Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Kathryn Hearden, soprano

Marcio Botelho, cellist

Patricia Parker, pianist

Music by Chausson, Debussy, Faure, Koechlin, and Massenet

Presented in honor of In the Forest ofFontainebleau:

Painters and Photographersfrom Corot to Monet

April 13, 2008

Sunday evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:00 pm.

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.

Please note that late entry or reentry of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,670th Concert

Chatham Baroque

Andrew Fouts, baroque violin

Patricia Halverson, viola da gamba

Scott Pauley, theorbo and baroque guitar

with

Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

Presented in cooperation with the Center for Musical Studies

and the Giunta Regionale della Campania

April 6, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfxe
Program

“La cetra amorosa”

Dario Castello (fl. early 17th century)

Sonata quinta

Tarquinio Merula (c. 1594-1665)

Nigra sum

Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)

Moralita amorosa

Lamento: Appresso

La Vendetta

Merula

Sentirete una canzonetta

Marco Uccellini (c. 1603-1680)

Aria terza

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)

Se Laura spira

INTERMISSION

Antonio Bertali (1605-1669)

Sonata a due

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

Et e pur dunque vero

Johann Hieronymus Kapsberger (c. 1580-1651)

Colascione

Piva

Canario

Merula

Su la cetra amorosa

The Musicians

Chatham Baroque, western Pennsylvania’s only professional baroque

ensemble playing on period instruments, is repeatedly listed among the

Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s “Top Fifty Cultural Forces." In 2006 the newspaper

ranked the ensemble’s concert with guest artist Chris Norman among the

“Ten Best Classical Performances” in the region. In recent years, the trio has

taken its performances and educational programs to Alabama, the British

Virgin Islands, California, Florida, Maryland, Mexico City, Montreal, North

Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, DC. Chatham Baroque’s

live performances have been recorded and broadcast on npr’s Performance

Today, and its recordings for Dorian Records have been acclaimed best

sellers. Both The Scotch Humour and Henry Purcell: Sonatas and Theatre

Music received five-star ratings from Europe’s Goldberg magazine. In 2007

the ensemble released its first CD on the Sono Luminus label, which features sonatas from the seventeenth-century collection Prothimia Suavissima.

In addition to concerts and recordings, Chatham Baroque presents “Peanut

Butter & Jam Sessions” for preschoolers and “Music All over the Place”

performances in various community venues.

Baroque violinist Andrew Fouts performs regularly with the American

Bach Soloists, the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, and the Napa Valley

Symphony, and has appeared with El Mundo, Philharmonia Baroque, and the

National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra. Performances at festivals and series

have included the Arizona Early Music Society, Aston Magna, Chamber Music 

Sedona, Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, the Redwood Arts Council, 

and the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival. Fouts studied violin with Charles

Castleman at the Eastman School of Music, where he performed with the

eminent lutenist Paul O’Dette and was active with the contemporary music

ensemble Alarm Will Sound, with whom he recorded Steve Reich’s The Desert

Music for Cantaloupe Records. Fouts received a performer’s diploma from

the Early Music Institute at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he was a

student of Stanley Ritchie and the winner ofthe 2007 concerto competition.

He performs on a violin by Claude Pierray, Paris, built around 1710.

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Patricia Halverson holds a doctoral degree in early music performance

practice from Stanford University. After completing her graduate work,

she studied the viola da gamba in Holland with Anneke Pols at the Royal

Conservatory in The Hague. A native of Duluth, Minnesota, Halverson is

a founding member ofChatham Baroque and has been instrumental in

raising the level ofbaroque chamber music performance in the Pittsburgh

area. Her playing has been praised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “invested

with feistiness and solidity.”

Scott Pauley, who plays both theorbo and baroque guitar with Chatham

Baroque, holds a doctoral degree in early music performance practice from

Stanford University. Before settling in Pittsburgh in 1996 to join Chatham

Baroque, he lived in London for five years, where he studied with Nigel North

at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. There he performed with various 

early music ensembles, including the Brandenburg Consort, Florilegium, and

The Sixteen. He won prizes at the 1996 Early Music Festival Van Vlaanderen

in Brugge and at the 1994 Van Wassenaer Competition in Amsterdam. In

North America Scott has performed with Apollo’s Fire, The Bottom Line,

The Folger Consort, Hesperus, Musica Angelica, and The Toronto Consort.

In 2007 he was a soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Soprano Rosa Lamoreaux is known for her “wonderfully rich timbre

and an amazingly flexible voice” (Washington Post), versatile musicianship,

and diverse repertoire. An award-winning vocalist with a busy international

career, she has earned praise for her interpretations of a wide range of

music, from the songs of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) to those of

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975). She has been a featured soloist with

the symphony orchestras ofAtlanta and Cincinnati and has won critical

acclaim for her performances at Bach festivals in both the United States

and Europe. She has been the artistic director ofthe National Gallery 

Vocal Arts Ensemble since 2004.

Chatham Baroque and Rosa Lamoreaux appear at the National Gallery 

by arrangement with Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd., of Mount

Vernon, New York.

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The Program

For the gemologist, the term “baroque” is used to describe a misshapen

pearl; by extension, it could be used for anything that is bizarre, irregular,

or uneven. The new music that emerged in Italy in the early seventeenth

century struck many listeners as bizarre. In this new style of composition,

a dramatic or emotional setting ofthe text took precedence over the ancient

rules of counterpoint. The time-honored rules of church polyphony were

not abandoned or obliterated, but composers were allowed, even encouraged,

to break them ifthe dramatic content ofthe text could be better expressed

in the new style.

While this movement began with composers of vocal music, such as

Giulio Caccini (1551-1618), Merula, Monteverdi, and Strozzi, among others,

the same principles quickly spread to instrumental music. Collections of

dramatic (even though wordless) instrumental music by such composers as

Castello, Kapsberger, and Uccellini began to appear in the early seventeenth

century, showing a new, bold, and virtuosic approach to their instruments.

More than any other composer, Claudio Monteverdi inhabited the two

worlds ofthe late Renaissance and the early baroque. As a composer of

madrigals and polyphonic sacred music, he was well-versed in the techniques

of polyphony and counterpoint. At the same time, he was the leading proponent ofmusic in which the dramatic setting ofthe words became more

important than the old rules of counterpoint. He was able to use this new

modem style not only in his dramatic secular music, such as Et e pur dunque

vero, but also in the realm ofsacred music.

Virtually nothing is known about the life of Dario Castello beyond what

the titles ofhis publications tell us. He held positions in Venice and published

two collections ofinstmmental music in 1621 and 1629. Both were reprinted

in the 1650s—an indication ofthe popularity ofhis music—and are the first

known publications to contain only sonatas. Castello nearly always specified 

the preferred instrumentation, be it winds such as recorder, bassoon, cornetto,

trombone, or strings. The title pages ofboth publications carry the title Sonate

concertate in stil modemo, indicating that the compositions include flamboyant

solo passages.

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Like Monteverdi, Tarquinio Merula was born in Cremona, Italy, and 

Monteverdi’s influence on his slightly younger colleague is palpable. Constantly changing characterizations oflove and loss permeate his vocal works,

particularly Su la cetra amorosa (On the Amorous Lyre). Here, the fate ofthe 

lover is sealed from the outset, represented by the repeating ciaccona bass 

line. No matter how often the lover is scorned, he is compelled to repeat

his song to new loves. Sentirete una canzonetta has a similar theme, but a

completely different character and form. It is based on a popular folk song,

La Girometta, which is in strophic form (a short tune repeated with several

verses). Unlike the lover in Su la cetra amorosa, this singer seems unconcerned that his chosen love with a “pretty little mouth” and “pretty little nose”

scorns him. He is content to sigh for her great beauty and declares at the 

end that he is happy, although he doesn’t know why. The text for Nigra sum,

a sacred motet for voice, violin, and continuo, comes from the Song ofSongs

and is through-composed, ending with a brilliant “Alleluia.”

Barbara Strozzi was an extraordinary woman in many respects. Called

“la virtuosissima cantatrice” (the most virtuosic singer) by one ofher many

admirers, Strozzi published 125 pieces in her lifetime, more than did any

male composer of her time (the mid-seventeenth century). Adopted into 

the influential Strozzi family by Giulio Strozzi, she studied with one ofthe 

leading composers of her time, Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676). She later 

appeared at several “academies” (gatherings ofintellectual and cultural 

leaders in the community), a rare honor, since most were reserved exclusively for men. Her solo songs presented in this concert show the capricious 

creativity and depth ofher compositional gift. Strozzi composed no purely 

instrumental music. One ofthe main goals for a seventeenth-century

instrumentalist, however, was to imitate the human voice, and her Lamento

lends itselfwell to a contemporary instrumentalist’s revival ofthat practice.

Marco Uccellini composed only instrumental music and is considered

to be the founder ofthe Modena violin school. Many of his compositions

are technically demanding, and his works often contain passagework that

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climbs to unusual heights on the top string. The Aria terza on this program,

a simple two-part dance, is safely situated in a comfortable position suitable 

for improvisations upon the tune.

Girolamo Frescobaldi is best known as a virtuoso harpsichordist, organist,

and composer for keyboard instruments. Bom in Ferrara, Italy, and trained 

by Luzzascho Luzzaschi (c. 1545-1607) and Carlo Gesualdo (c. 1561-1613),

Frescobaldi quickly became the leading keyboard virtuoso ofhis generation.

He also published a good deal ofmusic apart from his more famous keyboard

works, including arias, madrigals, and works for instrumental ensembles.

Se I’aura spira from his Primo libro d’arie musicali per cantarsi (Florence, 1630)

is a true aria by early seventeenth-century standards. In contrast to the free

and speechlike stile recitativo, the aria’s three verses are set to a regular and 

fast-moving triple meter ground bass pattern that repeats each verse.

Antonio Bertali, a favorite composer ofChatham Baroque, held the 

prestigious title of Kapellmeister in the imperial court ofVienna from 1648

until his death in 1669. Bertali was a master craftsman, combining virtuosic 

string writing from his native Italy with his adopted country’s sense of

instrumentation and advanced contrapuntal techniques. In his Sonata a

due, Bertali awards the viola da gamba a role equal to that ofthe violin. The 

resulting dynamic relationship between the two instmments is rich with

imitative counterpoint. As in the sonatas by Dario Castello, there are no 

distinctly separate movements in this piece. The composer achieves variety

by contrasting the character of each section ofthe sonata.

Johann Hieronymus Kapsberger, the son of a German colonel who was

raised in Venice, was one ofthe first composers to write for the solo theorbo. 

He spent most of his career in Rome and became known as a virtuosic, if

slightly eccentric, lutenist as well as a composer of vocal music. Piva (Bagpipe) is an earthy folk tune and is followed by a spirited Canario, a popular

dance imported to Italy from the Canary Islands.

Program notes by Julie Andrijeski, Patty Halverson, and Scott Pauley