Charles Ives: Concord Sonata

On this CD:

1. Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-60, for piano (& optional viola, flute), S. 88 (K. 3A2) I. Emerson
Composed by Charles Ives
Performed by Jesper Grove Joergensen, Per Salo

2. Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-60, for piano (& optional viola, flute), S. 88 (K. 3A2) II. Hawthorne
Composed by Charles Ives
Performed by Jesper Grove Joergensen, Per Salo

3. Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-60, for piano (& optional viola, flute), S. 88 (K. 3A2) III. The Alcotts
Composed by Charles Ives
Performed by Jesper Grove Joergensen, Per Salo

4. Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-60, for piano (& optional viola, flute), S. 88 (K. 3A2) IV. Thoreau
Composed by Charles Ives
Performed by Jesper Grove Joergensen, Per Salo

Tracks:

The Things Our Fathers Loved
The Housatonic At Stockbridge
From The Swimmers
Memories (A - Very Pleasant, B - Rather Sad
Ann Street
Serenity (A Unison Chant)
1, 2, 3
Songs My Mother Taught Me
The Circus Band
The Cage
The Indians
Like A Sick Eagle
A Sound Of A Distant Horn
September
Soliloquy (Or A Study In 7ths And Other Things)
A Farewell To Land
Thoreau
Emerson
Hawthorne
The Alcotts
Thoreau

Amazon.com

Ives' Second Sonata is one of the toughest, but it holds no fears for Aimard, a noted interpreter of Messiaen, Ligetti, and other moderns who require virtuoso technique and idiomatic expertise. Each of its four movements is titled for New England luminaries: Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts, and Thoreau. The longest, "Emerson," is knotty and energetic, bristling with a minefield of cluster chords. "Hawthorne" is a genial scherzo exhibiting a wider palette, while "The Alcotts" is a lyrical paean to domestic tranquility. "Thoreau" embraces the mysteries of nature, played with intensity by Aimard. There's an abundance of power in his playing, but also ravishing effects like the startling diminuendo in "Thoreau" and the array of marches, hymns, and parlor songs Ives threw into the mix. His terrific "Concord" Sonata is matched by the survey of Ives' inventive songs, 17 of them superbly sung by Susan Graham with Aimard superb as her piano partner. Graham captures every nuance of a mind-boggling variety of idioms, from nostalgia, tenderness, and hilarious miniatures like "Ann Street" and the sendup of opera in "Memories - A," among many other highlights. This one's a must for Ivesians, fans of musical eccentricity, modern music enthusiasts, and anyone in search of musical surprises, which abound on almost every track. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

A European modernist embraces Ives.......2007-01-08

Chalres Ives was 46 when he published his "Concord"Sonata, and as the liner notes tell us, its sprawling shape and diverse styles are the result of gathering a lot of music previously composed (none of it for solo piano) and needing a single dwelling. Ives always had his own ideas about how music is held together or flies apart. He wasn't afraid to have it fly apart, and often his notion of coherence was so private, rooted in personal memories, that an outside listener can't be expected to penetrate the associations.

Aimard goes a long way in erasing the ecdentricity, privacy, and quirkiness of Ives's idiom bydrawing the sonata into the mainstream of European modernism, giving it the same clean, detailed, accurate, and impressionistic style that he might give to other individualists like Ligeti and Messiaen. (It's also nice to have the viola addition to the first movement and the flute in the fourth.) The "Concord" Sonata becomes a virtuosic event in his hands, no longer a purely "American" sport. I do find that listening to this vast work is better in concert, where its appearance is always a special occasion. But one has to be grateful for Aimard's quantum leap in execution compared to earlier recordings.

Ives gathered his huge output of 114 songs into a collection two years after the sonata. Susan Graham picks 15 of them, adding two more that folowed after 1922. These songs ask for a vocal chameleon who can shift instantly from Victorian parlor style to patriotic exuberance, folk song, whimsy, rapt nostaliga, and more. No one to date has been able to encompass this enormous range of expression, but Susan Graham comes as close as any. I would rank her with Jan De Gaetani, Thomas Hampson, and William Sharp among the singers I know who excel in Ives, and above the too-classical, somewhat congested renditions by Marilyn Horne and Jennifer Lamore. Aimard's accompaniment misses the Yankee flavor of the marches and patriotic snatches, but in its modernist way his style is as effective as in the sonata. Highly recommended for lovers of this music.

Great Performances, but the Star of this CD is Charles Ives.......2005-08-10

The uniquely atypical music of Charles Ives continues to mature and embed itself in the minds of larger and larger audiences every year. Practically every major orchestra in this country (and in Europe) now includes at least his symphonies in the standard repertoire. His music is probably as 'American' as any composed, so conjoined with literature and history and folksongs and all manner of Americana. This superb recording takes us one step further in appreciating Ives' gifts: his breathtaking Concord Sonata is coupled with one of the finest selections of his many songs and both sonata and songs are performed with consummate skill by pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and mezzo soprano Susan Graham.

Aimard's approach to this big piano work is one of direct approach to the complexities of line and mood and in that approach he doesn't allow his own personality to blur Ives' message. Aimard can tackle the impossibly difficult passages and keep them transparent: he can also find the inner quiet beauty as well as any other pianist. The result is a Concord Sonata of majesty and honest simplicity.

Susan Graham has long included Ives' songs in her recitals and that experience shows in her approach to this varied selection. Graham is an immensely intelligent musician, one who can find the meaning of even a brief song in an instant. She is in fine vocal form here, and her collaboration with Aimard completes a presentation that will be difficult to match. This is a fine recording and an excellent entry point for music lovers who may have been wary of Ives' challenges. Relax and enjoy this recital. Grady Harp, August 05

works grow and transform themselves.......2005-04-07

First off this is an Ives cornocopia of songs, all sung here with the reserve that is needed, I've heard too many American art Songs, Copland, Rorem and Ives with that wrongheaded "sing-songin" delivery, it is arrogant if nothing else, and the "cutsy-ness" of it does reach the audience,unless you simply want to be entertained and you checked your brain with your cash at the box office. Straightforward Ives is I think to most effective way of playing his music,that's why I still prefer the Kalish, he brings a gritti-ness to the Concord. Aimard (and all of us) has had time since the Seventies to think and re-think this piece, and there something should be said for the way music grows, transforms itself for different time periods, isn't that why music develops itself it is striongly constituted in the first place, it is well thought through, et cetra, construction all the obvious, Copland's "Piano Variations" is a similar example, the music simply changes with time, well we change, the music is fixed.So I guess there are simply different readings.

Aimard does bring some nice clarity,like to "Hawthorne", the blazing quickness searching until the "forearm" clusters stop the flow, the onward rush of the imagination, words can change the meaning of themselves this quickly which I think is what Ives saw in Hawthorne the writer.

For the "Alcotts" any kind of nostalgia is OK with me,the simple Bb triad timbres capturing the informed naivtivitee of the little home with Bronson Alcott the speaker public man of speaking (there is a difference between public speaking and lecturer,someone who teaches as opposed to simply speaking something Bush II knows quite well.Better simply to speak without saying anything.) This is not here however for Ives loved the Utopian aspect of Danbury existential renderings, the reflections back and forth of the lifeworld, the richness of culture of the complexity of the word,place, song, timbre,all in forms of strength all mixed blending together. Aimard simply brings things out I;ve never heard before, but then that is his approach always to clarify,and that is not always the best approach in Ives where his music does ask questions, his music we have learned should be opaque, and unexplanable,terse yet convoluted; it should not lead you by the nose at each and every moment.And Aimard I;m afraid does want to lead here. I think he thinks the opaqueness will happen by itself, its already in the music, he lets this occur in the fast sections,making it a pure texture,like Debussy, I guess Ives was an existential impressionist with transcendental content.

a fresh take on sonata no. 2.......2004-07-28

I have a slightly different view than with the previous review, as well as the Davis review. If you are a fan of Ives (you probably are if you are interested in this cd), then you may not need to bother with half of this cd. Messo Susan Graham is quite out of touch with the character studies of these wonderful songs. When she isn't yodelling many times louder than she ought to on some high notes to demonstrate her vocal command, she becomes the epitomy of boredom and banality. I imagine Ben Stein could give a more lifelike reading of 'The Circus Band'. The jovial cheer "hear the trombones!" sounds more akin to a yawn on this version. Since when did shear vocal power and sonic richness take such high precedence over interpretive skills? Have you really forgotten Jan de Gaetani's wonderous versions? I feel Graham has done a disservice to this music, and should probably go back to singing French arias which apparently she is quite good at.

The Concord Sonata is definetly the reason you may want to own this disc. Aimard is outstanding as per usual. Emerson does really come alive here, as does Hawthorne with it's dramtic tempo shifts. My main concern lies in the 3rd movement 'the Alcotts'. It is clearly a pastorale movement with a touch of sweet nostalgia. Aimard plays a little too deliberately here- not loose enough with the tempo or lively enough with the rhythms. That really is the only disadvantage. I don't think Aimard played the folk elements strongly enough.
I guess the main question is: if I own the Kalish recording of the Sonata, do I need this one too? Probably again, you are an Ives believer and this version has great insights- why not. Like the Kalish version, this one includes the optional viola line on Emerson and the flute part of Thoreau. They appear better realised with more dramatic impact on the Kalish recording- a minor point. Movement for movement Aimard has the first and seccond, but I prefer 3 and 4 on the Kalish. The 3rd mentioned above, and the fourth seems to have more gravity with Kalish, bringing more of a closure to the tempestuous nature of the work. Aimard shows a more whispy, impressionistic take as he also does at the start of Hawthorne, reminding of Debussy. Not inappropriate stylistically speaking, but definetly a matter of taste. Aimard is a winner and I love what he does for Ligeti and Messiaen. Overall a very successful Ives sonata, and a questionably performed set of songs, well-chosen as they might be. If you are new to Ives this should be enough to get you into further explorations.

It takes a Frenchman to capture an American masterpiece!.......2004-05-19

The "Concord Sonata" of Charles Ives has been described as "the greatest work written by an American." It's a big sprawling, glorious mess of a thing, inspired by the Transcendental writers Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott and Thoreau. I first heard the ground-breaking version by John Kirkpatrick, and have long cherished the powerful account by Gilbert Kalish (recorded in the '70s). But hearing Pierre-Laurent Aimard play this piece makes me forget all about those earlier recordings. A specialist in Messian and Ligeti, Aimard plays Ives like one to the manner born. Forget any preconceived notions of what it means to be a "French pianist," and let this astonishing performance carry you away. The Alcotts movement has never felt so tender, and the Thoreau movement is likewise exquisitely balanced. Perhaps most enthralling is how he manages to give shape and sense to Emerson, and Hawthorne, the fiendishly hard scherzo, has never had a reading like this. I'd have been content with the sonata, but the disk also holds the gorgeous mezzo Susan Graham singing 17 Ives songs, with Aimard's brilliant accompaniments. A fabulous recording no serious American music collection should be without!

Charles Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord, Mass. 1840"

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A Definitive Recording of the Concord Sonata
still Ives' masterpiece
The standard for the Concord Sonata

Charles Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord, Mass. 1840"

Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Essays Before a Sonata: The Majority and Other Writings
Ives: Concord Sonata: Piano Sonata No. 2 (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
Ives: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-4
Ives: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4/Hymns
Charles Ives: Symphony No. 2 / The Gong on the Hook & Ladder, or Firemen's Parade on Main Street / Tone Roads No. 1 / Hymn: Largo Cantabile, for String Orchestra / Hallowe'en / Central Park in the Dark / The Unanswered Question - Leonard Bernstein / New York Philharmonic

ASIN: B000005IVV
Release Date: 1992-05-07

Tracks:

Concord Mass: Emerson
Concord Mass: Hawthorne
Concord Mass: The Alcotts
Concord Mass: Thoreau

Customer Reviews:

A Definitive Recording of the Concord Sonata.......2006-11-10

Among all the recordings of Ives' Concord Sonata, I think Gilbert Kalish's interpretation brings the composer's true intent to the foreground. The performance is technically perfect--perhaps a given. But more importantaly, the colors, nuances and energy of the work are brought to life. I recommend this CD to anyone looking for a definitive interpretation of this seminal work of the 20th century. It may not have the slickness of a modern, completely digitally recorded version, but the performance makes up for that. And anyway, the recording quality is very good and not even a real issue. I've heard some other recordings of this work and I could barely recognize them as the same work--big muddy messes with no understanding of foregound and background, nor of rhythmic treatment. This is the one.

still Ives' masterpiece.......2002-02-12

I have always been fond of John Kirkpatrick's recording of the Concord Sonata. I was most pleased to discover the quality of this performance and recording.

The obligato parts really soften the effect of the piece emotionally. This is also a slower version of the Concord, timing out at almost 49 minutes to Kirkpatrick's 38. Charlie himself played this even faster.

A lovely performance, indeed I like "Emerson" the best, and I think Gilbert Kalish was right to include the viola part for this recording.

The standard for the Concord Sonata.......2001-11-22

I first became familiar with Ives Concord Sonata through the recording by Aloys Kontarsky. Soon afterward, I heard Kalish's recording.

Immediately I was impressed that I was in the presence of a musician who clearly understood Ives and could convey the beauty of this music from within the enigmatic writing. I came to love the piece through this recording.

Tracks:

Emerson: Slowly
Hawthorne: Very Fast
The Alcotts
Thoreau: Starting Slowly And Quietly
Allegro Energico
Allegro Vivace E Leggiero
Adagio Mesto
Fuga: Allegro Con Spirito

Amazon.com

Marc-André Hamelin is known for his extraordinary technique that allows him to play the most difficult, demanding music with an ease and comfort level others, even many with admired technical abilities, can't match. One of the burdens of such keyboard facility is that audiences are so dazzled they don't always realize what a penetrating interpreter he is, and tend to take his brilliance for granted. This Ives-Barber disc will put that to rest. Yes, he easily meets the incredibly complex demands of the "Hawthorne" movement of the Ives Sonata and the outer movements of the Barber Sonata (the final fugue inspired by Horowitz, who premiered the work). But one comes away from these performances in awe of the poetic lyricism displayed by Hamelin, the reflective portions of the Ives registering their profundity. Overall, he fearlessly adopts faster tempos than usual, to the benefit of structural clarity and visceral excitement of both works. Hamelin's are now the preferred versions of both of these American masterpieces. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

A Recording The Leaves Us Speechless.......2006-03-14

Marc-Andre Hamelin is a wizard, a wonder, and a poet. Seeing that he has recorded these two brilliant American sonatas and had the courage to place them back to back on one CD reveals another side of the man's genius. Under his hands and inside his soul Hamelin now owns these incredibly complex yet equally incredibly important works.

Hamelin approaches Charles Ives' Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass. with the ease of early Mozart: the technical challenges dissolve into the inordinately mellifluous singing of the poetry so often absent form this big work. Having heard this sonata performed live on many occasions the audience always seems to respond in marvel that the pianist could get through it, much less relate the lilting stories behind each segment. Hamelin not only finds that level of communication, but he also plays with such security that there is never a doubt that he is in full control and THAT puts the listener in the plane of hearing the poetry.

The Samuel Barber Sonata for piano, Op. 26 is unfortunately not so often performed. It is a majestic work and contains some of Barber's finest writing. But again it is not all about the technical hurdles within the sonata that shine with ease under Hamelin's hands. The incomparable sense of heartfelt melody so associated with Barber's other major works sings forth with more attention to nuance than any other recorded version.

This is simply one of those recordings that ranks as 'must have' in the collections of music lovers. The technical production of the recording is rich and live, a factor that makes the performances even more thrilling. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, March 06

OK.. so how's the Barber?.......2006-01-10

No offense whatsoever to the other reviewers - I found the Alcotts movement of the Concord sonata fun to play and to work on for a short time, but the work still eludes me, so I'm not even going to attempt to evaluate Hamelin's performance of the Ives. However, I adore the Barber sonata, and so when I saw this CD on the shelf, I thought, how can I lose? Hamelin has a surplus of technique for a moderately taxing piece like this, and I felt he would surely have more fun with it than Horowitz did. It was with that mindset that I paid the big sticker price and took it home. What I got out of it was quite different than what I expected, but in no way disappointing.

The first thing that stood out to me was two notes in the first movement that were different than any edition I've seen or any recording I've heard. They are both too obvious and important to have been overlooked unintentionally. These are an A changed to an A-flat in m. 72 (two bars before the key changes to C minor), and an E-flat changed to an E-double flat or a D in m. 158 (four bars before the final 3/2 measure). They make perfect sense, but they also stand out strikingly with strong effect, especially the second one, and I would be interested to know what sources Hamelin used when making these decisions. They're brilliant, whatever they are. There may be a couple other differences I'm forgetting.

Put the minutiae aside, and listen to the flow of this opening movement. Horowitz plays it as one tremendous and continuous urge - he moves from point to point like a man possessed, and then ends in a cataclysm. Hamelin, by contrast, takes a much more contemplative approach overall. There is far more piano and pianissimo, much more of a respite in the Un poco meno mosso, much more air and breathing room, which makes it seem large and expansive - Horowitz's approach feels like it is suffering from obsessive tunnel vision by comparison, though it too is convincing. I question some of Hamelin's use of a leggiero touch in odd places, as I often do in his recordings, but I think as well as he plays, and as original a conception as he has of this piece, he's entitled to his distinctive quirks. It's as if he can't stand being serious all the time and sometimes has to give us a peek of the quirky, tongue-in-cheek "encore" Hamelin just to remind us he's still there.

The next thing that stood out was an astonishing degree of control in the scherzo that follows. I had gotten so accustomed to passages marked 'mf' being played marcato-fortissimo rather than mezzoforte that I didn't realize it was possible to play the piece as Barber had written it, complete with hair's-breadth crescendos and decrescendos. But Hamelin makes it happen, playing the gnarliest, most awkward pianistic death-traps with a calm and poise that most pianists can scarcely summon in the easiest passages of this tricky, tricky little scherzo. The 2-minute length of this track is easily worth the price of the disc.

Still reading? Don't. Buy it, and don't let me spoil the rest of it.

Another amazing Hamelin recording!.......2005-12-15

I really can't add much more to the 2 previous reviews, esp by the one by Mr Morrison, who consistently seems to write excellent reviews. The Concord Sonata is one of my favorite works, and I think it is not only perhaps the greatest American work but I can't think of another 20th century work that matches the scale, complexity, and beauty of this work. In terms of sonatas, nothing gives me more pleasure than listening to Mozart's Sonata for 2 pianos in D, Schubert's B-Flat maj Sonata, Alkan's Grande Sonata, Liszt's Sonata and Ive's Concord.

After I discovered Hamelin and Alkan some 10 years ago, I quickly discovered Ives and Hamelin's first recording of the Concord. Ever since I've collected every single cd ever recorded of this work, and yet always wondered why there was such a dirth of "good" performances of this work (same disappointment with Alkan Grande Sonata performances--I'm still looking for another good recording!).

After 10yrs of listening to one disappointing performance after another, we now have in a very short period of time 3 excellent recordings from Hamelin, Mayer, and Aimard. While I still prefer Hamelin, mainly because of the unmatched combination of technical execution and dynamic interpretation, I still think Mayer and Aimard both have moments that make you say, "Now, that's Ives." Although I still prefer Hamelin's original Alcotts movement, this recording offers superior vision of the other 3 movements. It's a better engineered recording and Hamelin just seems to have a better feel for the sonata. But really, I'm splitting hair here, and I suggest you get all 4 recordings for Christmas (or at least put it on your Santa's wish list).

Breathtaking.......2005-09-02

Of all the composers out there who we'd like to call greats but are hanging in limbo a bit because they are still tough nuts to crack interpretively, Ives is the King. As with other major yet complex composers before him--Berlioz immediately comes to mind and then there's late Beethoven, of course--if the music isn't played and heard exactly right, accusations of incompetence, amateurishness, and even feeble-mindedness run rampant. Even people who should know better like Bernstein said dumb things about their betters--Bernstein was caught "discovering" and simultaneously diminishing Ives as an amateur and probably out of envy. On the other hand Stravinsky once was asked to describe the perfect piece of music and his answer was Ives's "Decoration Day." He must have been studying the score because perfect performances of it haven't been common. Well anyway, now that people are starting to pay attention they're noticing that Charles E. Ives of Connecticut was one hell of a composer.

First let me get this out of the way--the Barber Sonata on this is a stunner. Look no further.

The "Concord" here is the best, the most perfect, the most thoroughly Ivesian, I've ever heard. Hamelin possesses the skill to handle the Ives flourishes and filigrees, the odd notes, the clusters, but more importantly he understands that this is not "Bad Boy" music but a highly successful attempt to push musical expressiveness to new heights. All that strange stuff is there for an expressive reason and not to simply shock or bewilder. Some folks still have difficulty understanding this about the music of Charles Ives. His was a new level of aesthetic beauty.

Hamelin also conveys the structure. He understands that Ives is, contrary to former poorly formed notions, all about structure--the pieces exist in the first place because of Ives's well-considered ideas about form and structure.

All in all, this is the recording that should do for Ives what certain recordings and pianists did for other brilliant-yet-controversial composers. I'm thinking of Gieseking's early Debussy for example. Walk away from a listen to this and be convinced the "Concord Sonata" is a masterpiece.

An Embarrassment of Riches.......2004-10-28

This CD contains probably the two greatest piano sonatas composed by Americans. Some might disagree, but few will disagree that they are great, if not at the very top of any list. [See below for comments about the Barber Sonata; most of this review will be about the Ives.] As to the Ives, frankly, I agree with Lawrence Gilman's reaction when he heard the première by John Kirkpatrick of the 'Concord' Sonata in 1938: 'This sonata is exceptionally great music--it is, indeed, the greatest music composed by an American, and the most deeply and essentially American in impulse and implication.' I can think of no other American music that stirs me as deeply as this. And, mirabile dictu, we have had three wonderful new recordings of it in the past year, corresponding roughly with the fiftieth anniversary of Charles Ives's death in 1954. The three pianists are magnificent: Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Steven Mayer and, on this disc, Marc-André Hamelin. I've reviewed the Mayer here at Amazon. I had nothing to add to the raves by Amazon customer reviewers about the Aimard and so I didn't review it, but I count it among the best recordings of the year. And then there is this newly issued recording by Hamelin. He recorded it once before, in 1988, and although this performance is similar in many respects, one can feel that he is at greater ease with it than sixteen years ago. Both performances are wonderful, but this one is, as I said to a friend recently, 'a corker.'

I am not an Ives scholar, like fellow Amazon reviewer Bob Zeidler, and I hope that he will be adding his review to this page some time soon. But I do have a few thoughts about this recording, and some brief comparisons with the two other recent issues by Aimard and Mayer. As I said in my Mayer review, the easiest course is simply to buy all three, but I recognize that might not be the choice than many will make. So, how does one make a choice about which version to buy? Well, first of all there is the question of price: Mayer's is on the budget Naxos label; the other two are at full price. Couplings might make a difference to some. Aimard's includes Susan Graham singing seventeen of Ives's songs accompanied by Aimard; they are simply smashing. Mayer's includes other shorter piano works: 'Varied Air and Variations,' 'The Celestial Railroad,' and Transcription No. 1 from 'Emerson.' Also, the four movements of the 'Concord' Sonata are separately introduced by actor Kerry Shale reading appropriate passages from Ives's 'Essays Before a Sonata.' (The Essays are the length of a short book and can be accessed online at Project Gutenberg for the interested among you. I take pride in having proofread the 'Essays' for Project Gutenberg. If you catch some typos, they're mine!) Hamelin's CD, of course, is coupled with the Barber Sonata.

How do the performances differ? Well, for starters, Aimard includes the optional tiny viola part at the end of the 'Emerson' movement (played by viola superstar, Tabea Zimmermann) and the flute part in 'Thoreau' (played by flute superstar Emanuel Pahud). Nice as this is, it is not a deal-maker or -breaker. I cannot vouch for the fact that all three pianists play precisely the same version of the 'Concord.' I didn't catch any differences but there may be some because there are as many different versions of the sonata as there are leaves on a tree--Ives kept making changes. I believe, though, that all three primarily are using the version Ives made in the late 1940s. Movement timings might be instructive: Hamelin's traversal is by far the fastest at 42'54"; Aimard's is 48'16", Mayer's roughtly 52', not counting Shale's readings in between movements. Hamelin's 'Emerson' is almost a full three minutes faster than Mayer's. And his version of the ferociously difficult 'Hawthorne' is a full two minutes faster than either of the other versions. Further, Hamelin's inflections seem more finely nuanced, even at the greater speed. Still, his approach seems almost romantic at times, especially as compared to Mayer's which seems more, for lack of a better word, 'modern.' Aimard's (and perhaps I'm thinking this simply because of his long association with Messiaen and his music) seems more impressionistic. The sonata contains a great deal of layering and blurring of textures and all three pianists manage that extremely well. Where Mayer and Hamelin seem to have an edge is in the sharp 'American' outlines of the quicker rhythms. I particularly like what they do with the march rhythms (e.g. when 'Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean' is quoted) and the proto-jazz sections (although, to be honest, Aimard gets in some licks, too).

The more I think about it, the more I realize I get something from each version and and I wouldn't want to be without any of them. I guess my initial impulse to say 'Buy all three' was stronger than I realized. Buy all three!!

Finally, I must say that the performance of the Barber Sonata is the most vital I've ever heard. Not only is the popular final movement, the Fugue, played with point and almost inhuman aplomb, but the powerful, dissonant first movement, the almost Mendelssohnian (well, light-textured anyhow) second movement, and the lovely adagio are exceedingly convincing.

An extraordinary release. I'd hate to be the folks who have to give out prizes for best piano performance or best CD of twentieth-century music for 2004. Maybe they could award a tie!

Scott Morrison

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American Beauty
Unusual - I love it!

American Ballads

Manufacturer: Postcards
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

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Invitation to the Dance
Reform: Solo Piano

ASIN: B000059T25
Release Date: 2001-02-27

Tracks:

Excursions, Op.20: I. Un Poco Allegro
Excursions, Op.20: II. In Show Blues Tempo
Excursions, Op.20: III. Allegretto
Excursions, Op.20: IV. Allegro Molto
Four Piano Blues: I. Freely Poetic
Four Piano Blues: II. Soft And Languid
Four Piano Blues: III. Muted And Sensuous
Four Piano Blues: IV. With Bounce
On Gossamer Wings
American Ballads: I. Streets Of Laredo
American Ballads: II. Wayfaring Stranger
American Ballads: III. The Bird
American Ballads: IV. Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair
American Ballads: V. Cod Liver Pie
North American Ballads: III. Down By The Riverside
Piano Sonata No.2: III. The Alcotts
The Plow That Broke The Plains, Ste: I. Prelude
The Plow That Broke The Plains, Ste: II. Cowboy Songs
The Plow That Broke The Plains, Ste: III. Blues
The Plow That Broke The Plains, Ste: IV. Finale
American Nocturne

Album Description

Pianist Lara Downes takes us on a journey through the heart and soul of the USA with American Ballads, as she interprets 20th century works by Barber, Copland, Ives, Thompson and features the world premiere recording of jazz composer/saxophonist Benny Golson's On Gossamer Wings.This collection of solo pieces reflects the influence of popular music on our master composers and captures the essence of the American spirit, brilliantly performed by one of today's remarkable talents.

Lara Downes has attracted attention as one of the most exciting and communicative pianists of today's younger generation. She has been cited by critics for her breathtaking virtuosity and penetrating, sensitive accounts of classical and romantic repertoire. She has been hailed as an artist worthy of placement in the highest rank of classical performers. Since making noteworthy debuts at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Ms. Downes performs regularly throughout Europe and the United States.

Ms. Downes eclectic and engaging programs encompass both the standard repertoire and works by young composers such as Augusta Read Thomas and Stephen Paulus. Her recent projects include a Copland Centennial recital, a recently discovered piano concerto by Clara Schumann, and a four-part recital series entitled This American Century. She recently made the world premiere recording of On Gossamer Wings by legendary jazz composer Benny Golson for the Arkadia/Postcards label.

The eldest of the three musical daughters of a civil-rights attorney mother and a Jamaican biochemist father, Ms. Downes began her piano studies at age five at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. At seven, she composed an opera based on the book Charlotte's Web, which was performed in San Francisco. Home-schooled through high school, Ms. Downes completed her advanced studies under Hans Graf at the Vienna Hochschule and with Rudolf Buchbinder at the Music Academy in Basel. She has received highest honors in the Claude Kahn, Palma d'Oro and Artists International competitions.

Ms. Downes' busy solo and chamber career is strongly impacted by her commitment to expanding and developing new audiences for the arts. She dedicates time during her concert tours to elementary school workshops, and has developed a wide network of community outreach through the University of California at Davis. She is the co-founder and artistic director of Arts Exchange, a project dedicated to building creative partnerships between the visual and performing arts. In her own words: "I'd like to re-define the concert experience, to give it new relevance in our 21st-century world".

Ms. Downes speaks fluent English, Italian, German and French. She lives in Northern California.

Customer Reviews:

American Beauty.......2001-07-26

OK, I admit it! I picked up this CD because of the great-looking Ralph Lauren-esque cover art. Lara is gorgeous and not your typical classical pianist. But then I listened to the recording and discovered that she's REALLY not your typical classical pianist! A feisty, swinging musician with a mind of her own, she brings a brand new sound to these terrific American classics. I can't recommend this enough.

Unusual - I love it!.......2001-04-18

As a piano fan and record collector, I always look for new concepts and presentations. This is a marvelous collection of seldom-heard works that deserve more attention. Miss Downes is a big talent. Bravo!

Charles Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2 'Concord'; The Celestial Railroad

Average customer rating:

Excellent Performance of Great Music
Ives's "Hammerklavier"
A Transcendent 'Transcendental' Sonata

Charles Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2 'Concord'; The Celestial Railroad

Manufacturer: Naxos American
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

4-for-3 Classical | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

4-for-3 All Music | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Ives: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-4
Charles Ives: Emerson Concerto; Symphony No. 1
Charles Ives: Three Quarter-Tone Pieces; Five Take-offs; Hallowe'en; Sunrise
Improvisations
Orbón: Symphonic Dances; Three Symphonic Versions; Concerto Grosso

ASIN: B0002KQO8U
Release Date: 2004-08-17

Tracks:

Readings From 'Circles' (R.W. Emerson) And Ives On 'Emerson'
'Emerson'
Reading From Ives On 'Hawthorne'
'Hawthorne'
Reading From Ives On 'The Alcotts'
'The Alcotts'
Readings From 'Walden' And Journal Excerpts By H.D. Thoreau
'Thoreau'
Varied Air And Variations
The Celestial Railroad
Transcriptions From 'Emerson', No. 1

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Performance of Great Music.......2006-08-23

The "Concord" Sonata is one of Ives' greatest works, and this is an excellent performance of it. To my ear, it lacks the very last touches of Ives' American humor and unsentimental transcendentalism, though it does manage to avoid egregious Romanticism and antiseptic "classicism." I may be romanticizing myself in imagining that the best performance of this great music was that of Ralph Kirkpatrick, Ives' student at Yale, which I heard years ago on CBS vinyl (still not available on CD, as far as I know). I have not heard the other recent recordings of this work, so my review cannot offer comparisons. This disc offers excerpts from Ives' excellent "Essay Before a Sonata," read by a professional actor between the movements. The readings betray several failures of understanding on the part of the actor but give at least a taste of Ives' ideas in prose.

Ives's "Hammerklavier".......2004-09-13

In its size, ambition, difficulty, breadth, and seriousness of purpose, Charles Ives's Piano Sonata No. 2, "Concord, Masachusetts 1840-1860" reminds me of Beethoven's great piano sonata op. 106, the "Hammerklavier". The work includes extensive quotation from Beethoven, not from the "Hammerklavier" but rather the motto of the Fifth Symphony, a work much in the spirit of the "Hammerklavier". With the Concord sonata, Ives wrote a truly monumental work; difficult but a mainstay of American music. One of the early reviewers of the Concord, Larence Gilman, wrote in 1939:

"This sonata is exceptionally great music-- it is, indeed, the greatest music composed by an American and the most deeply and essentially American in impulse and implication. It is wide-ranging and capacious. It has passion, tenderness, humour, simplicity, homeliness. It has imaginative and spiritual vastness. It has wisdom and beauty and profundity, and a sense of the encompassing terror and splendor of human life and human destiny -- a sense of those mysteries that are both human and divine" (Quoted in Jan Swafford's "Charles Ives: A Life with Music, p. 411)

Not all critics, then or now, share Gilman's enthusiasm for the Concord. But I listened several times to this CD, performed by pianist Steven Mayer, and was transported. The United States has indeed produced great art music.

The Concord has the traditional four movements of the classical or romantic sonata. Each movement celebrates a great figure who lived in Concord during the early American Renaissance. The music looks backward to the achievements of these figures and forward to what America collectively and the individual listener might become. On this CD, each movement is prefaced by short quotations from the subject of each of movement, or by Ives himself. I found this helpful in approaching the work. It also encourages the listener to approach each movement separately, which is a reasonable way of becoming acquainted with the Concord.

The first movement is the most difficult in the work and is titled "Emerson". The movement opens with dominant chords in the bass accompanied by high,rising passages in the upper register of the piano. These passages become the basis of the entire work. As befitting Emerson, (and Ives) the work is visionary, questing, searching, and quirky all at once. Large agressive heavy chords and dissonances alternate throughout with slow and meditative moments.

The second movement, "Hawthorne" is a scherzo. It emphasizes Hawthorne's romantic, fanciful side while down-playing Hawthorne's puritan sense of sin. The music shimmers and swirls and, as it progresses, contrasts brief sections of lyricism with burly dissonant writing. A march lights up the concluding sections of this work. Ives' short piece "The Celestial Railroad", also included on this CD, is a variant of the Concord's "Hawthorne" movement.

The third movement "the Alcotts" stresses the domestic tranquillity of the family rather than Bronson Alcott's transcendent philosophical speculations. The movement opens slowly with a chorale, simple theme and gradually builds to an intense climax. This movement makes great use of the motto from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

The final movement, "Thoreau", is the slowest of the work. It opens with soft-upward arpeggios, grows in intensity, and ultimately works to a quiet close. This movement is based upon a hymn-like theme that, in fact, appears throughout the entirety of the Concord.

In addition to the Sonata itself, the CD includes three works that are associated with the Concord and that are built from its music: "The Celestial Railroad" which I mentioned earlier, the first of a set of transcriptions that Ives prepared from the "Emerson" movement, and a sardonic work titled "Varied Air and Variations."

The Concord is music uniquely modern, spiritual, and American. The sense of the work shines through its bristling idiom. Jan Swafford has written that:

"Rarely in music have the unseen and unspoken mysteries of life seemed so imminent-from Emerson's heroic journey, to Hawthorne's "ghost of a man who never lived, " to the Alcott's "conviction in the power of the common soul, " to Thoreau's melody that "runs into such depth and wildness as to be no longer heard." ... The Concord Sonata is another Ivesian signpost pointed toward the ultimate millenium." (Jan Swafford, Charles Ives: A Life with Music", p.266)

This CD is part of the Naxos "American Classics" series and, more specifically, is the fifth CD in this series devoted to the music of Charles Ives. The CD sells at a budget price. Ives appears to me the essential American composer. Ives captured his sense of our country and combined it with a personal spiritual vision in music in the way that Walt Whitman endeavored to capture the United States, the sense of the personal, and a spiritual vision in his poetry.

A Transcendent 'Transcendental' Sonata.......2004-09-06

I've never heard a bad performance of Ives's 'Concord' Sonata, except perhaps for my own fumbling attempt at the 'Alcott' movement at a musical soirée many years ago. (Ruth Laredo, when she heard I was working on the sonata, said that she would have assumed it was beyond me, and she was right, alas.) Further, I've never encountered a bad recording of it, and I've heard them all except for the one by Alexei Lubimov. All have their strong points and one simply won't go wrong with any of them--John Kirkpatrick, Gilbert Kalish, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the one by Marc-André Hamelin from the early 1990s. Not long after this review appears here at Amazon, Hamelin will have released a new recording of it (coupled with the Barber Sonata) and I would be willing to make book that it is a corker. So, what could Steven Mayer bring to this piece that others haven't? Well, first of all, he has the chops to pull it off--his playing of Art Tatum's music would have led one to expect that--but, more, he has the musicianship to breathe life and import into these notably dense movements. The knotty 'Emerson' movement is written largely without bar lines and on three staves; it is scary for a pianist to contemplate, much less understand and then make music of. Mayer does this at least partly by maintaining a steady pulse from which he can vary as needed and then return to; some pianists don't manage this, but Mayer's approach to tempi gives the movement a cohesion that is difficult to convey. He takes Ives's direction to play 'Hawthorne' as fast as possible with a grain of salt, and that is a plus; it allows the music to make an appropriate blur without being a scrambled mess. 'Alcott' is played with love and nostalgia but without saccharine sentimentality. The hymn tune 'Jesus Lover of My Soul' ('Martyn') makes an appearance and is somehow connected harmonically with the quotation from Beethoven's Fifth that pops up all through the Sonata. 'Thoreau' is played with quiet intensity and in the long final section Ives does what he does so often: he presents a fairly straightforward rendition of a tune that has been hinted at all through the sonata, but never quite stated as such until the conclusion, a sort of variations-leading-to-a-theme, a kind of 'coming home.' In this case the theme is original with Ives and he himself referred to it as the 'human faith melody.'

The Sonata is followed by pieces that are mostly related to it. 'Varied Air and Variations'--the suggestion has been made that this odd title is Ives's pun on its pronunciation: 'Very Darin' Variations'--does not appear to have motivic relation to the sonata, but it is speculated that this angry-sounding piece, written not long after the Sonata, is his response to the Sonata's failure to secure performances. 'The Celestial Railroad' is a major recasting of the 'Hawthorne' movement inspired by Hawthorne's short story of that name. And the 'Emerson Transcription, No. 1' (one of four such tinkerings with the Sonata's first movement) is based on the movement's first page or so and includes material from his orchestral 'Emerson Overture.' Mayer plays them all marvelously. I particularly enjoyed his hearty abandon in 'The Celestial Railroad'; simply superb pianism!

Well, what should one do with so many good recordings of the 'Concord'? The simple answer is to buy them all. But I recognize most music-lovers won't go that far. Is there anything that sets this release apart, aside from the remarkable playing by Mayer? First, there is the attractive Naxos budget price. And, second, there is the reading by actor Kerry Shale, before each of the Sonata's four movements, of appropriate excerpts from Ives's own writings about the people who inspired the work. Attractive in themselves, these selections are probably not something one would want to listen to each time one hears the Sonata, but fortunately they are tracked separately and thus can be programmed out of a straight listen-through of the Sonata itself.

Strongly recommended.

TT=79:09

Scott Morrison

Average customer rating:

A Portrait

Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Etudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Percussion | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00004Y6RG
Release Date: 2000-10-24

Tracks:

Italian Con, BWV 971: I. Allegro - Columbia Conc Orch/Howard Barlow
Pno Con No.20 in d, K 466: I. Allegro - Columbia Conc Orch/Howard Barlow
Pno Con No.20 in d, K 466: II. Romanze - Columbia Conc Orch/Howard Barlow
Pno Con No.20 in d, K 466: III. Allegro Assai - Columbia Conc Orch/Howard Barlow
Hungarian Rhap No.13 - New York Phil/Efrem Kurtz
Pno Con No.2 in c, Op.18: II. Adagio Sostenuto - New York Phil/Efrem Kurtz
Pno Son: I. Allegro Con Moto - Teresa Sterne
Pno Son: II. Adagietto - Teresa Sterne
Pno Son: III. Allegro Vivo - Teresa Sterne
Pno Son: IV. Allegro - Teresa Sterne

Tracks:

Ov To An English Opr, Hob 1A-3 - The Little Orch Of London/Leslie Jones
Nun Freut Euch, Lieben Christen - Paul Jacobs
Herzlich Thut Mich Verlangen - Paul Jacobs
Etude, Book II - Paul Jacobs
Five Pno Pieces, Op.23: II Sehr Rasch - Paul Jacobs
Ionisation - The New Jersey Perc Ens/Raymond DesRoches
The Ragtime Dance - Joshua Rifkin
Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair - Jan DeGaetani/Gilbert Kalish
Blondel Zu Marien, D 626 - Jan DeGaetani/Gilbert Kalish
Double Con: Intro - Paul Jacobs/Gilbert Kalish
Pno Son No.2, 'Concord, Mass': III. The Alcotts - Gilbert Kalish
Wait 'Till The Sun Shines, Nellie - Joan Morris/William Bolcom
Graceful Ghost - William Bolcom
Ancient Voices Of Children: III. De Donde Vienes, Amor, Mi Nino?/IV. Todas Las Tardes En Granada... - Jan DeGaetani/Michael Dash
Nyamamusango (Meat In The Forest) - Hakurotwi Mude/Cosmas Magaya/Ephat Mujuri
Vetar Vee - Vasilka Andonova/Kremena Stancheva
Ta Shto Mi E Miloj, Mamo - Nadezhda Georgieva Klicherova/Gena Ivanova Bodenova/Nadezhda Georgieva Paleastova
Ketjak Dance - Teresa Sterne
I Big You Goodnight - Edith Pinder/Geneva Pinder/Raymond Pinder/Joseph Spence
Oyun Havasi - Teresa Sterne
Ketawang Puspawarna - Teresa Sterne

Amazon.com

The life of Teresa Sterne is as noteworthy as the label she once presided over (Nonesuch). As a child prodigy, she successfully filled world-class auditoriums in the 1940s with audiences eager to hear her piano playing. Then, inexplicably, Sterne abandoned her concert career only to resurface as the leader behind Nonesuch Records in the late 1960s, turning the budget classical label into one of the more adventurous and consistently rewarding labels around (and generally keeping quiet about her earlier fame). Half of this double-CD tribute collects recordings of a teenage Sterne at the keyboard; the second disc is devoted to some of the finest recordings from her Nonesuch tenure (1965-1979)--both are engrossing.

Ignore the surface noise on Sterne's disc (no small task on the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20), and you'll hear a young pianist in fine form--she is expressive, and boasts crisp articulation and fine technique. She dances through Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 with riveting intensity; on Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 (with the New York Philharmonic), she shows a sensitive but no less virtuosic side. On the second disc, we get a virtual best-of for Nonesuch Records, including tracks by Joshua Rifkin, Paul Jacobs, and William Bolcom. Hard to imagine anyone doing it these days, but in one five-year period (1970-1975), Nonesuch released albums featuring the music of Stephen Foster, Edgar Varese, George Crumb, and a platter of Bulgarian folk tunes. They're all here. Now battling Lou Gehrig's disease, Sterne herself may be unable to celebrate this release, but for anyone who has treasured a release from Nonesuch's glory days, it's a moving tribute. --Jason Verlinde

Ives: Piano Sonata No.2 'concord', Three Quarter-Tone Pieces
Average customer rating:
Ives: Piano Sonata No.2 'concord', Three Quarter-Tone Pieces
Aimard , and Lubimov
Manufacturer: Apex/Warner Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00007KI18
Release Date: 2006-04-14

Tracks:

Sonata No.2 'Concord, Mass.,1840-1860'
Three Quarter-Tone Pieces For Two Pianos

Average customer rating:

Best recording of Concord
Ives as Performed by Hamelin
(No title).

Ives: Sonata No.2 "Concord, Mass"

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji: Piano Sonata No. 1
Albéniz: Iberia
Bernstein: Symphony No2; Bolcom: Concerto for piano
Busoni: Piano Concerto, Op. 39
Schumann: Carnaval; Fantasiestücke; Papillons

ASIN: B0000030EK
Release Date: 1992-12-08

Tracks:

Sonata: I.
Sonata: II.
Sonata: III.
I. Emerson
II. Hawthorne
III. The Alcotts
IV. Thoreau

Customer Reviews:

Best recording of Concord.......2004-01-08

There are a bunch of recordings of Concord. This one captures the depth and granduer. In addition, Hamelin has the chops to really go at the work and the smarts to listen to Ives's own examples of how to play Ives.

Ives as Performed by Hamelin.......2001-11-06

When I first saw this album advertised in a catalogue, I was somewhat skeptical about yet another version of the Ives "Concord Sonata," until I noticed that it was performed by Mr. Hamelin. I happen to own several CD's recorded by Hamelin of the work of Charles Valentin Alkan, and recorded very well. That made me curious as to how Hamelin might handle the Ives work, so I ordered the CD. I was not disappointed. He manages to capture the spirit of Ives's work better than any recent recording I have heard including the Gilbert Kalish. But in my opinion, the best performance ever of this work is still the one made by John Kirkpatrick. I am still waiting for that one to be reissued on CD, but in the meantime, the Hamelin is the best version anywhere.

(No title)........2000-12-07

What a fine reading of dedication and imaginative freedom Hamelin gives the Concord Sonata! Really, he gives you a perfect glimpse into the mind of Ives, the most authentic voice of musical transendentalism -- more than enough feel for the impetus and drive, majesty and power, profound wonder and uncannily moving expression, contrasting harmonics and intensely poetic inward reflecting mind-scapes. Everything is marvelously controlled, and the alterations and responses between maelstrom and mysticism, culminating in a dazzlying and dizzying arsenal of fireworks is enough to knock off your socks! Mind you, the Wright Sonata, in many shades similar to Ives, is anything but filler! This piece, celebrating the rhythmic declamations and strong delineated emotional states of loneliness and rotating stillness, of silence itself, makes for an extraordinarily memorable experience under the hands of this God-sent pianist.

Average customer rating:

Just dandy!
More than a bargain
5 Star Performance, 0 Star Recording

Charles Ives: Works For Piano
Charles Ives , and Alan Mandel
Manufacturer: Vox (Classical)
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Etudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Inventions | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Psalms | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Works for Piano: Three-Page Sonata (1905-06) - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Song Without (Good) Words - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No.9 - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No. 22 - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No. 20 - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No. 18 - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No. 15 - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No. 2 - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No. 8 - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No. 7 - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No. 6 - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No. 5 - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Rough and Ready - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Scene Episode - Charles Ives

Tracks:

Works for Piano: Piano Sonata No. 2 (Concord, Mass. 1840-1860) - Emerson - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Hawthorne - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: The Alcotts - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Thoreau - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Study No. 21 - 'Some Southpaw Pitching' - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: Waltz - Rondo - Charles Ives
Works for Piano: March In G And D - 'Here's To Good Old Yale' - Charles Ives

Tracks:

The Celestial Railroad, A Phantasie For Piano Solo - C. IVES
The Seen And Unseen - C. IVES
Anthem - Processional - C. IVES
Bad Resolutions And Good - C. IVES
Storm And Distress - C. IVES
Allegretto (Invention) - C. IVES
Baseball Take-Off - C. IVES
Varied Air And Variations - C. IVES
First Sonata: First Movement - C. IVES
First Sonata: Second Movement - C. IVES
First Sonata: Third Movement - C. IVES
First Sonata: Fourth Movement - C. IVES
First Sonata: Fifth Movement - C. IVES

Customer Reviews:

Just dandy!.......2003-10-04

My copy of this set sounds fine--a bit bright and edgy at times but nothing to write my congressperson about. I would've preferred a richer piano sound and modern digital recording, but hey, we can't have everything, especially in this sort of repertoire. These are swell performances of astonishing piano music. In unsympathetic hands, Ives (or nearly any "modern" composer) can sound like so much noodling--not so here. Ives himself enjoyed adventurous (and even incompetent!) interpretations of his music and was hardly fussy with his notation so it's tough to call any one recording of a work "definitive." A tip: look for hell-bent enthusiasm and/or profound mysticism more than any other qualities in Ives performances. You'll find them in this set, in old (and sonically imperfect) recordings like Bernstein's for CBS (now Sony) or the Stokowski performance of Symphony #4, and in the wonderful collection of Ives playing his own music. With Ives, the "critical edition" mentality or perfectionism of any type tend to miss the man's essential aesthetic and spiritual points.

More than a bargain.......2001-07-22

I listened to this set before I looked at the review already posted here; then I went back to listen again, thinking I must have missed something. For what it's worth, I did not detect distorted recording, though there are (as often with Ives) some odd sounds coming from the piano now and then--but I think they are part of it. Mandel's performances of the big works--the two sonatas--are distinctive and powerful. I am not sure I would say he replaces John Kirkpatrick's "Concord," but he stands comfortably in that company as a fine interpreter of the work, and his Sonata #1 is possibly the best I have heard of that work. The many shorter or minor pieces are performed well, so far as I can tell. I suppose it is possible that the earlier reviewer had a defective set, or possibly my ears are just not so finely tuned. I hope, however, that the recorded sound is at least as good as it sounds to me, since I would hope that both fans and newcomers would find this a welcome addition to an Ives collection.

5 Star Performance, 0 Star Recording.......1999-10-12

This is an excellent performance by Alan Mandel who, throughout these 3 discs, shows an uncanny ability to bring out the melody from within even the most convoluted Ives' piece. Unfortunately, most of this recording is distorted and noisy when the playing gets loud. All of the Studies on CD 1 contain distortion well beyond any professional recording I've ever heard (the 2 sonatas don't suffer from the same fate -- they appear to be from a different session). The fact that Vox goes on about their 20-bit digital mastering on the back of the box sure looks like they are "protesting too much". This is all a real shame for Ives fans because Mandel's playing is some of the finest Ives piano performances I've ever heard, plus, here in one place at a great price, are arcane pieces well worth hearing. (It's almost worth getting for that reason, but, in the end, you're stuck with fine music that's distorted and noisy.)

Ives Plays Ives / Record # 4 in "Charles Ives, the 100th Anniversary"

Average customer rating:

Interesting, historically important CD
man and machine
Ives speaks for himself, better late than never.
Recordings of a Twentieth Century Master
Precious moments with America's greatest composer.

Ives Plays Ives / Record # 4 in "Charles Ives, the 100th Anniversary"

Manufacturer: Composers Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Etudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Classical | Box Sets | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00000K2FD
Release Date: 1999-09-21

Tracks:

June 12,1933: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 1 (Beg.)
June 12,1933: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 1 (End)
June 12,1933: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3
June 12,1933: Improvisation On A Passage In Study No. 23, Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 2, And Emerson Overture's Cadenza No. 4 (With False Start)
Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson' No. 1 (Beg.)
Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson' No. 1 (End)
Mid 1930s: Study No. 11 (Abandoned)
Mid 1930s: Study No. 11
Mid 1930s: Study No. 11
Mid 1930s: Patch For Study No. 23
Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson' No. 1 (Beg.)
Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson' No. 1 (End)
Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3
Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3
May 11,1938: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3 (Beg.)
May 11,1938: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3 (End)
May 11,1938: Study No. 11
May 11,1938: Study No. 9: The Anti-Abolitionist Riots
May 11,1938: Study No. 2 with false start
May 11,1938: Study No. 2 (Beg.)
May 11,1938: Study No. 2 (End)
May 11,1938: Study No. 23 (Partial)
May 11,1938: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 1 (Abandoned)
May 11,1938: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 1 (Middle)
May 11,1938: Study No. 23 (Partial)
May 11,1938: Three Improvisations, No. 1
May 11,1938: Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Concord, Mass., 'Hawthorne' (Excerpt)
May 11,1938: Symphony No. 1 - Rejected Mvt. 2 (Largo)
May 11,1938: Unidentified (Improvisation On The 'Sunrise' Cadenza'?)
May 11,1938: Study No. 20 (Partial)
May 11,1938: Three Improvisations, No.3
April 24, 1943: Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Concord, Mass., 'Emerson' (Partial)
April 24, 1943: Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Concord, Mass., 'Emerson' (Partial)
April 24, 1943: Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Concord, Mass., 'Emerson' (Partial)
April 24, 1943: Study No. 2 + Study No. 23 (Mixed)
April 24, 1943: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3 (Abandoned)
April 24, 1943: Study No.9: The Anti-Abolishonist Riots
April 24, 1943: They Are There!, First Take (Abandoned)
April 24, 1943: They Are There!, Second Take
1943/04/24 They Are There!, Third Take
April 24, 1943: March No. 6 For Piano With 'Here's To Good Old Yale'
April 24, 1943: Sonata No.2 for Piano: Concord, Mass., 'The Alcotts'

Amazon.com essential recording

In his lifetime, maverick composer Charles Ives entered the recording studio only four times, mostly to hear (and tinker with) his works in progress. He ended up doing 42 takes of 17 different pieces on the piano, all recorded between 1933 and 1943: everything from snippets of the unfinished Emerson Concerto to his rousing wartime anthem "They Are There!" It's a varied lot, to say the least, but now we have his complete recordings on one CD. The sound quality isn't great and you can easily hear how frustrated Ives is by the newfangled technology (recording techniques restricted his playing to five minute chunks). That said, you couldn't ask for a greater insight into the composer.

Most of these pieces derive from Ives's unfinished Emerson concerto for piano and orchestra, but the entire package is one big treasure chest. Here we have the composer at work: improvising, (occasionally) frustrated, frenzied, and--most of all--creative. His playing is as off-the-wall as you can imagine: fast, improvised, with failed notes galore, and occasionally spot-on. Highlights abound--just check out "The Alcotts" from the Concord Sonata (No. 2) to hear him at his performance peak--but the most memorable cuts feature Ives himself singing. His three versions of the wartime anthem "We Are There!" should give hope to any struggling vocalist... for a career either selling insurance or composing great music. Yes, his voice is simply awful, but the music and history contained on this disc are breathtaking. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews:

Interesting, historically important CD.......2005-08-16

To hear Ives play his own works is a real treasure. Of course, the recording quality is spotty at best, and the tracks recorded on the Speak-O-Phone are sometimes almost unbearable to hear.

But other tracks have excellent sound and you can catch Ives at his creative and offbeat best.

Those willing to bear with the sound limitations will be well rewarded when they hear the final track 42, which is particularly beautiful and because it comes indirectly from a tape transfer has better sound quality.

man and machine.......2002-04-09

This is a fantastic peek at the complexities of the recording art.. Charlie was lucky to have access to recording technology, and yet it was quite frustrating for him.

Easy to forget the 'miracle.' John Kirkpatrick once told me that his recording of the Concord required something like 43 different 'takes' (if you will); I guess I had assumed it was just one run through.

I'm grateful for all the 'Emerson' here. It is my favorite part of Concord. I heard some of these recordings back in '73, and they really have been lovingly upgraded. Thank you for making these available to us.

Ives speaks for himself, better late than never........2001-12-07

Shades of Cecil Taylor! This collection flies in the face of attempts to create "definitive" performance scores for Ives' compositions. The composer who imagined a world without symphony orchestras, where one simply thought-created the music while contemplating nature, can hardly be tied down to an engraving of notes. It wasn't only the skill to perform his compositions that Ives demanded of musicians, but the spirit to enter into them - a conceptual understanding & a will to get at them from the inside out.

I still believe Charlie was willfully naive & had a neurotic fear of success. While he looked over his shoulder at the "Rollos" of American music, as if they mattered, he missed out on the emergence of the very generation of composers & artists who were his exact, or nearly exact, contemporaries. There was no Armory Show in Ives' world; no Alfred Stieglitz; no Ezra Pound or William Carlos Williams; no Arensberg salon. He worked himself half to death & shamelessly let younger men do the heavy lifting of his reputation. This recording shows how revelatory Ives might have been to Europeans, had he gone to bat "over there" for his own art when he was both healthy & wealthy. Ives took a great gamble with his art. Thank heavens it paid off.

Recordings of a Twentieth Century Master.......2001-11-06

The preceeding descriptions of the music are good. I just wanted to add this: The playing and singing of '...They are there!' that Ives demonstrates towwards the end of the disc is some really musicially sensitive stuff. It is what Charles Ives is all about; no 'rollo,' no inhibitions, just playing and expression without self consciousness. I would very strongly recommend this recording to anyone who improvises and anyone who composes; you really should hear this. However, for anyone, hearing genius at the piano is good fun and very interesting...

Precious moments with America's greatest composer........2000-05-12

The millenium's over, the ballots are in, and the winner of the Most Important Twentieth Century American Composer title is--still--Charles Ives. Ives was a great composer with his own voice, a lofty vision, and sense of humor besides. He was also a nationalist, but in the best way, overtly embracing the music which meant the most to his countrymen--hymns, popular tunes, the mainline classics--and adapting it for his own use.
Ives' music is likely among the most complicated ever put on a page, and generations of musicians have wondered if they had broken Ives' code and were playing it the way he wanted it. Wonder no more! This CD presents rare examples of Ives playing his own stuff. The good news is that performers pretty much had it right. The bad news is that the music here is strictly for the Ives fanatic. Don't start your Ives recording collection here. Even with the most ingenious digital enhancement, the sound quality is generally poor and way too much time is spent on those damnable Emerson studies and other recondite repertoire. But the performances of "They are there," are a lot of fun, and the reading of "The Alcotts" is revelatory. So is that enough to make the CD worth getting? Darned right!!

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