T H E   N I H    C A T A L Y S T     M A Y  –  J U N E   2008

H I S T O R Y

THE PASSING OF A MUSICAL TRADITION:
APRIL CODA FOR THE NIH CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES

 

by Henry Metzger
Scientist Emeritus

Giulio Cantoni

Forty years ago at the NIH, the world-famous ensemble Virtuosi di Roma presented an all-Vivaldi program to an appreciative crowd of scientists and local residents.

This was the first of a series of chamber music concerts initiated by the late NIMH scientist Giulio Cantoni and supported by the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES)—a series that ended on April 6 this year with a performance by baritone Wolfgang Holzmair and violinist Russell Ryan.

In those years before the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971, world-class chamber music performances were in short supply in the Washington metropolitan area. Giulio, a native of Italy transplanted to what was then the sleepy town of Bethesda, had a passion for classical music.

 

With the help of Paola Saffiotti in Italy—who represented famous and aspiring musicians and whose husband, Umberto, had been recruited to the NCI—Giulio set off to share his passion with the NIH community.

 

Giulio and Paola’s goal was to present both well-known artists at the peak of their careers and promising junior performers. Their first full season, in 1968-1969, included concerts by such musical luminaries as pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski, violinist Isaac Stern, and flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal; over the ensuing seasons the concerts included outstanding instrumentalists and vocalists from almost every European country as well as from Japan.

 

For many performers, the NIH concerts constituted either their American or Washington debut, and this list includes Maurizio Pollini (1971), Radu Lapu (1974), Viktoria Mullova (1987) and Ignat Solzhenitsyn (1992). The concerts were held mostly on Sunday afternoons in the Clinical Center’s Masur Auditorium. 

 

After the initiation of the campus security regulations after the events of September 11, 2001, the concerts had to be moved off campus. This move, as well as a variety of other factors, led to a gradual but continuing decline in attendance, particularly of NIH personnel. With the deteriorating financial balance, the concerts required increasing support from the FAES, further precipitating its demise.

 

In the last few years as Giulio’s health deteriorated, Paola had to assume most of the organizational work—and all of it for the last two seasons after Giulio’s death in July 2006. Paola herself now can no longer keep the series vibrant. It should be noted that the Cantoni and Saffiotti efforts have been entirely without pay.

 

The end of the Sunday afternoon series, albeit a sad passing, does not leave a vacuum of professional musical offerings at NIH. The Manchester String Quartet presents free concerts in the Masur Auditorium from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on most first Mondays of the month, October through May.

An unusual feature of the Manchester Quartet’s popular offering is that it is an integrated series with detailed program notes; each concert is introduced by informative comments by the quartet’s leader, cellist Glenn Garlick.

 

The Merck Foundation has supported this series, but that support will end after the completion of its 20th season in 2008–2009. Thereafter, the FAES has pledged to continue the series. Of course, no series of classical music, often now simply called “great music,” can survive without an audience.  Help keep the NIH hills alive with the sound of music.   

 


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