Guest / Faculty Recital — MarkSparks, flute • Peter Henderson, piano — Saturday, March 29, at 3:00 p.m. — The program will feature music by César Franck, Johannes Brahms, and Ottorino Respighi
The nineteenth-century German composers Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms were strongly influenced by earlier musical traditions. Despite these creators’ orientation to the past, their works on the first half of this program could not be more fresh and energetic. Mendelssohn’s Second Cello Sonata is ebullient, and features a slow movement reflecting the composer’s fascination with J. S. Bach’s music. Brahms’s Second Cello Sonata is also joyful, but traces a more varied emotional landscape. Brahms’s Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano was one of several late masterpieces inspired by the Meiningen clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, whose sensitive playing spurred Brahms to end his first retirement from composition. Some years later, Carl Frühling produced a beautiful, lyrical trio showing the influence of Brahms’s autumnal, somber op. 114.
The concerts will not be live-streamed, and no recordings will be available, so please consider enjoying these performances in person. Feel free to share this information with anyone you know who may be interested.
Nocturne No. 13 in B minor, op. 119 (1921) (ca. 7 minutes)
Brief Program Note
To observe the centenary of Gabriel Fauré’s death, Peter Henderson will perform a Maryville University Faculty Recital exploring works spanning the great French composer’s career. Renowned for his harmonic explorations and freedom, Fauré was also an inspired melodist, spinning long, flowing phrases set in a florid texture. His elegant, gorgeous piano music is poised between vigor and languor, raw emotion and restraint. This program features some of his most famous and extroverted early piano works, including the witty Valse-caprice No. 1 and two scintillating Impromptus, and ends with a few of Fauré’s sorrowful yet consolatory late pieces, including his intensely moving Nocturne No. 13.
Robert Schumann (1810-1856): [Untitled piece] No. 30 from Album for the Young, op. 68 (ca. 4 minutes)
Leo Marcus (b. 1945): Three Schumann Stars (Piano Quintet No. 3) (Midwest Premiere) (ca. 14 minutes)
Intermission (ca. 10 minutes)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924): Piano Quintet No. 2 in C minor, op. 115 (1919-21) (ca. 32 minutes)
Brief Program Note
Fauré completed two quintets for piano and string quartet. A slow, painstaking composer, Fauré labored eighteen years on Piano Quintet No. 1, which was eventually premiered in 1906. One of his favorite works, its first two movements have an enchanting, ethereal, timeless quality. Fauré’s earthier Piano Quintet No. 2 was composed relatively quickly, across several months in 1920-21. Deemed a masterpiece since its premiere, the second quintet demonstrates “A deep and magnificent serenity of a great poet, wise and lyrical” (Louis Vuillemin). Between these two monumental late works of Fauré, we’ll present the Midwest premiere of Three Schumann Stars by Leo Marcus, an American composer and pianist, who here explores the ambiguity and sensitive beauty of a small piano piece from Robert Schumann’s Album for the Young, op. 68.
Concerts will not be live-streamed, and no recordings will be available, so please consider enjoying these performances in person.
Feel free to share this information with anyone you know who may be interested!
For a list of all Maryville Music Therapy Program concerts (including student performances), please click here.
Music at Maryville 2024-25, Concert 4 of 4 — Scott Lyle, Guitarist & Composer
Scott Lyle, guitarist & composer
Sunday, April 13, 2025 • 3:00 p.m. • Maryville University Auditorium
Scott Lyle is the Director of the Music Program and Assistant Professor of Music at Maryville University in St. Louis. He teaches courses in music theory, aural training, audio engineering, and private lessons, offering students a comprehensive education in both traditional and modern musical disciplines. Scott earned his BM in Music Performance (classical guitar) summa cum laude from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and his MA in Composition from Washington University in Saint Louis. Passionate about academic scholarship and research, he also actively performs music from various eras, with a special affinity for avant garde and post-tonal contemporary works.
For this performance, Scott Lyle will be joined by guest performers Lisa Lillie, soprano, Alannah Coady, soprano, and Peter Henderson, piano.
Musical Program
To include these guitar works and arrangements, along with the world premiere of three songs by Scott Lyle:
John Dowland (1563-1626): “Come, Heavy Sleep,” from The Firste Booke of Songes (1597)
Francesca Caccini (1598-1640): “Per la più vaga e bella,” from La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (1625)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): “Ach, ich fühl’s,” from Die Zauberflöte, K. 620 (1791) & “Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro,” from Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492 (1786)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856): “Ich grolle nicht,” from Dichterliebe, op. 48 (1840)
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): Nocturnal, after John Dowland, op. 70 (1964)
Swedish Folk Ballad (Anonymous): “Herr Mannelig”
Past 2024-2025 Concerts (listed in chronological order)
Music at Maryville Series 2024-2025 Concert 1 of 4 — Early Music Missouri presents Adoption, Adaption & Appropriation: Invasive Species in Mediterranean Musical Culture
Nocturne No. 13 in B minor, op. 119 (1921) (ca. 7 minutes)
Brief Program Note
To observe the centenary of Gabriel Fauré’s death, Peter Henderson will perform a Maryville University Faculty Recital exploring works spanning the great French composer’s career. Renowned for his harmonic explorations and freedom, Fauré was also an inspired melodist, spinning long, flowing phrases set in a florid texture. His elegant, gorgeous piano music is poised between vigor and languor, raw emotion and restraint. This program features some of his most famous and extroverted early piano works, including the witty Valse-caprice No. 1 and two scintillating Impromptus, and ends with a few of Fauré’s sorrowful yet consolatory late pieces, including his intensely moving Nocturne No. 13.
Music at Maryville Concert Series 2024-25, Concert 2 of 4 — Musicians of the SLSO perform Gabriel Fauré’s Two Piano Quintets & Leo Marcus’s Three Schumann Stars
Sunday, October 20, 2024 • 3:00 p.m. • Maryville University Auditorium • Directions
Robert Schumann (1810-1856): [Untitled piece] No. 30 from Album for the Young, op. 68 (ca. 4 minutes)
Leo Marcus (b. 1945): Three Schumann Stars (Piano Quintet No. 3) (Missouri Premiere) (ca. 14 minutes)
Intermission (ca. 10 minutes)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924): Piano Quintet No. 2 in C minor, op. 115 (1919-21) (ca. 32 minutes)
Brief Program Note
This program concludes Maryville University’s two-concert mini-series observing the centenary of Gabriel Fauré’s death. Fauré completed two quintets for piano and string quartet. A slow, painstaking composer, Fauré labored eighteen years on Piano Quintet No. 1, which was eventually premiered in 1906. One of his favorite works, its first two movements have an enchanting, ethereal, timeless quality. Fauré’s earthier Piano Quintet No. 2 was composed relatively quickly, across several months in 1920-21. Deemed a masterpiece since its premiere, the second quintet demonstrates “A deep and magnificent serenity of a great poet, wise and lyrical” (Louis Vuillemin). Between these two monumental late works of Fauré, we’ll present the Midwest premiere of Three Schumann Stars by Leo Marcus, an American composer and pianist, who here explores the ambiguity and sensitive beauty of a small piano piece from Robert Schumann’s Album for the Young, op. 68.
– Sunday, February 9, 2025 • 2:00 p.m. • Maryville University Auditorium – This recital will be our 2024-2025 Johannes Wich-Schwarz Chamber Music Concert. Please enjoy our pregame musical performance before this evening’s Super Bowl! – Program to include: Carl Frühling & Johannes Brahms’s Trios for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano
Nicolas del Grazia is Professor of Clarinet at Arkansas Tech University, and has appeared as soloist, chamber and orchestral musician throughout the United States and Europe. As an advocate for contemporary music, he has performed with a number of leading new music ensembles, including Chicago Pocket Opera Players, and Aguava New Music Studio, heralded as “brilliant” by the Washington Post and as “easily one of the most impressive new music ensembles in America today” by the International Record Review. He has worked with a number of the country’s leading composers, including David Felder, Evan Chambers, Kristin Kuster, and MacArthur Genius prize winner John Eaton. As a scholar, Nicolas del Grazia has twice been the recipient of awards from The International Clarinet Association for his research, and he has published work on the hitherto unknown Pastorale & Rondo by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and the unfinished Quartet for Clarinet and Strings by Alexander Zemlinsky. He also enjoys composing, especially for the clarinet. The “pixelated humor” (AllMusic.com) of his Tarantella for clarinet and piano can be heard on Italian Vintages, on the Centaur label.
Spring 2025 Maryville University Faculty Recitals
Guest / Faculty Recital — Mark Sparks, flute • Peter Henderson, piano
Picture Studies is a “21st-century Pictures at an Exhibition” — like Modest Mussorgsky‘s 19th-century piano suite frequently performed in Maurice Ravel‘s splendid orchestration, Adam Schoenberg’s composition was inspired by several works of visual art. Picture Studies was commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Please find below links to the Nelson-Atkins Museum’s webpages for each of the artworks that provided the impetus for Adam Schoenberg’s musical responses:
1. Intro
Features the piano — a reference to Mussorgsky’s “Promenade” from Pictures at an Exhibition)
Beethoven: String Quartet in C-sharp minor, op. 131 (1826)
Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178 (completed 1853)
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 • 7:00 p.m. Maryville University Auditorium • Directions
Free Admission
The concert will not be live-streamed, and no recording will be available, so please consider enjoying this performance in person. Feel free to share this information with anyone you know who may be interested.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, op.131 (1826) — ca. 45 minutes
Intermission
Franz Liszt (1811-1886): Les cloches de Genève (The Bells of Geneva): Nocturne from Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage), Première année: Suisse (First Year: Switzerland), S.160 (1848-54) — ca. 7 minutes
Franz Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178 (ca. 1842-53) — ca. 30 minutes
Brief Program Note
Performed by artists from the St. Louis Symphony, this recital features two towering masterpieces from the nineteenth century: Ludwig van Beethoven’s epic String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, op. 131, and Franz Liszt’s iconic Piano Sonata in B minor. According to Robert Schumann, Beethoven’s late quartets “stand…on the extreme boundary of all that has hitherto been attained by human art and imagination.” Renowned for his pianistic brilliance and embrace of literary drama in music of harmonic daring, Liszt showed incredible ingenuity in synthesizing his personal idiom with several formal influences — including Beethoven’s — in his staggering, single-movement Piano Sonata in B minor. We hope you’ll join us this evening to enjoy performances of two highly significant instrumental works.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Winterreise (Winter Journey)
Sunday, February 4, 2024 • 3:00 p.m. Maryville University Auditorium • Directions
Free Admission
The concert will not be live-streamed, and no recording will be available, so please consider enjoying this performance in person. Feel free to share this information with anyone you know who may be interested.
Julius Schmid (1854-1935): “Schubertiade” (1897 oil painting)
Franz Schubert: Introduction and Variations on “Trockne Blumen” (“Withered Flowers”) for Flute and Piano, D. 802 (1824) — ca. 15 minutes
Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Winterreise (Winter Journey), Song Cycle for Voice and Piano, D. 911 (1827) — Texts: Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827) — ca. 70 minutes
Gute Nacht (Good Night)
Die Wetterfahne (The Weathervane)
Gefrorene Tränen (Frozen Tears)
Erstarrung (Numbness)
Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree)
Wasserflut (Flood Water)
Auf dem Flusse (On the River)
Rückblick (A Look Backward)
Irrlicht (Will o’ the Wisp)
Rast (Rest)
Frühlingstraum (Dream of Spring)
Einsamkeit (Solitude)
Die Post (The Mail)
Der greise Kopf (The Old Man’s Head)
Die Krähe (The Crow)
Letzte Hoffnung (Last Hope)
Im Dorfe (In the Village)
Der stürmische Morgen (The Stormy Morning)
Täuschung (Illusion)
Der Wegweiser (The Signpost)
Das Wirtshaus (The Inn)
Mut (Courage)
Die Nebensonnen (The False Suns)
Der Leiermann (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man)
Brief Program Note
This concert will celebrate the art of Franz Schubert (1797-1828). While Schubert did not tend toward overt virtuosity in his instrumental works, his variations for flute and piano on his own, previously composed song Trockne Blumen (Withered Flowers) are a brilliant showcase for the skills of the instrumentalists. The concert will conclude with Schubert’s final completed art song cycle, Winterreise (Winter Journey). A song cycle is the classical music equivalent of a concept album, in which each song is integral to a larger idea. The generally bitter songs of Winterreise explore a common Romantic theme: a young person’s despair upon being rejected by a lover. It is widely accepted that, by the end of the journey, the protagonist has descended into madness. As is typical in Schubert’s songs, the piano’s texture is varied to match visual or other cues in each song’s text, creating an astoundingly varied tapestry. Schubert’s Winterreise is considered one of the pinnacles of the art song tradition.
Friday, April 21, 11:00 a.m. — Student Recital 5 of 5
Friday, April 21, 7:00 p.m. — Spring Concert: Notorious (Maryville’s Student A Cappella Group)
Saturday, April 22, 7:00 p.m. — Senior Recital: Ashley McFarland
Sunday, April 23, 3:00 p.m. — Music at Maryville 2022-23 Concert 5 of 5: Arianna String Quartet — Featuring works by Joseph Haydn, Frederick Tillis, and Felix Mendelssohn
If you’d like to hear this SLSO concert but can’t make it to Powell Hall this weekend, you’ll be able to tune into St. Louis Public Radio by clicking the play button near the top of their homepage on Saturday, March 4, at 8:00 p.m. CST (6:00 p.m. Pacific, 9:00 p.m. Eastern), and hear their broadcast of the March 4 morning concert. This broadcast will probably be offered only on the evening of Saturday, March 4 (it is unlikely to be available on demand).
A versatile pianist, Peter Henderson is active as a performer in orchestral, chamber, and solo settings. Henderson is currently Associate Professor of Music and Artist-in-Residence at Maryville University, where he has served on the faculty since 2005. Since 2015, Henderson has been the Principal Keyboardist of the Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra. In September 2023, he began his tenure as Principal Keyboardist of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO).
During January and February 2016, Henderson was the piano soloist in the SLSO’s California tour performances of Olivier Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux étoiles… (From the Canyons to the Stars…). Critics described him as a “powerhouse soloist” (San Francisco Chronicle) and praised his Messiaen playing for its “intense focus and thrilling vibrancy” (San Jose Mercury News). His most recent solo appearances with the SLSO, in March 2023, featured performances of Joseph Haydn’s Keyboard Concerto No. 11.
In addition to his regular ensemble performances with the SLSO, Henderson often delivers pre-concert lectures, introducing classical concert programs from Powell Hall’s stage.
Henderson’s discography includes collaborations with violinist David Halen, flutist Mark Sparks, bass trombonist Gerry Pagano, violist Jonathan Vinocour, and soprano Marlissa Hudson. His most recent solo album is A Celebration of African Composers for Piano (AMP AGCD 2706, released 2017).
Henderson also occasionally composes music and works as a recording producer. Rückblick (Looking Back), his song without words for trombone and piano, appears on Gerry Pagano’s album Solitude, released 2018. Printed and electronic editions of Rückblick were issued by Ascenda Music Publishing in January 2024.
Henderson holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, where his main piano instructor was Dr. Karen Shaw; he had previously studied with Dr. Jay Mauchley at the University of Idaho, Moscow. Henderson and his wife Kristin Ahlstrom, the SLSO’s Associate Principal Second Violinist, live in St. Louis with their lively, sweet beagle/terrier-mix, Zinni.
Brief bio (220 words)
A versatile pianist, Peter Henderson is active as a performer in orchestral, chamber, and solo settings. Henderson is currently Associate Professor of Music and Artist-in-Residence at Maryville University, and Principal Keyboardist of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) and the Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra.
Henderson was the piano soloist in the SLSO’s February 2016 California tour performances of Olivier Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux étoiles… (From the Canyons to the Stars…); his Messiaen playing was lauded for its “intense focus and thrilling vibrancy” (San Jose Mercury News).
In addition to his regular ensemble performances with the SLSO, Henderson often delivers pre-concert lectures, introducing classical concert programs from Powell Hall’s stage.
Henderson’s discography includes collaborations with violinist David Halen, flutist Mark Sparks, and soprano Marlissa Hudson. His most recent solo album is A Celebration of African Composers for Piano (AMP AGCD 2706, released 2017).
Henderson also occasionally composes music. Rückblick (Looking Back), his song without words for trombone and piano, appears on Gerry Pagano’s album Solitude, released 2018. Printed and electronic editions of Rückblick were issued by Ascenda Music Publishing in January 2024.
Henderson holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University, Bloomington. He and his wife Kristin Ahlstrom, the SLSO’s Associate Principal Second Violinist, live in St. Louis with their lively, sweet beagle/terrier-mix, Zinni.
[Untitled piece] No. 30 from Album for the Young, op. 68 (ca. 4 minutes)
