4 under George Manos, and the 2007 premiere ofJohn Musto’s Later

the Same Evening: An opera inspired byfive paintings ofEdward Hopper, under

guest conductor Glen Cortese. In September 2008 the orchestra completed 

a highly successful concert tour in North Carolina, under the direction of

guest conductor Vladimir Lande.

VLADIMIR LANDE

Russian-born Vladimir Lande is the guest music director ofthe 64th American Music Festival. Fie is also music director of cosmic (the Chamber

Orchestra of Southern Maryland, in Concert), the Hopkins Symphony 

Chamber Orchestra, the Maryland Conservatory Orchestra, and the Washington Soloists Chamber Orchestra. In addition to his duties as principal

guest conductor ofthe Saint Petersburg (Russia) Symphony Orchestra, he 

regularly conducts the Donetsk Ballet Company in Europe and the United

States. Lande has conducted at the Ravello Festival in Italy and has guestconducted the National Gallery of Art Orchestra several times. Since 1996

he has been principal guest conductor ofthe Bachanalia Festival Orchestra

in New York. In 2004 Lande was invited to conduct the opening concert of

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the internationally renowned White Nights Festival in Saint Petersburg,

Russia, including a performance in Grand Philharmonic Hall. In 2006 he

made his conducting debut with the Baltimore Opera Orchestra, and in

2008 he conducted the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. An oboist as well as a

conductor, Lande was the youngest person ever to occupy the principal

oboe chair in the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

CHARLES WETHERBEE

A native of Buffalo, New York, violinist Charles Wetherbee gave his first

performances at age six. A graduate ofthe Curtis Institute of Music, he

studied with Aaron Rosand. He made his debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under Symon Bychkov, and has since performed with the

Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia,

the Minnesota Symphonia, the National Repertory Orchestra, the National

Symphony Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovitch, and the Symphony

Orchestra ofthe Curtis Institute. In 1990 he traveled to the Middle East to 

perform for the men and women ofthe United States Armed Forces.

A devoted chamber musician, Wetherbee is a founding member of Opus

3, a piano trio based in Washington, DC, with which he has performed several 

times at the National Gallery. He has also performed at the Corcoran Gallery

and the embassies of France, Gennany, Austria, and The Netherlands as well

as Strathmore Hall and the Terrace Theater ofthe Kennedy Center. In 1988 he

made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim as a participant

in the American Music Competition. Wetherbee is a founding member ofthe

High Street Four Quartet and the National Quartet. He has participated in the

Hidden Valley Music Festival in Carmel, California; the Nouvelle Academie 

International d’Ete in Nice, France; and the Roycroft Chamber Music Festival

in East Aurora, New York. He is currently the concertmaster ofthe Columbus

Symphony in Ohio.

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Program Notes

About his Symphony no. 2, John Corigliano writes:

The Boston Symphony contacted my publisher with a request

that I write a second symphony to honor the tooth anniversary of

their justly famous Symphony Hall. At first I declined... but they were

quite insistent. I started thinking about what I could do that would

feel truly symphonic, and my thoughts turned to the string quartet I

composed for the farewell tour ofthe Cleveland Quartet in 1996....

My quartet is in five movements, three ofwhich are notated 

in spatial notation. This means that the players do not count beats,

but play more freely rhythmically, coordinating at various points

but totally independent in others.... This is the sort ofthing that 

a great quartet can do magically, but with fifty strings playing

instead offour (and a two-or-three day preparation period instead 

ofthe extended rehearsals chamber music demands) three ofthe 

quartet’s five movements would be quite chaotic ifit were not

re-thought and completely re-written. On the other hand, the 

number of violins, violas, and violoncelli in the string orchestra 

(as well as the addition of contrabassi) made it possible to augment

chordal passages by dividing the sections and thus achieve new

and thicker harmonies.... For example, in certain sections ofthe

Quartet (such as the center section ofthe third movement’s night 

music) the four players strained somewhat to give the illusion of

many answering voices. Now I could use a vast orchestral complement ofstrings soloistically to echo each other’s calls. The result of

this is a work that deals with the string orchestra as a whole body

ofsound unique in itself, and this transforms the string quartet to

symphony and the string section to string orchestra.

Architecturally, the 35-minute work is in five movements that 

bear a superficial resemblance to the arch-form principles of

Bartolc’s fourth string quartet (movements I and V are related

and movements 11 and IV are related, with III as a central “night

music.”)....

23
I. Prelude: This short movement utilizes two kinds ofmuted

playing. It opens and closes using a “practice mute” (which reduces

the sound to a whisper) while the central section employs a standard

“sordino.” Threads ofsound gently appear from and disappear into 

silence....

II. Scherzo: Slashing evenly-repeated chords for full strings begin

the movement and are counterpoised against a suddenly-faster solo

quartet playing in a manic, almost pop-like manner. They alternate 

and build into a rapid i6th-note passage using both the repeated

single-tone motive and disjunct minor thirds. A recapitulation of

the slashing chords leads to a gentle trio: a chaconne based upon the 

chordal fragments in the prelude is played by a concertino group, 

while the other players provide lyrical counterpoint. A return to the 

opening material and an even larger and wilder recapitulation of

earlier material brings the movement to a frenetic end.

ill. Nocturne: Some years ago during a vacation in Morocco, I

stayed at the Palais Jamais in Fez. My room overlooked the old city

and during the night (about 4 a.m.) I was awakened by the calls of

the muezzins from the many mosques in the city. First one, then

another, and finally dozens ofindependent calls created a glorious

counterpoint, and at one moment all ofthe calls held on to a single

note (pure accident) and the result was a major chord. The calls

died away, a cock crowed and a dog barked to announce the sun.

This nocturne recalls... the serenity ofthe Moroccan night, the

calls (here composed ofmotivic fragments ofrepeated notes and

minor thirds), the descent to silence, and the dawn.

IV. Fugue: I have always been fascinated by counterpoint.... I

always wondered if voices could be made independent by [having]

each voice travel at a different speed (or tempo). The misalignment

that occurs when two rhythmically identical themes travel at two

different speeds (say, 60 versus 72 beats per minute) would separate

them as surely as syncopation does within a common beat... .The

movement is marked “severe,” and there is a starkness to this music

brought about not only by the dissonant material (the subject is

24

composed of both the repeated tone and the disjunct minor thirds,

this time descending), but also by the total independence ofthe 

voices. They seem to travel alone, unrelated to each other, yet

identical to each other. There are two sections in the Fugue where 

the string choirs unite in a common rhythm. This is usually accomplished by one or another ofthe sections “catching up” with the 

others. Other elements include asynchronous “chases” in the violins

and violas and a serene (and synchronous) slow section. Formally

the Fugue is traditional, with an exposition, central section and

strettoed recapitulation.

v. Postlude: The ending ofthe Fugue is joined to the Postlude.

In this movement, the lower voices are spatially offset by a solo

violin entrance, muted, on the highest C-sharp. The registral

distance between the solo violin and the other strings remains

vast in this first section: this quality ofseparation is meant to

impart a feeling offarewell to the entire movement. An ornamental

recitative-like section in the lower choirs follows, and in time the

solo violin joins them in a unity of emotionally charged playing.

An impassioned climax leads to a long descending passage, which

gradually changes into the asynchronous ambient-sounding

threads ofthe first movement, and with the addition of practice

mutes and an exact retrograde ofthe opening music, the symphony

fades into silence.

(A biography ofJohn Corigliano can be found on page sixteen ofthe

festival brochure.)

About waves, composer Fred Lerdahl writes:

[It] was commissioned jointly in 1988 by the Orpheus, Saint 

Paul, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras, with the support of a

National Endowment for the Arts consortium grant. I wrote much

ofit while I was a composer-in-residence at the American Academy 

in Rome. The instrumentation— double woodwinds, two horns,

and a small string section—resembles that of a middle-period

Haydn symphony. The work is in one movement and lasts approximately fifteen minutes.

25
The title refers not to the sea but to shapes ofmusical energy. The

phrases surge at high speed in fluid, constantly varying patterns of

sixteenth notes that break apart and merge. Beneath this flux lies a

formal process ofunitary expanding variations, in which a few events

elaborate into a slightly longer sequence, and this into a still longer

sequence, and so on until the final variation becomes many minutes 

long. The sectional boundaries are obscured by perpetual motion

and gradual changes in texture. This formal scheme accommodates

stylistic variety—including baroque, romantic, and minimalist

elements—in a seamless way, all controlled by my maximalist voice.

The melodic-harmonic treatment throughout is at the consonant

extreme ofmy output, a feature that disguises the radical constructivism that underlies the surface.

waves was premiered in 1989 by the Saint Paul Chamber 

Orchestra, John Adams conducting. Later the Orpheus Chamber 

Orchestra recorded it after many exemplary performances (without a conductor!).

Fred Lerdahl studied at Lawrence University, Princeton University, and

the Tanglewood Music Center. He has taught at the University of California

at Berkeley, Harvard University, and the University of Michigan, and since

1991 he has been the Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition at

Columbia University. Lerdahl has received numerous honors for his music,

including two composer awards from the American Academy of Arts and

Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Koussevitzky Composition Prize.

Two of his works, waves and Time after Time, were finalists for the Pulitzer

Prize in music. Commissions have come from the Chamber Music Society

of Lincoln Center, the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the

Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Spoleto 

Festival, among other distinguished institutions. His works have been

performed by many orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the

American Composers Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, 

the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Juilliard Quartet, the Los

Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Manhattan Sinfonietta, the New York

Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Pro Arte Quartet,

26

the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Speculum Musicae as well as the

symphony orchestras of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Seattle. 

He has been in residence at the American Academy in Rome, the Bowdoin 

Summer Music Festival, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral 

Sciences, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Yellow Barn Music Festival,

and has undertaken residencies sponsored by the Saint Paul Chamber

Orchestra and the Wellesley Composers Conference. Lerdahl is also prominent as a music theorist. He has written two books, A Generative Theory of

Tonal Music (with linguist Ray Jackendoflf) and Tonal Pitch Space, both of

which model musical listening from the perspective of cognitive science.

About his Concert Piecefor Violin and Orchestra, James Whitton Aikman

writes:

Lines in Motion is set in three movements. The first section

contains patterned lines that gradually appear, instrument by

instrument, overlapping and cascading, while generating the

backdrop or canvas that eventually presents an emerging violin

soloist. The instrumentalists ofthe orchestra perform angular 

lines with a regular pulsation, whereas the violinist takes the solo

line in a brand new direction entirely, rising above the orchestra 

as if actively and creatively splashing paint over the canvas. The

intent is to create the sensation and beauty ofimprovisation for

the violinist by lending the part perceived flexibility and freedom.

The middle movement ofthis concerto is primarily reflective,

searching music. The direct lines, form, and meaning are at once

graspable, yet evade expectation. This ‘quasi unafantasia’ presents

an array of common musical elements: lyrical melodic contours:

splashes oflayered orchestration; powerful tutti statements; and

even quasi-electric guitar soli for the solo violinist and concertmaster. (The rock solo suggests Rauschenberg’s making art out of

found materials.) The resulting cumulative musical and emotive

effect is the primary goal, being one ofjoy and contemplation.

27
The third movement features the violinist and the entire 

orchestra in a fast-paced, virtuosic toccata. In part, it is based on

a rifffrom the classic rock band Yes. This piece plays with sharply

contrasting textural densities as well. From the outset, the violin

line is presented alone with the xylophone. Then, immediately,

the motifis stated by the full orchestra. Sparse texture, thick

texture, back and forth it goes, until a brief pause here and there.

The resulting juxtapositions make for exciting interplay leading

to the work’s conclusion.

Aikman’s extensive catalogue ofstrikingly original music for orchestra,

chamber ensembles, voice, and electronics has been has been heard at such

prestigious festivals as Amsterdam’s Gaudeamus International Festival,

Colorado’s Aspen Music Festival, France’s Festival International de Musique,

and Massachusetts’ Tanglewood Music Festival. His music has also been

featured at the American Symphony Orchestra League American Repertoire

Concerts and at the opening and closing ceremonies ofthe United States

National Figure Skating Championships and National Sports Festival.

Notable honors and awards for Aikman’s music include those from the

American Music Center; the American Society of Composers, Authors, and

Publishers (annually, 1990-2006); the American Symphony Orchestra

League; Groupe de Musique Experimentale of Bourges, France; The International Society for Contemporary Music (New York 2000); The University of

Michigan; music publisher G. Schirmer s American Art Song Competition,

and the United States Fulbright Fellowship Program as well as Indiana

University’s Cole Porter Fellowship, Dean’s Awards for Excellence in

Orchestral and Chamber Music Composition, and Carmichael Award.

Program note on waves by Fred Lerdahl used with permission ofBridge Records

2,753rd Concert

December 2, 2009

Joel Fan, pianist

William Bolcom (b. 1938)

Nine New Bagatelles (2006)

And then what happened?

What happened

A bird’s comments to another bird

Lord Lovell’s trunk

A little story

Take no prisoners

Valse oubliable

Benediction

Pavanefor the dead/Hope’sfeathers

Leon Kirchner (1919-2009)

Piano Sonata no. 3 (“The Forbidden”) (2006)

Derek Bermel (b. 1967)

Funk Studies (2004)

Step

Lullaby

Jaunt

Dodecaphunk

Kontraphunktus

Elliott Carter (b. 1908)

Piano Sonata (1945/1982)

Maestoso; legato scorrevole

Andante; allegro; andante
The Musician

Acclaimed as “superb” (The Boston Globe), “extraordinary” (The Village Voice),

and a “versatile and sensitive pianist” (The Washington Post), Joel Fan combines virtuosity with a gift for lyricism. Fan began his performing career with

the New York Philharmonic at age eleven, as a winner ofthe Philharmonic’s

Young People’s Concert Auditions, and has since appeared in recital and with

orchestras throughout the world. He has performed to critical acclaim with

orchestras in the United States, among them the Albany Symphony, the

Greater Bridgeport Symphony, the Marion Philharmonic, the New York

Philharmonic, the Pueblo Symphony, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and

Santa Fe Pro Musica. Internationally, Fan has appeared as concerto soloist

with the London Sinfonietta, the New Symphony Orchestra of Bulgaria, the

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and the Singapore Symphony. He has collaborated with conductors Alan Gilbert, Gustav Meier, David Alan Miller, Larry

Rachleff, David Robertson, and David Zinman.

Fan’s commitment to music of our time has led him to perform the world

premiere of Leon Kirchner’s Sonata no. j (“The Forbidden”) in November

2006, and one ofthe first performances, in 2007, of Daron Aric Hagen’s

Concertofor Left Hand (“Seven Last Words”) with the Waukesha (Wisconsin) 

Symphony Orchestra. His debut solo recording, World Keys, was released in

June 2006 on the Reference Recordings label. Called a “technical wonder”

by The Los Angeles Times, he was a prizewinner ofseveral international competitions, including the D’Angelo Young Artists International Competition

in the United States and the Busoni International Piano Competition in Italy.

He was also named a Presidential Scholar by the National Foundation for 

Advancement in the Arts.

30

Joel Fan is a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, with which he

has recorded on the Sony Classical label. His own recordings appear on the

Albany Records label. A native New Yorker, Fan received a bachelor of arts

degree from Harvard University, where his teachers included Leon Kirchner. 

He also holds a master ofmusic degree in piano performance from tire

Peabody Conservatory, where he was a student of Leon Fleisher. A Steinway

artist, Joel Fan appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Vantage 

Artists Management, Inc., of Brooklyn, New York.

31
Program Notes

Michigan-based William Bolcom is one of America’s most prominent

composers and the recipient ofseveral awards. At age eleven he entered

the University ofWashington to study composition privately with George

Frederick McKay and John Verrall and piano with Madame Berthe Poncy 

Jacobson. He later studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College, Leland 

Smith at Stanford University, and Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire, where he received the deuxieme prix de composition. Bolcom won the

Pulitzer Prize for music in 1988 for Twelve New Etudesfor Piano. In 2006 he

was awarded the National Medal ofArts, and in 2007 he was named Composer ofthe Year by Musical America. He has received multiple Grammy®

Awards for recordings that feature both his compositions and his artistry at 

the piano.

Bolcom wrote Nine New Bagatelles in 2006 for the Friends ofToday’s

Music Project ofthe Music Teachers Association ofCalifornia. These nine

miniature bagatelles are reminiscent of Schumann’s Noveletten and Szenen,

with their individual inscriptions and sharply-etched characteristics, ranging

from playful to funereal and all drawn with a knowing wink. Joel Fan made

the world-premiere recording ofthis work in 2009 on his solo CD for 

Reference Recordings, West ofthe Sun.

Another Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, the late Leon Kirchner is

considered one ofthe eminent composers ofhis generation. Bom in Brooklyn,

he studied with Ernest Bloch and Arnold Schoenberg at the University of

California, Los Angeles. After serving in the United States Army during

World War 11, he studied in New York with Roger Sessions before completing

his graduate degree. He was the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music 

at Harvard from 1961 to 1991. Stylistically, Kirchner remained remarkably

individual; earlier influences of Hindemith, Bartok, and Stravinsky soon

yielded to a wholehearted identification with the aesthetics, ifnot necessarily

the specific procedures, of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webem.

32

Kirchner’s Sonata no. 3 (“The Forbidden”) was commissioned by the

Joel Fan Foundation and written in 2006. Fan subsequently premiered

the work in Boston and made the world premiere recording on the Albany 

Records label. This sonata and its recastings for string quartet and symphony

orchestra turned out to be the last major works of Kirchner, who died

on September 17, 2009.

The sonata is in one movement, with a structure inspired by the classical sonata-allegro form, consisting of exposition, development, recapitulation, and coda. Its subtitle, “The Forbidden,” is taken from a passage in

Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann, in which the devil warns the protagonist, who

has sold his soul in exchange for twenty-four years as a great composer:

“Every better composer bears within him a canon ofwhat is forbidden, of

what forbids itself, which by now embraces the very means oftonality, and

thus all traditional music.” This diabolic advice to avoid the past became a

challenge to Kirchner and is a mark of his personal style. In his preface to

the work, he stated that for him “it was a seductive idea, one that I have been

pursuing oflate, possibly to reveal the necessary intimacies between the

past and present, which keep the art ofmusic alive and well.”

Composer, clarinetist, and conductor Derek Bermel modifies various

facets ofworld music, funk, and jazz for performance by traditionally

classical performing forces and ensembles. He is the recipient of various

awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the prestigious Rome 

Prize, and has collaborated with a diverse array ofmusicians and composers,

among them John Adams, Paquito d’Rivera, Gustavo Dudamel, Philip Glass, 

Midori, and Stephen Sondheim. Educated at Yale University, Bermel later

studied at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with William Bolcom and

William Albright. He also studied with Louis Andriessen in Amsterdam and

Henri Dutilleux at Tanglewood. Bermel first came into the national spotlight with Natural Selection for baritone and chamber ensemble and Voices,

a concerto for clarinet and orchestra. In addition to Funk Studies, Bermel’s

composition include, Funk Studies: Slides for orchestra; Soul Garden for solo

33
viola, cello and string quartet; Three Rivers for large ensemble; and Tied

Shifts for sextet. Bermel is also an avid performing musician and plays

with rock and funk groups including his own ensemble tonic, for which

he serves as music director, and the rock band Peace by Piece, in which

he performs on vocals, keyboards, and caxixi (a percussion instrument

consisting of a closed basket with a flat bottom that is filled with seeds or

other small particles).

Bermel’s Funk Studies is, in the words ofthe New York Times, “propulsive, raw, and damnably difficult: imagine Thelonious Monk crossed with

Prokofiev.” The twelve-minute work consists offive pieces, three ofwhich 

are named after standard jazz genres (Step, Lullaby, and Jaunt), and two

ofwhich have titles that are puns on the composer’s unique creativity

(Dodecaphunk and Kontraphunktus).

Elliott Carter wrote his only piano sonata in 1945 and revised it in 1982.

It consists oftwo movements, the first of which is in sonata-allegro form 

and evokes in turn the tolling of bells, jazz-inspired rhythm and harmony,

and lyrical interludes. The second movement (Andante; allegro; andante)

begins with a somber theme that builds toward a fugue of great complexity.

In the words of Fanfare magazine, the Carter sonata is a “pivotal work in

the creative life of our centenarian master, American in a kind of Ivesian

way, but pointing toward the more prickly modernism that would mark

the vast range of his career.”

(A biography of Elliott Carter appears on page eight ofthe festival

brochure.)

Program notes on Bolcom, Kirchner, Bermel, and Carter by Joel Fan

Other program notes by Stephen Ackert and Danielle DeSwert Hahn, unless

otherwise indicated

34