November 4, 2023 - Matthew Hagle Program: Ripples in Time and Music

NICHOLS CONCERT HALL

PRESENTS

2 0 2 3 /2 0 24 S E A S O N

Matthew Hagle: Ripples in Time and Music November 4, 2023

S E A S O N S P O N S O R S

NICHOLS CONCERT HALL 2023-2024 The Music Institute of Chicago is grateful to all its funders and partners, whose generous support helps us to entertain, inspire, and educate through live music performed by both new emerging artists and the most established artists of our time.

Special thanks to these annual institutional funders: Thomas W. Dower Foundation, Paul Galvin Memorial Foundation, John R. Halligan Charitable Fund, Irving Harris Foundation, ITW, Neguanee Foundation, John D. & Alexandra C. Nichols Family Foundation, Northern Trust, Sargent Family Foundation, and many others.

We acknowledge the generous support of the Illinois Arts Council Agency as well as the support of the Highland Park Community Foundation and the Evanston Arts Council, a city agency supported by the City of Evanston; the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Thank you to our technical sponsor

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 the Development Office: 847.448.8323.

Dear Friends, Welcome to Nichols Concert Hall. We are excited to celebrate our 20th anniversary season with a concert series featuring an impressive array of guest artists and a rich diversity of musical styles. Attending a performance at Nichols Concert Hall is a singular experience. Immersing oneself in the talents of worldclass performers amidst the backdrop of the awe-inspiring architecture and impeccable acoustics of Nichols Concert Hall provides a genuine feast for the senses. This is live music at its best!

From Grammy Award-winning violinist and alumna Jennifer Koh, to our unique annual “Duke It Out!” Nutcracker, to some of the finest chamber musicians of our time, there is something for everyone. I encourage you to share your Nichols Concert Hall experience with friends, family, and colleagues and join us throughout the year.

This concert series is only one part of our mission here at the Music Institute of Chicago. As a top-tier community music school, we offer music lessons and classes to thousands of students of all ages and levels each year. We are also deeply committed to making music and music education accessible to people and communities who might not otherwise have access. You can learn more about Music Institute of Chicago activities and opportunities by visiting us at musicinst.org.

I look forward to seeing you and your friends throughout the year to help us celebrate twenty years at Nichols Concert Hall!

Mark George

President and CEO Music Institute of Chicago

MATTHEW HAGLE RIPPLES IN TIME AND MUSIC Saturday, November 4 at 7:30 pm PROGRAM The first half of this evening’s concert will be performed without break.

Please hold your applause until intermission.

Prelude in C Major from “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” Book 1

J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

China Gates (1977)

John Adams (b. 1947)

“Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum” from Children’s Corner

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Five Preludes from Op. 28 No. 1 in C Major No. 3 in G Major No. 23 in F Major No. 13 in F-sharp Major No. 8 in F-sharp minor

Fredéric Chopin (1810-1849)

“Les Jeux d’Eaux à la Villa d’Este” from Années de Pelerinage

“Poissons d’Or” from Images, Book 2

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Claude Debussy

Impromptu in A-flat Major Op. 90, No. 4

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Jeux d’Eau

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

“Barcarola” from Out of Doors

Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60

Béla Bartók (1881-1945)

Fredéric Chopin

INTERMISSION Phantasie, Op. 17 Robert Schumann Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen (1810-1856) Mäßig. Durchaus energisch Lngsam getragen. Durchweg leise zu halten

APOLLO’S FIRE AT MUSIC INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO The GRAMMY®-winning baroque ensemble returns to Nichols Concert Hall!

NIGHTS IN VENICE

Sunday, November 12, 2023, 3:00pm Gorgeous songs of Monteverdi meet fiery double violin concertos of Vivaldi – an evocative Italian evening.

¡HISPANIA! A VOYAGE FROM SPAIN TO THE AMERICAS Sunday, March 24, 2024, 5:00pm

Internationally-renowned Puerto Rican soprano Sophia Burgos joins with strings, harp, guitars and percussion.

TICKETS & INFO: 800.314.2535 | apollosfire.org Additional performances October, November, December, and March in Evanston and downtown Chicago. See website for details.

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.

INTRODUCTION The music you will hear tonight is all organized around the idea of flow: its representation in music and what that might mean to us. I did not start with this idea, and pick pieces around it. Instead, what happened is that the first two pieces on the program were both on my mind, for different reasons, and though they span a great distance in time and culture (1720s Germany to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s), I found an interesting connection in their use of repetitive patterns.

Since making connections between pieces is one of my favorite things to do, I soon found many other pieces that used these types of patterns, but in different ways, and it seemed that they could be assembled into an interesting recital. When I stepped back mentally to consider them all, it seemed that the idea of flow was the connection: an idea that is familiar, important to us, and expressible in many different ways. We speak of the flow of history, narrative flow, stream of consciousness and currents in an individual’s life - all of these ideas are in play in tonight’s program and its arrangement of pieces. Each piece, or musical event, is a disturbance in the flow of time that sends out ripples affecting other notes, pieces or people, and so you have tonight’s title: “Ripples in Time and Music.” I hope you enjoy it.

I would like to thank John Piepgras and Mark George for all of their help and support in making this concert possible. ~Matthew Hagle

PROGRAM NOTES This program begins with Bach, and with a basic musical device. The famous Prelude in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 that I play uses an ostinato - a (usually short) repeated figure that may change its notes but keeps its rhythm and the contour made by its pitches. The stability of this figure allows us to notice the slow changing of chords. This constructive use of harmony (chords) is fundamental to Western music and Bach’s use of slow moving chord changes persists through later styles that wouldn’t seem to be the same. Similarly, we will see the use of ostinato patterns as a recurring device in different styles: a device that adapts and changes its emotional meaning and compositional use as it is used by different composers.

China Gates, written in the 1970s by the American composer John Adams, uses the repetitive patterns of the early minimalist style, and a pattern of regular harmonic change, to produce something like an updated version of Bach’s piece. There are differences. Bach uses the patterns of harmony to create a gentle tension that leads to the end of the piece. Adams wants no such arc to his piece; his chord changes oscillate between regular, but equal possibilities, and he makes regular use of palindromes to guard against too much direction.

This music also plays with the concept of interference, on a few levels. Most noticeably, the rhythms of the right and left hand are repetitive, but of different lengths, creating a subtle clash that is quite different from the Bach piece’s simpler texture. To me, listening to this piece is like examining a natural object, perhaps a simple-looking crystal with a complicated substructure. See what you think.

If we step back from a music theorist’s perspective and think about how people use repeated musical patterns, pretty soon the idea of practicing or studying may come to mind. Bach is probably the most studied composer in the Western canon, and many later piano exercises are based on the patterns of his preludes.

What started out as a unifying musical device in Bach had devolved into boredom by Debussy’s time, and Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum uses the experience of piano practice to construct a musical narrative using repetitive patterns: the music starts by repeating, practice-style, the same patterns, but soon gets tired of that and wanders off into areas of playfulness and reverie. This piece shows how ostinato patterns can be used in a broader context, to create a sense of humor and a sense of changing events that mimics the stream of consciousness that we all carry inside of us.

In these selections from Chopin’s Preludes, Op. 28, the great Polish composer used Bach’s preludes as a jumping off point, creating new pianistic textures that influenced later composers and yet clearly maintained a sense of tradition.

The first prelude takes the pattern of pitches used in the Bach, changing its rhythm, register, speed and texture to create a quality of agitation. The next three selected preludes are possibly some of the first examples in solo piano music of the use of ostinato patterns to suggest water; this becomes a specialty of later composers, but Chopin’s feeling for decoration, special harmonic sense, and understanding of the pedal open the door for those composers. The last prelude that I play speeds up the motion and intricacy of the ostinato to again create a feeling of intensity and agitation.

Liszt’s Les Jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este (Fountains of the Villa d’Este) uses the water texture and a slow rate of change in the chords to suggest not only the motion of the water in the fountains, but also the internal stream of consciousness. Liszt is known as perhaps history’s greatest pianist, but most of this attention is focused on his youth, and the tremendous physical prowess and overwhelming charisma that he had as a concert performer. However, this piece is from later in his life, when he had long since retired from the stage, and had become a musician of a more thoughtful and experimental type. There are water figurations, but also a slower, more sustained melody of a meditative character. Liszt’s meditations build to an epiphany, possibly of a metaphysical or religious type (the score contains a quote from the Bible book of John: “But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life”), before subsiding at the end.

Debussy’s Poissons d’or (Goldfish) takes the idea of water and Lisztian virtuosity in a different direction. Debussy had a small Japanese painting, a black background with gold-colored fish (probably koi) painted on it. This painting was a favorite of Debussy and on it, the fish and the water almost seem to be moving as the viewer watches. In this piece, one might imagine that the fish have come to life, swimming around and doing tricks. In this case the passage from one musical event to another is aided by the water-like texture, but the events come rapidly one after the other. As in the Liszt, the flow of water changes into a flow of thoughts and sensations, but in this case the effect is playful and quirky.

The Schubert Impromptu that follows is a possible earlier use of the waterlike piano texture, by its possible originator. Schubert was renowned during his lifetime as a composer of vocal music, art songs that took poetry and gave it another dimension through melodic invention and the use of the piano to amplify the meaning of the text. Many of Schubert’s songs contain ostinato figurations in the piano, underneath words that refer to water; the listener will connect the idea of water with the regular motion of the flowing piano accompaniment. Here, there is no such textual clue, but the figuration has a patterned regularity that is similar to the water-like accompaniments of these songs. Schubert transforms the opening figure to connect lyrical and dance-like episodes, creating a musical narrative that is coherent but also varied and fluid.

Ravel’s Jeux d’Eau (Fountains), written in 1901, originated the impressionist piano style, and as such, is one of the most important piano pieces of the 20th century. Many impressionist water pieces flowed from composers after this, but Ravel was justly proud of having gotten there first, and his piece has never been out of the repertoire since it was written. The influence of Liszt’s own fountain piece (played earlier on this program) is here, but the differences are striking.

Most importantly, there is a delicacy of expression (Debussy said the piece had “butterfly wings”) that lies far from Liszt’s expressive grandiosity. Though the pianistic and harmonic techniques derive from Liszt, this is a true impressionist “picture” of water, detailed and entrancing, but emotionally cooler.

The barcarolle is a “boat song”, deriving from the songs sung by Venetian gondoliers as they paddled through the canals. The regular waves are imitated in the pianist’s left hand, below a singing melody. In the Barcarola from Bartok’s Out of Doors, the water is murkier than in most barcarolles, and the waves perhaps a little choppier.

It’s a modernist’s take on a traditional romantic genre, and like much of Bartok, brings an eerie sense of disquiet to music that is impeccably paced and constructed.

When I asked my teacher Maria Curcio how the beginning of Chopin’s Barcarolle in F - sharp Major, Op. 60 should sound, she thought for a moment and replied, “Luminous!” That description has stayed with me since then, and applies to much of the rest of the piece. It’s one of my three favorite works by Chopin (impossible to decide!), and many of the other pieces on the first half were influenced by it. The rolling water figure of the left hand becomes the connective tissue of a musical structure that seems free, but which builds to the end with a perfect sense of proportion and drama. If you have never heard this piece before, I hope that it grabs you the same way it did me, the first time I heard my teacher play it. Enjoy!

Robert Schumann’s Phantasie, Op. 17 is music on a different scale from the pieces played on the first part of the program. This piece, in three movements, lasts nearly a half an hour in total. In programming it here, I wanted to show how the types of patterns heard in the first half can be embedded in a large-scale musical narrative. Each movement is like a large-scale painting, producing the musical effect of three separate but related panels, where each work is on a different subject, but together all produce an effect of satisfying wholeness. My personal idea is that each movement is a picture of a different stage of life: the first movement portrays the intensity of adolescence and young adulthood, the second movement, the orderly bustle of midlife, with much to do, and the third movement, the retrospective quality and slower pacing of old age. I’m quite sure that Schumann did not have these ideas explicitly in mind when he wrote the piece; nevertheless, like any complex artistic creation, it can be seen in a

second movement, the orderly bustle of midlife, with much to do, and the third movement, the retrospective quality and slower pacing of old age. I’m quite sure that Schumann did not have these ideas explicitly in mind when he wrote the piece; nevertheless, like any complex artistic creation, it can be seen in a variety of ways, and this one seems viable to me.

I - Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen (To be played with fantasy and passionately throughout) This movement is the most complicated of the three in its structure, and changes of mood and musical material abound. It begins with the type of agitated, spinning ostinato pattern that we have already heard in some of the Chopin Préludes on the first half. Broadly, there are three sections in an ABA design: after the first section comes to a stop, the second section resumes in a different tone of voice (“In the style of a legend”) and is itself interrupted at its completion by the return of the first section. As often with Schumann, there is an autobiographical subtext, or several. Schumann at first intended to compose a tribute to Beethoven, and also was going through a period of painful separation from his future wife, Clara Wieck. These concerns are woven into the music: a phrase referring to Beethoven’s song cycle “An die Ferne Geliebte” (To the distant beloved) provides the ending to the movement, and the other melodies and the musical action of the movement lead up to this reference, creating a moving and inevitable ending.

II - Mäßig. Durchaus energisch (Moderate. Energetic throughout) The second movement is more straightforward in its character and organization: it’s a march with a more subdued, lyrical middle section. This movement is the only one that lacks the fluid type of ostinato pattern found on the pieces in the first half; instead, energy is maintained through the repetition of dotted (longshort) rhythms, a Schumann specialty. The movement ends with a notoriously awkward passage involving many jumps: exciting but risky.

III - Langsam getragen. Durchweg leise zu halten.

(Slow and sustained, keep quiet throughout) After the energy and passion of the first and second movements , Schumann finishes the piece with music of a meditative character, private and introspective.

There is a regular ostinato figure that is used through much of the movement, but the speed of the first movement’s patterns have been replaced by a more gentle, less dissonant motion. Many of the phrases of this piece end with a slowing of speed, trailing off into silence. The large scale organization of the piece has a circular quality: there are basically two large sections, where the second section mimics the organization and materials of the first, creating an

second section mimics the organization and materials of the first, creating an atmosphere of retrospection. The second section is followed by a brief coda that winds down to end with three soft chords, the same ones that end the first movement, and the story has come full circle, ending in C major where we started the program. ~ Program notes by Matthew Hagle

FAMILIES IN CONCERT

Celebrating students, teachers, and families!

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5 » 3 PM Nichols Concert Hall or online | 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston Did you know that MIC provides close to $500,000 in scholarships and financial aid every year? Families in Concert provides missioncritical resources that make possible excellence in teaching, learning and performing music.

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FRIENDS OF THE MUSIC INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO The Music Institute is grateful for every gift. The following friends made contributions of $5,000 or more between January 1, 2023 and October 27, 2023.

$250,000 and above Alexandra C.* and John D.† Nichols $100,000 - $249,990 The Negaunee Foundation $50,000 - $99,999 Mr. John H. Krehbiel Jr. and Mrs. Karen Z. Gray-Krehbiel ITW Ms. Barbara Ann Speer $25,000 - $49,999 Paul M. Angell Family Foundation John and Pauline Fife KPMG and Scott* and Areta Verschoor Jim and Kay* Mabie Family Northern Trust Corporation Mr. and Mrs. Patrick W. Ryan The Wallace Foundation William E. Wolf and Meredith Bluhm-Wolf $10,000 to $24,999 Anonymous Gifts Dr. Jim Hsu and Ms. Elisa Barston The Canning Foundation Lester and Renée Crown Roger and Sandra Deromedi Craig and Janet Duchossois John and Fran Edwardson Evanston Arts Council Jim and Karen Frank Wilbur and Linda Gantz Ronald and Christina Gidwitz

Norman and Cynthia Goldring Mrs. Mona Golub Dan* and Yoo Mi Hahn Caryn and King Harris Courtney Holohan* and Wesley Mueller Caroline and Charles Huebner J. Thomas Hurvis and Ann Andersen Illinois Arts Council Agency Anne Kaplan Ethelle Katz Susan R. Kiphart Mrs. Paul Klimstra Tom and Joyce Leddy Diane vS. and Robert M. Levy Molex Incorporated National Endowment for the Arts Bill and Cathy Osborn Ms. Renée Parquette* Paul Galvin Memorial Foundation Ms. Sheila Penrose and Mr. Ernest Mahaffey Ravinia Festival Association Andrew and Betsy Rosenfield Michael and Cari Sacks Sage Foundation Scott and Nancy Santi Barbara* and Peter Sereda Lisbeth C. Stiffel Lee Anne* and Richard Stoddart UL Audrey L. Weaver Mr. Miles D. White Wintrust Commercial Banking Tao Zhu* and Weihua Ye

$5,000 to $9,999 Anonymous Gifts Mrs. Carol Lavin Bernick BMO Harris Bank Norman and Virginia Bobins Boys & Girls Club of Chicago Lawrence O. Corry Mr. and Mrs. Mark Deangelis Thomas W. Dower Foundation Thomas and Patricia Gahlon John R. Halligan Charitable Fund Irving Harris Foundation Dr. Wellington and Dr. Erin Hsu Dolores Kohl Kaplan Karen and Mark Koulogeorge Mr. John W. Madigan Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Moore

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2023-24 Season

FALL: BAROQUE SPLENDOR CHRISTMAS: JOY TO THE WORLD Saturday, October  • : pm Sunday, October  • : pm

Saturday, December  • : pm Sunday, December  • : pm

Featuring Händel’s Dixit Dominus, Vivaldi’s Beatus Vir, and Bach’s Magniicat, with the Metropolis Symphony Orchestra and soloists.

Including beautiful arrangements of traditional carols, beloved CMS favorites, and new discoveries, accompanied by organ, brass, and percussion.

NEXT GEN: HAGENBERG

SEASON FINALE: HEAVENLY HOME

Saturday, May  • : pm An exciting new initiative to support Sunday, May  • : pm

Friday, February  • : pm

the next generation of composers An unaccompanied program of French and singers. Meet composer Elaine and American choral gems, including Hagenberg and hear a concert of her works by Maurice Duruué, Jocelyn Hagen, works, including her new major work, Jake Runestad, and others. This concert is Illuminare, performed by CMS with a prelude to the CMS performance tour the Metropolis Symphony Orchestra. to Paris and Normandy in the summer of Other pieces will be performed by .

CMS with pianist Lyudmila Lakisova and singers from area schools.

We invite you to join us for this inspiring new season!

Tickets available for $25 with code MUSICINSTITUTE

CONCERT VENUE Glenview Community Church 1000 Elm Street, Glenview, IL

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847-604-1067

NICHOLS CONCERT HALL 1. If you arrive after the performance has begun, please wait in the lobby. Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the house manager.

If you must leave early, please do so between pieces out of consideration for the artists and other audience members.

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Nichols Concert Hall, opened in May, 2003, quickly established itself as one of Chicago’s premier venues for chamber music performances.

Originally designed as a First Church of Christ, Scientist in 1912 by renowned Chicago architect Solon S. Beman, the building was sensitively restored as a state-of-the-art, 550 seat concert hall and music education center. The converted building received the Richard H. Driehaus Award for best adaptive use by the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois. Music Critics, audiences and performers have hailed the excellent acoustics and elegant vaulted beauty of Nichols Concert Hall.

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Numerous restaurants are within easy walking distance. Conveniently located near the Davis Street CTA and Metra stations, Nichols Concert Hall is disability accessible.

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TRUSTEES

leads people toward a lifelong engagement with music through unparalleled teaching, exceptional performances, and valuable service initiatives that educate, inspire, and build strong, healthy communities.

Scott Verschoor, Chair Alexandra C. Nichols, Chair Emerita Timothy J. Patenode, Treasurer Barbara Sereda, Secretary Lee Anne Stoddart, Vice Chair Carlos R. Cárdenas, CPA Hans Germann Daniel Hahn Courtney Holohan Kay Mabie Yana Nedvetsky Renée Parquette Vikram Raghavan Jim Stone Ross Updegraff Zalman Usiskin Audra Wilson David Zampa Florian Zettelmeyer Tao Zhu

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Since its founding in 1931, the Music Institute’s commitment to innovation, access, and excellence has served as an important community resource and helps to ensure music is available to everyone.

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NEXT UP AT NICHOLS CONCERT HALL...

DUKE IT OUT! NUTCRACKER SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9 10 AM & 1 PM 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 is a family-friendly 60 minutes.

For the Kids! Instrument Petting Zoo from 11 AM- 1 PM Try all the instruments at the Music Institute’s musical “petting zoo.”

Learn more about lessons and classes and enjoy special discounts!

TAMMY MCCANN: A JAZZ CHRISTMAS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16 7:30 PM Jazz vocalist and Music Institute Artist-in-Residence Tammy McCann brings together an all-star ensemble, featuring guitarist Fareed Haque and a lush string orchestra, to combine jazz and rhythm and blues for a spirited performance of holiday favorites plus a few surprises.

Reserve your tickets today! nicholsconcerthall.org 847.448.8326