“Phantoms of Countless Lost”
This program will be an exploration of how great composers have used the piano to explore human responses to the experience of war. There is a wide range of styles and responses involved, ranging from Beethoven to Prokofiev, and a variety of genres, ranging from the expressive and personal to the monumental and heroic.
This is a program I’ve long thought of doing, but when it first occurred to me, I was busy with other projects, including performing the complete Beethoven piano sonatas and all of the late piano music of Brahms. But it’s always been in my mind. In recent years, Nichols Concert Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago has kindly allowed me to present some programs that explore the ramifications of a single idea, and it seemed to me that this program fit perfectly within that project. This type of concert provides a “meditative space” for processing the sounds and emotions that go with this topic - a topic which, sadly, is always relevant. While recent events have pro
