National Gallery Of Art | Music

Program: Music by Caldara, Gabrielli, Legrenzi, Vivaldi, and other Venetian composers. During the run of the exhibition Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals, the National Gallery presented four concerts of Italian music from the time of Canaletto (1697ñ1768), coinciding with the end of the baroque era in music. Venice was abounding with musical as well as artistic talent at this time, as attested by the large number of composers and the high quality of the music featured in these concerts.

Program: Music for Advent and Christmas by Bach, Buxtehude, and Praetorius. German-speaking Europe in the 18th century was replete with small duchies and kingdoms, each of which maintained resident musical ensembles with great pride and fostered outstanding composers. The National Gallery's resident vocal ensemble and chamber players present music that would have been heard around Christmastime in the baroque era in Leipzig, Lueneburg, and Wolfenbuettel, Germanyóthe homes, respectively, of Johann Sebastian Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, and Michael Praetorius.

Program: Music by Arcadelt, Cara, Donato, Tromboncino, and others. The National Gallery of Art Chamber Players searched its repertoire for Italian 16th-century compositions that represent in music the mannerism that manifests itself in the art of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, which was showcased at the Gallery in the exhibition Arcimboldo, 1526ñ1593: Nature and Fantasy. The podcast includes music by Arcadelt, Cara, Donato, Tromboncino, and other composers. Their work, like that of Arcimboldo, is marked by ambiguity, virtuosity, and elegance.

Program: Music for piano quartet by Mahler and FaurÈ. The FaurÈ Piano Quartet plays Gustav Mahler's Piano Quartet in A Minor and Gabriel FaurÈ's Piano Quartet no. 1 in C Minor, op. 15, which they performed at the National Gallery of Art on October 27, 2010. Almost all of the great 19th-century composers tried their hand at writing chamber music for piano quartet, which consists of violin, viola, and cello, in addition to the piano. One of the outstanding ensembles that keep this repertoire alive in the present day is the FaurÈ Piano Quartet, named after the composer of one of the best piano quartets in the repertoire.

Program: Music by Han Kun Sha, Sicong Ma, and Franz Schubert. Chinese violinist Dan Zhu and Israeli pianist Renana Gutman play in concert at the Gallery, performing works for violin and piano by Chinese composers Han Kun Sha and Sicong Ma, as well as Franz Schubert's Fantasia for Violin and Piano in C Major. Zhu appeared recently at the Fontainebleau and Casals music festivals; he is one of a number of performers who have played at the Gallery and gone on to find success on the international concert stage.

Program: Music for barytons by Beethoven and Haydn. The renowned Lithuanian cellist David Geringas performs on the baryton, an 18th-century derivative of the cello, with fellow cellists Jens Peter Maintz and Hartmut Rohde. The baryton, which enjoyed considerable popularity in its day, was a favorite of Haydn's patron Prince Nicolaus Esterh·zy, and the composer wrote a large body of baryton trios for the prince to play in ensemble with other musicians from his court orchestra.

Program: Music by Godefroid, Piazzolla, and other composers. Flutist Karen Johnson and harpist Astrid Walschot-Stapp are heard together in concert at the National Gallery, playing Etude de concert by FÈlix Godefroid, CafÈ 1930 by Astor Piazzolla, and music by other composers in a program that was recorded at the Gallery in January 2010.

Program: Claudio Monteverdi: Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (1610). Washington's National Gallery of Art Vocal Ensemble, New York's early music ensemble ARTEK, and Philadelphia's period-instrument wind band Piffaro join forces to perform Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of the Blessed Virgin in honor of the 400th anniversary of its composition in 1610. The concert was one of a series titled "1610, 1710, 1810, 1910, 2010."

Program: Music by Laszlo Weiner and Ernst von Dohn·nyi. The National Gallery of Art Piano Trio joins forces with Hungarian violinist Vilmos Szabadi and violist Szilvia Kov·cs to perform music by Laszlo Weiner and Ernst von Dohn·nyi. The concert was a part of Extremely Hungary, a festival of art exhibitions, films, and concerts staged in New York City and Washington in 2009.

Program: Music by Grieg, Saeverud, and other composers. Trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth and pianist Steffen Horn play a concert at the National Gallery of Art as part of the annual Norwegian Christmas Festival at Union Station in Washington, DC. In addition to transcriptions of familiar works by FrÈdÈric Chopin and Edvard Grieg, the duo plays original works for trumpet and piano by Georges Enescu, Maurice Ravel, and Harald Saeverud.

Program: Music by Glass and Szymanski. The Del Sol String quartet plays music by Philip Glass and Pawel Szymanski in honor of the exhibition The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works. Two-time winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP First Prize for Adventurous Programming, the San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet has received enthusiastic response from critics and audiences for its lively interpretation of new music. Their concert at the National Gallery was presented in celebration of the Meyerhoff Collection and late twentieth-century American masters.

Program: Music by Hassler, Isaac, Senfl, and other German Renaissance composers. Amarcord, one of Germany's outstanding male vocal ensembles, sings a special program of Renaissance music to complement the works by German and Netherlandish Renaissance masters in the Gallery's collection. The internationally acclaimed five-voice male ensemble draws from its repertoire of music by Hans Leo Hassler, Heinrich Isaac, Ludwig Senfl, and other Renaissance composers.

Program: Music composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in the year 1810. National Gallery of Art resident ensembles perform music of Ludwig van Beethoven that was written exactly 200 years ago. The National Gallery of Art String Quartet plays the Quartet no. 10 in E-flat Major ("Harp"); the National Gallery of Art Wind Quintet plays an arrangement of the Sextet, op. 71; and the National Gallery of Art Piano Trio plays the Piano Trio in B-flat Major, op. 97.

Program: Music by Flagello and Ruggles. Pianist Peter Vinograde plays American music from the 1950s and 1960s in honor of the exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank's "The Americans."

Program: Music by Dvorak, Mozart, and Villa-Lobos. The Ritz Chamber Players, the only all-African American professional chamber music ensemble, play masterworks of 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century chamber music in concert at the National Gallery of Art. Members of the ensemble performing in this podcast are Kelly Hall-Tompkins, violin, Amadi Azikiwe, viola, Tahira Whittington, cello, Judy Dines, flute, and Terrence Wilson, piano.

Program: Music by de Wert, Hacquart, Sweelinck, and other 17th-century composers performed by the National Gallery of Art Vocal Arts Ensemble and Chamber Players. The National Gallery of Art Vocal Arts Ensemble and Chamber Players perform 17th-century Dutch music in honor of the exhibition Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered.

Program: Music by Couperin, Rameau, and other 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century French composers. The National Gallery of Art Vocal Ensemble and the early music ensembles Masques, Pro Musica Rara, and Zephyrus play music from concerts presented at the Gallery in honor of Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500ñ1800.

Program: Music by Brahms and Schubert. The National Gallery of Art String Quartet performs a Brahms piano quintet with renowned pianist Menahem Pressler and a quartet by Franz Schubert. The ensemble consists of violinists Claudia Chudacoff and Teri Lazar, violist Osman Kivrak, and cellist Diana Fish.

Program: Music by Stephen Hough. This piece of music, composed by Stephen Hough for the exhibition The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600ñ1700, is based on the 1605 Requiem by the great Spanish composer Tom·s LuÌs de Victoria. Stephen Hough recast and reworked this requiem, reimagining its six voices for a string sextet. He selected five sections to make five movements: the fourth movement (Versa est) is a simple transcription with nothing altered; the first movement (Tadeat animum) takes the four-part original and floats it around the six instruments in antiphonal waves; the second movement (Kyrie eleison) keeps all the notes the same but changes their registerñremoving the linear mosaic of the vocal lines and making them soar and plunge in jagged, overlapping intervals. The third (Graduale) movement is more radically altered. The final, longest movement (Libera me) reproduces the polyphonic sections fairly faithfully, but takes the original plainsong interludes as if themes for variation

Program: Music from the 19th century that explores "The Darker Side of Light." The National Gallery of Art Wind Quintet performs a concert in honor of The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850ñ1900. The ensemble consists of flutist Sara Nichols, oboist Ronald Sipes, clarinetist Christopher Hite, bassoonist Danny Phipps, and French horn player Theodore Peters.