a revision of the first), the other three no longer carried their initial

appeal. Further, according to Hubert Daschner (“Music for the Stage,”

from Ludwig van Beethoven: Bicentennial Edition, 1770-1970), “[The

fourth overture] is an entirely new and independent composition.”

Romain Rolland, the author of Beethoven the Creator, states: “The

drama to which they [the audiences] are introduced is just hinted at

discreetly, in the most attenuated form—a few adagio bars of meditation, 

of prayer (that have no touch of anguish about them, no tragic shadow)

at the commencement and at the end,...then a brilliant, scintillating 

presto that is almost a rondo a la Weber. Let us accept this introduction, 

but without enthusiasm. The drama being what it is,.. .this is the only one

possible.”

Composed during one of Beethoven’s most phenomenal periods of

musical growth (1804-1807), the Concerto in D major, Op. 61, for

Violin and Orchestra was written for a violinist of superior talent by the

name of Franz Clement. However, it was dedicated to Beethoven’s

friend Stephan von Breuning, in hopes of mending a strained 

relationship. Beethoven also transcribed this work as a piano concerto 

for Breuning’s wife. The opening movement (.Allegro ma non troppo),

following the outline of the sonata-allegro form (exposition, 

development, and recapitulation), was greatly enlarged and developed by

Beethoven into a model that set the standard for future concertos. The

extended tutti (eighty-eight bars long) introduces all of the materials later 

taken up and embellished by the soloist. The sum and substance of the

second movement (Larghetto) is a mournful chant that resides in the key

of G major. Its form suggests that of a theme with variations. The finale 

{Rondo), sporting a hunting call with two episodes and a refrain, is bold,

vivacious, and suave, bringing the concerto to a scintillating conclusion.

Although he took some twenty years to write his First Symphony,

Brahms completed his Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73, in about 

fourteen months, from the autumn of 1876 to the summer of 1877. The

bright spirit and youthfulness evident in this Second Symphony are far 

from the dark, draconian and yet incomparable music found in the First

Symphony. Further, as cited by writer Peter Latham: “In reality this

work, in a warm D major, is the sunniest, the most gentle,

[and] the easiest to approach of all his [Brahms’] symphonies. It has

been called Brahms’ ‘Pastoral,’ and the title, though without 

authority, is not inapposite." A three-note figure opens the first 

movement in the cellos and the basses, followed by a delectable phrase 

from the horns. All the ideas germinated within the opening theme are

elaborated upon by the cellos and violas and then repeated by the flutes,

until a waltzlike melody enters as the second theme. After some welldeveloped contrapuntal passages in the expansive development section,

the two themes return in the recapitulation, which leads to a coda that 

provides the French horn with an ideal solo. The movement ends

ethereally with a munificent lyricism that is eloquently stated by the

woodwinds.

Two themes also dominate the second movement, presented in ABA

format. The mood of the first theme is bucolic, reminiscent of the

previous movement, and is aired by the cellos and then relinquished to

the wind instruments (flutes, oboes, and horn). The second theme is of a

similar nature, but performed only by the flutes and oboes. In twelveeight time, the B section offers a beguiling contrast with its syncopated 

rhythms.

The third movement {Allegretto grazioso) is one of Brahms’ most 

inspired creations. Its setting is an ABACA format with two trios, with 

the scoring designed for a small orchestra. Other intriguing features are

the changing of meters in the two trios as well as the fluctuation between 

major and minor modes.

The fourth movement {Allegro con spirito) afforded Brahms the

opportunity to apply his considerable and masterful knowledge of

counterpoint. Beginning with a lucent melody for strings that is

Haydnesque in nature and carried forth by the full orchestra, this

movement inspired Latham to write: “Never are Haydn and Brahms so

close...and that, no doubt, is why, at [the] end of the exposition (five

bars after ‘F’ in the score) we catch a brief allusion to the finale of

Haydn’s London Symphony.”

Program notes on the music by Elmer Booze

The Fifty-ninth Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2387th Concert

NATIONAL GALLERY ORCHESTRA

GEORGE MANOS, conductor

AARON ROSAND, violinist

Sunday Evening, 3 June 2001

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
PROGRAM

Presented in honor of the exhibition Spirit ofan Age:

Nineteenth-Century Paintingsfrom the Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Ludwig van Beethoven Overture to Fidelio

(1770-1827) Op. 72(1814)

Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major

Op. 61 (1806)

Allegro ma non troppo

Larghetto

Rondo

INTERMISSION

Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D Major

(1833-1897) Op 73 (1877)

Allegro non troppo 

Adagio non troppo 

Allegretto grazioso; quasi andantino 

Allegro con spirito

Conductor, composer, and pianist George Manos has been director of

music at the National Gallery of Art and conductor of the National 

Gallery Orchestra since 1985. He is also artistic director of the American 

Music Festival and of the National Gallery vocal and chamber 

ensembles, which he founded. Manos’ career as a performing pianist and

teacher has included several years on the faculty of The Catholic 

University of America, where he taught piano, conducting, and chamber

music. In addition, he held the directorship of the Wilmington, 

Delaware, School of Music, presenting an annual jazz festival and clinic.

Manos founded and directed for ten years the renowned Kilamey Bach

Festival in the Republic of Ireland and was the music director of the

1992 Scandinavian Music Festival in Kolding, Denmark.

Aaron Rosand is frequently compared to such legendary violinists as

Jascha Heifetz (1899-1987), Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), Zino 

Francescatti (1902-1991), Misha Elman (1891-1967), Eugene Ysaye

(1858-1931), and Nathan Milstein (b. 1904). In May 1997 Rosand made 

a triumphant return to Carnegie Hall in a recital celebrating his

seventieth birthday. Bom on the Ides of March, 1927, to parents of

Russian and Polish descent, he was featured at age nine in a concert at

the Chicago Civic Opera House that included the well-known American 

tenor Jan Peerce, who was making his professional debut. A year later,

Rosand made his debut with the renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra 

under the direction of Frederick Stock (1872-1942), performing 

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Rosand’s numerous recordings include 

seldom-performed compositions by great violinists of the past, among

them Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), Jeno Hubay (1858-1937), and

Heinrich Ernst (1814-1865). Rosand’s recordings have enjoyed success

for more than forty years and continue to be re-released. Reviewers often

refer to his interpretations of the works of Pablo Sarasate as the standard.

Aaron Rosand holds the Starling chair in violin at the Curtis Institute of

Music in Philadelphia and appears at the National Gallery by

arrangement with Artkor, Limited, of Chicago, Illinois.

The city of Berlin was a capital of the musical world long before it

became the political capital of Germany and the site of important art

collections. Significant composers and schools of music are in evidence 

from the fifteenth century onward in Berlin, but the nineteenth century 

saw an unprecedented surge of creative musical activity. The Berliner 

Singakademie, a choir of well-trained amateur singers founded in 1791,

was the vehicle with which composers of sacred music, from

Mendelssohn and Schumann to Brahms, introduced new works to the

public and revived forgotten masterpieces from the past. Numerous other 

choirs presented the works of Beethoven, Bach, and Liszt in

performances of exceptional quality. Benjamin Bilse founded an

orchestra in 1867 that was as famous in its time as the Montovani 

Orchestra was in the twentieth century. In the 1880s the Bilse Orchestra 

evolved into the Berlin Philharmonic, which was catapulted to

international fame by its first two permanent conductors, Josef Joachim

and Hans von Biilow. It was the orchestra of choice for world premiere 

performances conducted by composers Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, 

Grieg, and Brahms. Two opera houses, the Royal Opera House and the

Schauspielhaus (designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel), flourished 

throughout the century and saw world premieres of important operas by

Mendelssohn, E.T.A. Hoffman, Jakob Meyerbeer, and Heinrich August 

Marschner.

Among the artists represented in the exhibition Spirit of an Age:

Nineteenth-Century Paintings from the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, the one

who experienced the most fruitful interaction between art and music was

Adolph Menzel (1815-1905). An avid amateur pianist, he enjoyed the

company of many outstanding musicians of his day, and a significant 

number of his works were the result of his interest in music. The Flute

Concert of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci (1852) emphasizes the

importance of music in the life of an enlightened monarch and recalls the

golden age when Carl Philip Emanuel Bach was the music master of

Prussia’s royal court. Menzel’s Theatre du Gymnase (1856) reproduces 

faithfully the often overlooked details of the pit orchestra and invites

comparison with similar works of another lover of opera and theater, 

Edgar Degas.

A subtle reference to the importance of music in the life of nineteenthcentury Germans is the legible representation of sheet music for

Schubert’s song, Am Meer, in Anton von Werner’s painting A Billet

outside Paris (1894). In spite of muddy boots, the lancers are quite

capable of singing and playing an art song, evidence that they bring

education and an appreciation of high art with them to the battlefield, 

aside from disseminating German culture in “unenlightened” France.

Concertgoers are warmly encouraged to view the exhibition, which

opens on Sunday, 10 June, and remains at the Gallery until 3 September.

Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, is unequaled in the history of opera,

not for its operatic story or content but for its four overtures—the only

known opera so endowed. The first three overtures are called Leonore

Overtures and are in the key of C major, while the fourth, entitled 

Overture to Fidelio, is in the key of E major. These overtures came into

existence by virtue of the frequent revisions Beethoven made to the

opera itself. With the arrival of the fourth overture (it was intended to be