Release Date: March 23, 2010

United States Premiere Concert of Stephen Hough's Requiem Aeternam (after Victoria) and Catalunya Film Series—Both on Easter Sunday in Honor of The Sacred Made Real at the National Gallery of Art

Washington, DC—To celebrate The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600–1700, on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, through May 31, 2010, the Gallery will host the United States premiere performance of Requiem Aeternam (after Victoria) by British composer and pianist Stephen Hough on the evening of Easter Sunday (April 4). Hough created his Requiem, based on Spanish composer Tomás Luís de Victoria's Requiem Mass (1605), in honor of the exhibition while it was on view at the National Gallery, London, in 2009.

The first film program in the series Catalunya: Poetry of Place also begins on Easter Sunday in honor of The Sacred Made Real. The cinema of Catalunya (Catalonia) on Spain's Mediterranean coast flourished throughout the 20th century, even while the region's filmmaking was threatened following the Civil War. Generous contrasts of landscape, strong local traditions, and an incomparable literary and artistic heritage (Barcelona, for example, was the original center of Spain's filmmaking) have all contributed to the singular social and cultural lineage expressed in the Catalan cinema. Presented through the cooperation of Filmoteca de Catalunya, Pragda, Mariona Bruzzo, and Josep Calle Buendía.

All programs are presented free of charge in the East Building Auditorium, with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. The auditorium will be cleared after the film and filmgoers may then join the line for the concert.

Concert

Stephen Hough's Requiem Aeternam (after Victoria)

National Gallery of Art String Quartet with Henry Valoris, viola, and Marion Baker, violoncello

Sunday, April 4 at 6:30 p.m.
East Building Auditorium
United States premiere
Presented in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain

The National Gallery of Art String Quartet consists of Claudia Chudacoff, violin; Teresa Lazar, violin; Osman Kivrak, viola; and Diana Fish, violoncello. The concert will be preceded by two short videos: a brief introduction to the exhibition by its curator, Xavier Bray, National Gallery, London, and composer Stephen Hough discussing the creation of his Requiem.

Asked by the National Gallery in London to compose music for the exhibition The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600–1700, Stephen Hough took as his inspiration one of the great works of Tomás Luís de Victoria, a composer who was an older contemporary of the artists represented in the exhibition. He recast and reworked Victoria's Requiem of 1605, making it a five-movement suite for string sextet. The treatment varies from movement to movement, ranging from straight transcription in the fourth movement, Versa est, to interpolation of new material in the form of variations in the last movement, Libera me.

More information about the 2009–2010 season of concerts at the Gallery may be found at www.nga.gov/programs/music.

Film

La plaça del diamant
preceded by Barcelona, Perla del Mediterraneo and Barcelona Park

Sunday, April 4 at 4:00 p.m.

Adapting a celebrated 1962 novel by Catalan writer and midcentury intellectual Mercè Rodoreda, La plaça del diamant portrays the prolonged transformation of a working-class urban woman (Sílvia Munt) as she endures the tragedy of the Civil War. (Francesc Betriu, 1982, 35 mm, Catalan with subtitles, 111 minutes)

The first known travelogue of the city, Barcelona, Perla del Mediterraneo features scenes of the port, Catalonia Square, Gràcia Avenue, Gaudí's Park Güell, and the Tibidabo. (1912–1913, 35 mm, silent, 9 minutes)

An early réalité by the legendary Segundo de Chomón, whose later optical effects were to influence Dalí and Buñuel, Barcelona Park captures the charm of Ciutadella Park. (1911, 35 mm, silent, 3 minutes)

The series continues with programs on April 11, 24; May 1, 8, 15, 16, 22, 23; and June 13. Please visit www.nga.gov/programs/film/catalunya.shtm for details.

Music Download

Visitors to the exhibition may also enhance their experience by listening to Requiem Aeternam (after Victoria) while viewing the works of art. The piece is available to download free of charge at www.nga.gov/sacred.

Stephen Hough

British-born pianist and composer Stephen Hough is a citizen of Australia who resides in London. He has achieved world renown as a master interpreter of classical and romantic piano repertoire, specializing in works of Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837), Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921), and Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873–1943). A winner of the Naumburg International Piano Competition in New York, Hough studied at the Juilliard School of Music and has performed with the New York Philharmonic as well as the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. His recordings of the complete piano concertos of Hummel with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra won a GRAMMY award. A winner in 2001 of the highly selective MacArthur Fellowship, Hough is a visiting professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

About the Exhibition

Masterpieces created to shock the senses and stir the soul are spotlighted in The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600–1700, on view at the exhibition's only United States venue―the National Gallery of Art―through May 31, 2010. This landmark reappraisal of religious art from the Spanish Golden Age includes 11 paintings by Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, and others, displayed for the very first time alongside 11 of Spain's remarkable polychromed (painted) sculptures, many of which have never before left Spain and are still passionately venerated across the Iberian Peninsula in monasteries, churches, and processions.

The exhibition has been organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the National Gallery, London.

The exhibition in Washington is made possible by the generous support of Robert H. Smith, The Charles Engelhard Foundation, and an anonymous donor.

The exhibition is presented on the occasion of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Spain, the Spain–USA Foundation and the Embassy of Spain in Washington, DC. This exhibition is included in the Preview Spain: Arts & Culture '10 program.

Additional support for the Washington presentation is provided by Buffy and William Cafritz.

The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Exhibition-related online resources may be found at www.nga.gov/sacred.