The 21st Century Consort presents a performance inspired by Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960, which marks the Museum’s fiftieth-anniversary year. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden opened in 1974 as the nation’s collection of modern and contemporary art. Revolutions surveys one of the most revolutionary periods in art history, highlighting works from the early half of the Museum’s collection. Working alongside new technologies, groundbreaking scientific discoveries, and rapidly expanding cities, while also responding to the first and second World Wars, artists in both Europe and North America invented dramatically novel approaches to artmaking. This period saw the development of abstraction in Western art, the increased use of nontraditional materials, and the rise of conceptualism—the notion that the idea behind an artwork is more important than the art object. Many artists used their work to comment on social and political issues; others looked inward, making art that dealt with personal expression or the problems of form itself. Revolutions is primarily organized chronologically but it also opens dialogues across history, with select contemporary artworks installed in conversation with modern masterworks to demonstrate how ideas and approached formulated from 1860-1960 remain critical today.

The Hirshhorn’s 50th anniversary, which anticipates the 21st Century Consort’s 50th season in 2024-25, is the impetus for this program. This time-focused concert pairs Lukas Foss’ epic “Time Cycle,” a cycle of four songs for soprano with ensemble that comprises nothing less than a compendium of early and mid-20th century musical styles, with the “Rhapsody” series for solo violin by celebrated contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery. The second half of the program highlights one of the greatest works of chamber music from the mid-20th century, Olivier Messiaen’s 50-minute “Quartet for the End of Time,” composed by Messiaen while in a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1941.
 
PROGRAM
Lukas Foss – Time Cycle “We’re Late”
Jessie Montgomery – Rhapsody #1a
Lukas Foss – Time Cycle “When the Bells Justle”
Jessie Montgomery – Rhapsody #1b
Lukas Foss – Time Cycle “Sechzehnter Januar”
Jessie Montgomery – Rhapsody #2
Lukas Foss – Time Cycle “O Mensch, Gib Acht”
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Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time

This performance is presented by the 21st Century Consort in partnership with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
 
ABOUT 21ST CENTURY CONSORT
Founded in 1975 as the 20th Century Consort and now approaching its 50th year, the group became the resident ensemble for contemporary music at the Smithsonian Institution in 1978. In this season’s concerts at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and historic St. Mark’s on Capitol Hill, the Consort continues to present dynamically balanced concerts related to museum exhibitions, featuring music—often world premieres—by a diverse array of living composers. In 1990, the Consort was awarded the Smithsonian Institution’s Smithson Medal in honor of the group’s long successful association with the Smithsonian. Under the direction of its founder and conductor, Christopher Kendall, the Consort’s artists include principal players from the National Symphony Orchestra along with other prominent chamber musicians from Washington, DC, and elsewhere. For more information, visit 21consort.org.