Matthew Hagle: “Phantoms of Countless Lost”
November 9, 2024
S
E
A S O N
S P O N S O R S
NICHOLS CONCERT HALL 2024-2025
The Music Institute of Chicago is grateful to all its funders and partners, whose generous support helps us to educate, entertain, and inspire through live music performed by both new emerging artists and the most established artists of our time.
The Music Institute of Chicago is grateful for the support of these annual institutional supporters: Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Edwardson Family Foundation, John and Pauline Fife, John R. Halligan Charitable Fund, Horejsi Charitable Foundation, ITW, The Julian Family Foundation, The Kiphart Family Foundation, William Harris Lee & Co., The Negaunee Foundation, Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Family Foundation, Northern Trust, Sargent Family Foundation, Shure, The Wallace Foundation, and the Farny R. Wurlitzer Fund from the DeKalb County Community Foundation.
The Music Institute also acknowledges the generous support of Cook County Arts; the Evanston Arts Council, a city agency supported by the City of Evanston; the Highland Park Community Foundation; the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
This program is partially funded by the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Sponsorship opportunities range from concerts and performances, to the annual Gala, special capital projects, and community engagement initiatives. For more information contact: Jennifer Bienemann, Vice President and Chief Development Officer at jbienemann@musicinst.org.
DEAR FRIENDS,
Welcome to the Music Institute of Chicago (MIC) and Nichols Concert Hall. We are excited to begin our 21st anniversary season with one of our own, pianist and MIC faculty member, Matthew Hagle. Matt has put together a thoughtful and compelling program that explores the creative response of composers to the experience of war.
Looking ahead, we are pleased to present our unique and family-friendly “Duke It Out!” Nutcracker on Saturday, December 7 at 11 am. An instrument petting zoo precedes the concert and makes this event a perfect introduction to music for families with young children.
On Sunday, January 19 at 3 pm, we invite the community to join us for our annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration concert. This free event weaves together voices from the arts, education, social justice, and interfaith communities.
And new this year, we are featuring performances by MIC’s five Resident Ensembles, Apollo’s Fire, Chicago a cappella, Civitas Ensemble, The Orion Ensemble, and Rembrandt Chamber Musicians, in a year-long musical feast. Visit NicholsConcertHall.org for information on every event at Nichols Concert Hall.
Nichols Concert Hall is only part of MIC’s mission. As a top-tier community music school, we offer music lessons and classes to thousands of students of all ages and levels each year. Feel free to explore the lower level of this building, where you will find eleven state-of-the-art teaching studios and as many grand pianos. You can learn more about becoming a student by visiting musicinst.org.
I look forward to seeing you and your friends throughout the year at Nichols Concert Hall!
Mark George, President and CEO
Music
Institute of Chicago
MATTHEW HAGLE, PIANO
Pianist Matthew Hagle is a musician of great versatility and depth, whose performances are a rare mixture of musical understanding, imaginative programming, pianistic command and beauty of sound. In solo performance he often tries to shed new light on the piano repertoire, using thoughtful programming and committed performance to present lesser-known works and to illuminate the traditional canon. In a more conventional vein, he has also performed all of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas in a series of live radio recitals, and he is currently in the process of exploring the complete later pieces of Brahms. Hagle is also highly valued as a collaborator by many other artists. With violinist Rachel Barton Pine, he has released three acclaimed CDs on the Cedille label, and performed many recitals in North and South America. His piano duo performances with Mio Isoda-Hagle have been highlights of the annual Chicago Duo Piano Festival. Other chamber music partners have been the Parker Quartet, the Avalon Quartet, Quintet Attacca, and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Matthew Hagle has been heard in concert halls throughout the United States, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., Symphony Space in New York, and in concert at the United States Supreme Court. Outside of the U.S., he has performed at venues in England, Canada, Brazil, Australia and Japan. A resident of the Chicago area, Hagle performs frequently at local spaces including the Ravinia Festival, Symphony Center, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Hagle can often be heard on radio station WFMT in Chicago, and has also been heard on NPR’s Performance Today and Minnesota Public Radio’s St. Paul Sunday Morning programs. Among others, the New York Times has described him as “a sensitive pianist,” Clavier magazine praised the “rare clarity and sweetness”of his playing, and the Springfield (MA) Republican remarked that he “played with unaffected brilliance and profound understanding.” Hagle’s performance of Elliott Carter’s Piano Sonata in the Sydney International Piano Competition received special notice and favorable commentary in Australian national radio’s coverage of the competition.
MATTHEW HAGLE “Phantoms of Countless Lost”
Saturday, November 9 at 7:30 pm
PROGRAM
Special support for this concert provided by John and Kathy Piepgras
Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 81a, “Lebewohl” Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Das Lebewohl: Adagio-Allegro
Abwesenheit: Andante espressivo
Wiedersehen: Vivacissimamente
Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses No. 7: Funérailles Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Le Tombeau de Couperin Maurice Ravel
Prélude (1875-1937)
Fugue
Forlane
Rigaudon
Menuet
Toccata
INTERMISSION
Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 82 Sergei Prokofiev
Allegro moderato (1891-1953)
Allegretto
Tempo di valzer lentissimo
Vivace
us for the
Meditations
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26 @ 7:30 PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27 @ 3:00 PM
Experience beauty and peace in a program of contemplative works
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7 @ 7:30 PM SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8 @ 3:00 PM
Jake Runestad
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 @ 7:30 PM
Meet composer Jake Runestad as CMS collaborates with young singers
Share the joy of the season with beloved carols & new discoveries
SATURDAY, MAY 17 @ 7:30 PM SUNDAY, MAY 18 @ 3:00 PM
PROGRAM NOTES
“Phantoms of countless lost, Invisible to the rest henceforth become my companions, Follow me ever—desert me not while I live.”
(Walt Whitman - “Ashes of Soldiers”)
Thank you for joining me here tonight. In creating a program centered around the idea of “War,” I was not thinking of anything like a current political statement; instead, a universal, human one. The abstract nature of instrumental music, and our historical distance from this music, allows the subject to be refocused in a meaningful way. Each composer’s experience of conflict came at a different time and in a different country; we can distill the emotional experience from each piece in ways that perhaps allow for thought, empathy, and reflection.
Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 81a tells a story of the displacement produced by the experience of war, while Liszt’s Funérailles portrays the death of a political movement amid the sounds of war. The two 20th century pieces on the program also have different experiences to relate. Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin looks back retrospectively at World War I in a spirit of nostalgic simplicity, while Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 6, written on the cusp of World War II, anticipates some of the sounds and emotions of the coming conflict.
In working on this music, I’ve been amazed and humbled by how these very different human beings could take some of the most difficult experiences and transform them into something beautiful and unique. I hope to be able to convey some of this to you.
I would like to give my continuous and heartfelt thanks to John and Kathy Piepgras, and to Mark George, for all of their support for these recitals. Also to Kevin Harrison, Erin Fusco, Jill Chukerman, Vanesa Elias, and everyone else at Nichols Hall and MIC who has put in work on this project. Thank you all so much! I very much hope you will find something worthy in what follows …
The unusual and dramatic nature of BEETHOVEN’s music inspired many nicknames and programmatic stories from listeners trying understand or communicate its uniqueness. Most of these are spurious, or at least not directly given by the composer, but there are a few cases where the composer himself provided suggestive titles to go with the sounds of the notes. The Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 81a is one such case.
In 1809, the French army, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, invaded and occupied Beethoven’s home city of Vienna, resulting in the departure of many of its prominent citizens. Beethoven himself stayed in the city, at times sheltering in his basement with pillows over his head to protect his damaged hearing from the noise of artillery. Rudolph, Archduke of Austria, was Beethoven’s composition student and patron, and as a member of the royal family was forced to leave Vienna. The title page of this sonata bears the in-scription “The Farewell: Vienna, 4 May 1809, on the departure of His Imperial Highness, the esteemed Archduke Rudolph.” It was customary for composers before and after this time to dedicate their works to a wealthy or highly-placed patron, but Rudolph was a special case for Beethoven. The Archduke received the dedication of many of Beethoven’s major works, and this sonata contains some of his most personal, intimate and expressive music. This piece is often called by the equivalent French term “Les adieux,” although the composer did not care for this designation, which was imposed upon him by the publisher of the first printing. Beethoven’s favored title was “Lebewohl,” which he preferred because the German word for “farewell” had a more personal connotation, and in the musical score the word’s three syllables (Le-be-wohl) are printed over the first three notes.
Each movement has its own title, depicting stages of Beethoven’s reactions to the Archduke’s departure and return. The first movement, Das Lebewohl (The Farewell), has a slow expressive introduction followed by a faster movement in sonata form. The main movement, though it is in a major key, has elements of agitation or anger, and Beethoven skilfully weaves subtle elements of the Introduction’s melodic patterns into the main body of the movement.
The second movement, Abwesenheit (Absence), is a portrait of loneliness, moving through different melodies and keys in search of permanence, but often returning to the music of its opening. The last time this happens, a change in mood can be felt, created by different chords and pedaling, and then as the melodic pattern ascends, it is interrupted by a shout of joy. This is the third movement, Das Wiedersehen (The Return), which is joined on to the second without pause, as Beethoven does in many works of this period. This is music whose happiness is almost completely untainted, expressed by means of virtuosity and rhythmic drive. Near the end of the piece the energy is interrupted by a slower tempo and a more reflective mood, but this is followed by cascading passagework that propels us towards the true ending of the piece.
The years 1848-49 were tumultuous ones across Europe, and Hungary, the birthplace of Franz LISZT, saw some of the bloodiest events as a new Hungarian state tried to declare its independence from the Habsburg Empire. After a year of battle, the Austrian army defeated the Hungarians, and on October 6, 1849, the Austrians executed thirteen of the Hungarian generals, as well as the Hungarian prime minister, Lajos Batthyany. This last action was widely condemned across Europe, as Batthyany was a political moderate who had not supported the rebellion.
Liszt’s piece Funérailles was conceived as a response to these events; as the Liszt scholar Alan Walker writes, “this work is not simply the expression of a personal sorrow but a symbol of that universal suffering felt by mankind when great ideals perish and the heroes who espouse them (of whatever nationality) are no more.” In this piece Liszt takes the skills that, as a young man, he had used to shock and awe audiences, and devotes them to a deeply serious and heartfelt task. The piano becomes orchestral in the power and range of its sonorities, looking forward to Liszt’s later orchestral tone poems as well as to the operas of Wagner. A set of images is created, beginning with the clangor of deep bells and proceeding through a funeral procession, a nostalgic meditation and a hair-raising cavalry charge, delivered by means of one of the most notoriously difficult octave passages in the repertoire. After the octaves build to their highest intensity, there is a return of all three of the main ideas, all rewritten in different keys or at different dynamic levels, and the piece ends with the return of the cavalry music, finally reverberating in the silence between the three final, short notes.
nRAVEL’s suite Le Tombeau de Couperin, written under the shadow of World War I, mostly takes a retrospective and nostalgic tone. “Tombeau” has the literal meaning “tomb”, but in this context means “memorial;” the Couperin of the title is François Couperin (“the Great”), one of the dominant musical figures of the French Baroque. Like many French musicians of his generation, Ravel had intensively studied the older French composers, at least partially in order to escape the cultural dominance of German music in the form of Wagner.
Ravel uses the suite form (a grouping of related pieces) as an allusion to the Baroque, and fills it with musical types that Couperin might have recognized; at the same time, the musical style is thoroughly 20th-century, and each movement is dedicated to the memory of a different friend who had died in the recent war. There is an ironic tension between the contrast of recent past and distant past, and the gracefulness of the music distances itself from any overt emotionalism. Ravel, a reserved and private man, did serve in the war as a truck driver, and must have seen many horrors. Unlike Liszt, his processing of these events produces few images of violence; instead Ravel uses his craft as a shield, creating polished and beautiful sounds that restore the veneer of civilization
that had been present before the war. Listening carefully, a disquieting undertone can be heard in the strange chromaticisms of the Prelude and Forlane, the halting melodic shapes of the Fugue, and the shadowy middle sections of the Rigaudon and Menuet, among other places. But this would be easy to miss. Generally, this piece presents itself as a sophisticated diversion, whose most reflective moments involve nostalgic meditation on what might have been or what should have been. Only the final Toccata, with its repeating notes and chordal ending, has anything that hints at the type of aggression that we associate with events of war.
nWith the last piece on the program, PROKOFIEV’s Sonata No. 6 we do in places get the type of violent and aggressive music that might be heard as depicting scenes of battle. Prokofiev’s Sonatas No. 6, 7, and 8 are considered the height of his output for the piano. They were written between the years 1939-44, and are frequently known as the “War Sonatas.” The Sixth Sonata, the largest and perhaps the most difficult of the three, was completed in 1940, before the Second World War came to Russia. There is undoubtedly much forceful and even brutal music in this piece, especially in the outer movements, but also many moments of lyricism and fantasy.
The opening Allegro moderato produces two important musical elements that will permeate the entire piece: specifically, a march-like snap that descends a third, and a descending chromatic scale. The movement is cast in a sonata form, with an enormous and violent development section (ushered in and out by a sinister repetitive figure that mutters at the lower range of the piano) and a truncated recapitulation, ending with a dissonant chord at the bottom of the instrument.
The Allegretto second movement, also possibly a march, is lighter and more whimsical in tone, with a contrasting middle section that is more serious and lyrical. The chromatic scale is always lurking in the background and is used, at a slower speed, to end the movement. The third movement, Tempo di valzer lentissimo, is, as it says, a slow waltz, whose triplet rhythms keep it flowing; the combination of these rhythms and the shifting harmonies derived from the chromatic scale produce a dreamy, hovering atmosphere. The waltz leads to more lyrical and fantastic music, eventually producing a climax that leads back to the opening waltz.
The Vivace movement that ends the piece is, again, a march, a quick one that keeps returning in different keys; after petering out in the bottom of the piano, it produces a rather repetitive and aggressive theme that leads to the end of the first section. There is a contrasting slower middle section that refers back to the opening “snap” of the first movement; the opening melody is quoted, but drained of its repetitiveness and aggression, producing a weirdly static effect.
Then the opening section returns, eventually mixed with the “snap” motive leading to a climax of hammered repeated notes, and finally to a mixture of the “snap” and the chromatic scale to end the piece forcefully.
~ Program notes by Matthew Hagle
The GRAMMY®-winning Baroque Orchestra
Resident Ensemble at Music Institute of Chicago
CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS WITH APOLLO’S FIRE!
An Irish-American Christmas
Jeannette Sorrell’s heartwarming celebration of the Irish immigrant experience comes to Ravinia! – with delightful new cast members including children. Bring the whole family!
SPECIAL EVENT!
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 7:30pm Martin Theater, RAVINIA
PLEASE NOTE: Tickets for this concert are available directly from Ravinia at ravinia.org.
Sound the trumpet! Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire are nationally renowned for their dramatic interpretation of Messiah, filled with spirituality and musical storytelling.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 4:30pm St. James Cathedral
DOWNTOWN CHICAGO
MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 7:30pm Saints Faith, Hope, & Charity
WINNETKA
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Saturday, November 9 at 7:30 PM
MIC Piano Faculty Member Matthew Hagle presents: “Phantoms of Countless Lost”
Saturday, November 16 at 7:30 PM Academy Orchestra Concert
Sunday, November 17 at 3 PM
Artemis Chamber Orchestra: Sonnenberg Suite with Guest Artists – ATLYS Quartet
Sunday, November 17 at 7:30 PM Orion Ensemble Concert: “To Hope”
Saturday, November 23 at 2 PM Guitar/Harp Departmental Recital
Saturday, November 23 at 4:30 PM Voice Departmental Recital
Sunday, November 24 at 3 PM Music Institute Chorale Concert: “Clap Your Hands”
Saturday, December 7 at 11 AM Duke it Out! Nutcracker
Saturday, December 7 at 7:30 PM Academy Chamber Music Concert
Sunday, December 8 at 3 PM
Civitas Ensemble presents: Celebrate the Holidays
Sunday, December 8 at 7:00 PM Adult Studies Fall Recital
2024-2025 PUBLIC EVENTS CALENDAR FALL SEMESTER
NICHOLS CONCERT HALL
Thursday, December 12 at 12:00 PM
MIC Concert Band Performance
Saturday, December 14 at 7:30 PM
Chicago a cappella presents: “Holidays a cappella”
Sunday, December 15 at 1:30 PM Piano Departmental Recitals
Saturday, January 11 at 3 PM Chamber Music Recital - 1
Sunday, January 12 at 1:30 PM Chamber Music Recital - 2
Sunday, January 12 at 4:30 PM Strings Departmental Recital
Sunday, January 19 at 3:00 PM
MLK: A Community Celebration Concert
Sunday, January 26 at 6:30 PM Woodwinds, Brass & Percussion Recital
Next up at Nichols Concert Hall
DUKE IT OUT! NUTCRACKER
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7 » 11 AM
This unique Nutcracker production pits the classical (Tchaikovsky) and jazz (Duke Ellington/ Billy Strayhorn) versions of the holiday favorite in a side-by-side showdown. Curated by Dance Chicago, the program features members of Braeburn Brass and Music Institute of Chicago ensemble-in-residence Quintet Attacca. The performance
Instrument Petting Zoo » 10 AM
Try all the instruments at the Music Institute’s musical “petting zoo.”
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MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. CELEBRATION CONCERT
SUNDAY, JANUARY 19 » 3 PM
This annual tribute to the historic American leader features performances by Music Institute students and community partners. This free event weaves together voices from the arts, education, social justice, and interfaith communities.
