ORGAN RECITAL TO FEATURE THE MODERNIST MUSIC OF FRANZ LISZT
On March 22nd, 7 pm, at Covenant Congregational Church
in Jamaica Plain, organist Matthew McConnell will be presenting a
recital featuring the late sacred organ works of Franz Liszt in honor of Holy
Saturday. The program will feature Liszt's rarely heard Messe pro organo
for solo organ, and Via Crucis: a setting of the 14 Stations of the Cross
for chorus and organ. The Forest Hills Community Choir, led by director
Keith Kirchoff, will be collaborating with Mr. McConnell for this
performance, which will also feature baritone soloist Ben Werth and
mezzo-soprano soloist Jessica Stavros.
Franz Liszt is perhaps one of the most misunderstood composers in music
history. Generally thought of as a virtuosic playboy pianist, he was in fact a
highly influential modernist composer. Liszt shed his playboy-ways as early as
his thirties, and retired from concertizing by age 35. He spent the remaining 35
years of his life teaching, conducting, and composing. The older he got, the
more abstract his music became, and by the 1970's—the decade in which both
pieces on this program were composed—his music had become nearly void of
tonality. Liszt became obsessed with monophony and non-traditional scales, and
the bulk of his writing at that point, whether for piano, chorus, or organ,
contained one melodic line with little or no supporting harmony. His music
became so abstract that his publishers, despite his international fame, refused
to publish his works; Via Crucis was not premiered until 50 years after
Liszt's death in 1930.
Organist Matthew McConnell holds a B.A. degree in music from Bennington
College, and a M.M. degree in musical composition from the New England
Conservatory of Music (with Academic Honors and Distinction in Performance)
where he is also currently pursuing his doctoral degree in musical composition.
The former organist and choir director of the First Baptist Church in Cheshire,
MA, McConnell has been a guest organist at numerous churches throughout
Massachusetts, has been featured in the First United Methodist Church "Summer
Organ Sounds" concert series, and presents regular benefit concerts both at St.
Andrew's Episcopal Chapel and St. John's Episcopal Church in North Adams. This
performance will be played on a newly rebuilt 1938 Hook & Hastings Organ,
the last organ these legendary builders ever made.
The Forest Hills Community Choir is an ensemble of amateur musicians who love
to sing. The choir has a wide repertoire: from medieval plainchant to modern
oratorio, from African folk melodies to popular song. Recent performances have
included Handel's Messiah, Faure's Requiem, presented Stephen
Paulus's Canticum Novum.
Music director Keith Kirchoff is an award-winning pianist and composer, and
has played in many of the United States' largest cities including New York,
Boston, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Portland, as well as major
cities throughout Italy and The Netherlands. A strong advocate for modern music,
Kirchoff has premiered over 100 works for piano and has worked closely with many
prominent composers including Christian Wolff, Frederic Rzewski, and Lee Hyla.
His world premier recording of John Luther Adam's For Lou Harrison with
the Callithumpian Consort was released last year to critical acclaim.
The church is located at 455 Arborway in Jamaica Plain, next to the Roxbury
County Courthouse and two blocks east of the Forest Hills T Station. The event
is free, although a free will offering will be taken to help support the
restoration of the organ.