Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-third Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,513th Concert

Leon Bates, pianist

28 November 2004

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm 

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo 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 concerts now begin at 6:30 pm.

Late entry or reentry after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

2,513th Concert

28 November 2004, 6:30 pm

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960 (1828)

Molto moderate

Andante sostenuto

Scherzo: Allegro vivace con delicatezza

Allegro ma non troppo

Intermission

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Ballade in A-Flat Major, Op. 47 (1840-1841)

Barcarolle in F-Sharp Major, Op. 60 (1845-1856)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Gaspard de la nuit (1908)

Ondine

Le gibet 

Scarbo
The Musician

Leon Bates' career is marked by all the elements of a star performer. He

has performed in virtually all the major venues in the United States as well

as many prestigious concert halls abroad, and his frequent return engagements include the National Gallery, where he has played twice before, in

1972 and 1991. Since winning the Philadelphia Orchestra Senior Auditions

as a student, Bates has emerged as one ofAmerica’s leading pianists. He

often appears on national and local radio and television programs, among

them nbc’s The Today Show and cbs News’ Sunday Morning, and he took

part in the filming ofthe Music in the Twentieth Century telecast on pbs.

In addition, he hosted a radio series funded by the Pew Foundation, entitled

Notesfrom Philadelphia.

A favorite at summer festivals, Leon Bates has performed in Chicago

at Grant Park, in Nevada at the Lake Tahoe Festival, and with the Boston

Pops under Keith Lockhart. Bates’ large repertoire includes more than thirty

concerti by major composers, as well as several concerti by contemporary

composers. His latest recital project presents the music of Duke Ellington.

Leon Bates’ work with young people is extraordinary. He has undertaken

more than fifty residency programs in conjunction with orchestra engagements and recitals to open the hearts and minds ofyoung people to the love

ofmusic. Recently he has begun composing music for very young students

who are working with a new, progressive method devised by the Lorenz

Publishing Company. Bates’ contributions to the world of music education

were acknowledged by an honorary doctorate from Washington and Lee

University in Lexington, Virginia. He also received the Raoul Wallenberg

Humanitarian Award from the Greater New York Wallenberg Committee for 

his extensive work with children.

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Bates is a favorite on college campuses, thanks to his broad interests

beyond the world of classical music. An aficionado of architecture, dance,

theater, and every style ofmusic, he is also a sports enthusiast and a disciplined body builder, which he feels enhances his playing ability. A native

of Philadelphia, he began his formal study of music at age six on both the

piano and violin. The late Irene Beck formulated his early training at the

Settlement Music School, and his advanced study was under the renowned

pianist Natalie Hinderas at Temple University’s Ester Boyer College of

Music. A prolific recording artist on the Orion, Performance Records, and

Naxos labels, Leon Bates appears at the National Gallery by arrangement

with Joanne Rile Artists Management, Inc., ofJenkintown, Pennsylvania.

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Program Notes

Schubert wrote his Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960, on September 26, 1828,

some sixty days before his death. Although critically ill, he performed the

sonata two days after its completion. It was not published, however, until

1839. Working in the sonata-allegro form, Schubert imbues the opening

movement with sensitivity and mysticism, as expressed in its contemplative 

principal theme (Molto moderate). A unique feature ofthis theme is the bass 

trill on a low G-flat that punctuates it intermittently. The second theme is

presented in F-sharp minor, bringing a lighter, more mellifluous mood, and

the extended development section continues in the same vein. The second

movement (Andante sostenuto) is in three-part song form (aba) and begins in

the key of C-sharp minor. Its melancholy disposition reminds the listener

ofthe first theme in the opening movement. However, the B segment (in the 

key of A major) displays a jovial spirit until the A segment returns.

The third movement (Scherzo: Allegro vivace con delicatezza) diverges

from the earlier movements, projecting a much more harmonious and 

peaceful state ofmind. As Charles Burr wrote in his essay on the sonata:

“Schubert could not be gloomy forever, even on his deathbed. A gay, dancing, and sometimes humorous spirit prevails here, with delicacy.” The finale

(Allegro ma non troppo) is in rondo form (abaca) with an exhilarating coda.

Although the key for the movement is B-flat major, the opening theme is in 

the key of C major. This incredibly forceful music is full of drama, beginning

with the octave G in the bass, a remnant from the sonata’s opening theme.

“By the final movement, Schubert the musician has taken over completely

and charmed himself out of his own sorrows” (Charles Burr).

If one were to identify a miniaturist among romantic composers, it

would be Chopin. He created numerous short musical masterpieces, of

which the Ballade in A-jlat major, Op. 47, and the Barcarolle, Op. 60, are

examples. The Ballade has a primary and secondary theme in the opening

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segment, followed by a development section, the theme ofwhich is extracted

from the second subject. The work concludes with a briefrecapitulation 

based on the first theme. In spite ofits apparently delicate facade, the Ballade

carries an air of elegant gallantry. In the words of musicologist Herbert 

Weinstock (1905-1971), “[The Ballade, Op. 47,] is one ofChopin’s masterpieces....Nothing else he composed has [its] special quality of exultance....[It]

seems to glow upon the piano.”

In his remarkable Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Chopin eschews the 

6/8 time signature, the hallmark ofthe Venetian gondoliers’ songs that

inspired the genre. Instead ofthe shorter phrase line associated with that

meter, Chopin employs the compound meter of 12/8, producing a depth

and breadth of melodic line that transcend the Venetian original. After

a three-bar introduction, the piano presents a song that is both a lovelorn

lament and a comforting lullaby.

Ravel borrowed the title Gaspard de la nuit from the eponymous collection by Aloysius Louis Bertrand (1807-1841), an exponent of chimerical 

poetry. Bertrand attributed the poems in the collection to the devil, alias

Gaspard. Ravel creates in this music the satanic elements inherent in all

three poems: Ondine, a water nymph with her contemptuous laughter;

Le gibet, a bell tolling at sunset as a corpse hangs from the gallows (Ravel’s

paraphrase); and Scarbo, a goblin appearing as a frightening apparition.

Ravel’s stated intention was to “write a piano piece that is even harder to

play than Mily Balakirev’s oriental fantasy, Islamey.” Each piece teems with

Herculean requirements: double notes that are effervescent and unrelenting

(Ondine)', repeated bell-like notes, requiring extraordinary control (Le gibet);

and forward-surging runs, creating an inexorable charge (Scarbo).