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The Seventy-first Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,912th Concert

National Gallery ofArt Orchestra

Philippe Entremont, guest conductor and pianist

November 25, 2012

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Richard Danielpour (b. 1956)

Lacrimae beati (2002)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Piano Concerto no. 12 in A Major, K. 414 (1782)

Allegro

Andante

Allegretto

INTERMISSION

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

String Quintet no. 2, op. 111 (1890)

Transcribed for string orchestra by Philippe Entremont

Allegro non troppo, ma con brio

Adagio

Un poco allegretto

Vivace, ma non troppo presto

The Musicians

Philippe Entremont gained international attention when, at age eighteen,

he played his New York debut in Carnegie Hall, performing piano concertos

by Franz Liszt (1811-1886) and Andre Jolivet (1905-1974). The first concert

in Entremont’s concurrent American debut tour took place on January 4,1953,

at the National Gallery ofArt. This evening’s concert marks his third appearance at the Gallery in the course of his illustrious career, now nearing sixty

years. Chosen to perform in the “Piano Extravaganza ofthe Century” at the

2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he is president ofthe International Certificate 

for Piano Artists and the Bel’Arte Foundation ofBrussels. He directs the

American Conservatory of Fontainebleau, a post formerly held by the legendary pianist and teacher Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979).

During the last thirty years, Entremont has distinguished himself on

the podium as well as at the piano. In recent seasons he has conducted

the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie, Israel Festival, Munich Symphony, and

Shenzhen Symphony orchestras. He is the principal conductor ofthe Boca

Raton Philharmonic Orchestra; artistic director and conductor ofthe Santo 

Domingo Music Festival Orchestra; and lifetime laureate conductor ofthe

Israel Chamber, Munich Symphony, and Vienna Chamber orchestras. From

1981 to 2002, he served as music director ofthe New Orleans Philharmonic,

Denver Symphony, and Netherlands Chamber orchestras.

Among Entremont’s many honors are Austria’s Arts and Sciences Cross

of Honor and Great Cross ofthe Republic as well as France’s Legion ofHonor, 

Order of Merit, and Order ofArts and Letters, in which he has been named

Commander. He appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with Columbia 

Artists Management, Inc., www.cami.com.

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NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1942, the National Gallery Orchestra initially consisted oftwentyfive 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 November 2009 the orchestra played the United States premiere performance of Violin Concerto by James Aikman, under the direction of guest

conductor Vladimir Lande.

Program Notes

About Lacrimae beati—Tears ofthe Blessed One—Richard Danielpour writes:

[The title] refers to the tears that Mozart is believed to have shed 

as he wrote the “Lacrimosa” movement of his Requiem. It is

generally assumed that the first eight bars ofthe “Lacrimosa”

are among the last that Mozart wrote. For nearly thirty years, I

have thought about these bars, and the circumstances in which

that music and most ofthe requiem were composed.

In the second half of 2002, I was living in Berlin on a fellowship from the American Academy in Berlin. At the time I was

orchestrating the first act first ofmy opera Margaret Gamer. On

Friday, October 27th, I flew to Vienna to see a performance at

the Vienna State Opera that my friend and colleague Thomas 

Hampson was involved in. My plan was to stay in Vienna for

the weekend and return to Berlin on Sunday evening. On

Sunday morning I wanted to visit the cemetery in which

Beethoven was buried, and had a taxi take me from my hotel. I

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wound up not at the Central Cemetery, where Beethoven is

buried, but at an eighteenth-century cemetery named Saint

Mark’s. With the cab waiting for me outside, I walked up and

down each row of graves, slowly realizing that I was in the 

wrong graveyard. In a moment offrantically going through the

row oftombs, I tripped over a tree stump, falling flat on my face.

When I picked myselfup, I found myself a few yards away from 

a single granite gravestone in a clearing with the name “Mozart”

inscribed. (This tombstone marked the general area in St. Mark’s

where it was believed that Mozart was buried along with others 

in a mass grave in 1791.)

Later that evening I flew in a fifty-seat Lufthansa mini-jet that 

found itself in the midst of 200-mile-an-hour headwinds. The

plane shook violently, the pilot issued a severe warning and I

kept hearing, as ifit were a tape in my mind, the “Lacrimosa”

from Mozart’s Requiem. We were in the middle of a hurricanelike storm, and the two Lufthansa pilots in charge heroically

brought the plane down safely. Driving back to the American 

Academy in Berlin I saw several large trees, which had been

uprooted. I realized I was fortunate to be alive. Lacrimae beati is

as much about the Requiem of Mozart, and his struggle to

complete the work, as it is about my experience ofit in the air

on October 29, 2002.

In 1785 Leopold Mozart visited Vienna to check up on his son, Wolfgang, 

who four years before had resigned his post in Salzburg against his father’s

advice. Leopold was surprised to find his son the most beloved composer

and performer in Europe’s music capital. Wolfgang’s fame was due in no

small part to his frequent appearances in concert as composer, performer,

and conductor of piano concerti. He composed his twelfth, thirteenth, and

fourteenth works in this genre all at once in 1782 and 1783, not bothering

to finish one before starting another. He also composed six string quartets

dedicated to Haydn during this same period, and soon afterward he began

work on Le Nozze di Figaro. The scale and scoring ofthese concerti reflect

the chamber quality ofthe quartets, and the melodic inventiveness precurses

that of Figaro.

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The first ofthis trilogy, composed late in 1782 for the Lenten concerts of

1783, was the Piano Concerto no. 12 in A Major, K. 414. Mozart was especially

fond ofthis concerto—in addition to performing it frequently, he taught it

to his students and wrote out two sets of cadenzas for it. The first movement

starts quietly and moves from melody to melody, spelling out new themes

instead of developing what was already stated. In his landmark study The

Classical Style (1970), Charles Rosen describes this movement’s melodies 

as “at once so complex and so complete that they do not bear the weight of

development.” The Andante begins with a tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach’s

youngest son, Johann Christian, who had passed away earlier in 1782. Mozart

uses a rich, hymn-like tune from one of Bach’s overtures and spins out a

deep, solemn movement that occasionally recalls themes from the opening

Allegro. The final movement, a light and playful rondo, emphasizes three

main themes and whirls to a conclusion after an energetic solo cadenza.

Early in his career Johannes Brahms felt comfortable publishing chamber and orchestral music that featured his primary instrument, the piano, 

but he felt obliged to consult with the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim

(1831-1907) before releasing any music carried by the strings. These early

works earned high praise, however: Robert Schumann (1810-1856), referring to the richness ofstructure and thematic development in Brahms’ early

chamber works, called them “veiled symphonies.” As Brahms grew older,

he became more self-sufficient in this regard. Between 1876 and 1887, he 

completed three symphonies, two overtures, two concerti for string instruments, and another for piano, while continuing to produce art songs, chamber music, and choral-orchestral works. This outpouring ofmusic continued

into the 1890s and culminated in his String Quintet no. 2 in G Major, op. 111.

Still insecure about his large-scale works despite his artistic maturity, he 

considered burning his unconventionally constructed Fourth Symphony and

reduced his sketches for a fifth symphony into the first movement ofthe

String Quintet, op. 111. Despite the chamber instrumentation for two violins,

two violas, and one cello, the Second String Quintet is orchestral in concept 

and structure. Philippe Entremont’s arrangement for string orchestra evokes

the orchestral sound that Brahms must have had in mind as he initially conceived the piece as his first symphony. Brahms notified his publisher of his

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plans to retire with this work, but in fact was unable to resist the urge to

write again, producing, among other masterpieces, the Piano Trio, op. 114;

the Clarinet Quintet, op. 115; two piano sonatas, op. 120; and eleven organ 

chorales, op. 122.

The Second String Quintet begins with a heroic, leaping cello line situated below an oscillating accompaniment in the upper strings. Two more

lilting and mellow themes follow, leading into a development beginning in 

B-flat major. Varied instrumentation characterizes the recapitulation: the

cello carries the primary theme for only one measure before a soaring violin

line takes control. The jubilant coda ofthe first movement contrasts sharply 

with the second movement, a lament in variation form in D minor. Brahms 

features the viola in this movement, often writing a melody for it in a

register well above that ofthe violins. The third movement, which vacillates

between G major and G minor, is lively enough to resemble a waltz or a

minuet, but its fluid motion and rhythmic interplay suggest a signature

Brahmsian intermezzo. The Vivace finale provides a spirited conclusion, 

revisiting the Hungarian dance style that Brahms often employed to cap off

a major work.

Program note on Lacrimae beati by Richard Danielpour

Notes on Mozart and Brahms by Michael Jacko, music program specialist,

National Gallery ofArt

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