Many music lovers think about Ives, who died in 1954, to be the primary actually nice American composer. A brand new recording by pianist Donald Berman is a significant addition to the Ives discography.
TERRY GROSS, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. This 12 months marks the a hundred and fiftieth birthday of Charles Ives. Many music lovers think about him the primary actually nice American composer, though a few of them are bewildered by his untraditional strategies. FRESH AIR’s classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz thinks that there are numerous causes to have a good time Ives, together with a brand new recording by pianist Donald Berman that Lloyd thinks is a significant addition to the Ives discography.
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN’S PERFORMANCE OF IVES’ “PIANO SONATA NO. 2, ‘CONCORD, MASS., 1840-1860’: I. EMERSON”)
LLOYD SCHWARTZ, BYLINE: The phrase that comes up in virtually any dialogue of Charles Ives is maverick. A Connecticut insurance coverage actuary throughout working hours and a daringly creative composer in his spare time. Or is it the opposite manner round? He is nonetheless a thriller 150 years after his start. He is each admired and attacked for his avant-garde atonality, the elimination of bar traces in his scores and his eccentric, typically overlapping musical quotations of classical music, parlor and political songs, marches and hymn tunes.
SCHWARTZ: Certainly one of Ives’ most difficult works is his practically hourlong “Harmony” sonata, which was first printed in 1919 however did not have its world premiere till his buddy and editor, the legendary pianist John Kirkpatrick, performed it in 1939. Kirkpatrick made landmark recordings of each that authentic model and an extensively revised later model. Now pianist Donald Berman, a pupil of Kirkpatrick’s and president of the Ives Society, has launched a formidable new recording that includes modifications Ives made even after his later revision. Ives by no means stopped revising. He thought of his scores extra of a blueprint for performers than strict directions.
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN PERFORMANCE OF IVES’ “PIANO SONATA NO. 2, ‘CONCORD, MASS., 1840-1860’: I. EMERSON”)
SCHWARTZ: The “Harmony Sonata” will get its identify from the American Transcendentalists, the good nineteenth century writers, intellectuals and abolitionists Ives admired who lived in Harmony, Mass. The 4 actions are large musical portraits of the figures for whom they’re named. The primary and largest motion is “Emerson” – solemn, jagged, tonally unpredictable. The second motion, “Hawthorne,” is simply the other – fanciful, creative and mesmerizing, the sound picture of an incredible storyteller.
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN PERFORMANCE OF IVES’ “PIANO SONATA NO. 2, ‘CONCORD, MASS., 1840-1860’: II. HAWTHORNE”)
SCHWARTZ: The third motion, “The Alcotts,” refers to instructor, thinker, abolitionist and environmentalist Bronson Alcott and his extra well-known daughter, Louisa Might. Within the sonata, they’re homebodies intimately sitting across the piano.
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN PERFORMANCE OF IVES’ “PIANO SONATA NO. 2, ‘CONCORD, MASS., 1840-1860’: III. THE ALCOTTS”)
SCHWARTZ: Immediately, that quiet tune explodes right into a citation of the Beethoven Fifth Symphony.
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN PERFORMANCE OF IVES’ “PIANO SONATA NO. 2, ‘CONCORD, MASS., 1840-1860’: III. THE ALCOTTS”)
SCHWARTZ: Certainly one of my favourite tracks on this Ives disc is a brief piece known as “The St. Gaudens (‘Black March’).” It was impressed by the heroic bas reduction on the sting of the Boston Widespread by Augustus St. Gardens, the sculptor’s tribute to younger Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and his troop of Black troopers. They’re on their solution to the bloody Civil Conflict battle at Fort Wagner, S.C., the place most of them would lose their lives.
This magnificent public monument was additionally the topic of Robert Lowell’s nice poem “For The Union Useless.” You’ll be able to hear the tread of the troopers marching to their deaths. In Donald Berman’s efficiency, that sound makes a poignant prelude to the extra summary complexities of the “Harmony Sonata.”
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN PERFORMANCE OF IVES’ “THE ST. GAUDENS (‘BLACK MARCH’)”)
SCHWARTZ: Ives could be the most actually American of the good American composers. His music is so unashamedly and genuinely harmless, and on the identical time, so fully subversive.
GROSS: Lloyd Schwartz reviewed Donald Berman’s recording of Charles Ives’ “The St. Gaudens” and the “Harmony Sonata.” Lloyd’s newest e book is “Who’s On First? New And Chosen Poems.” It is printed by the College of Chicago Press.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HAPPY”)
PHARRELL WILLIAMS: (Singing) It may appear loopy what I am about to say.
GROSS: Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, our visitor will likely be Grammy-winning songwriter, performer and producer Pharrell Williams. The brand new movie “Piece By Piece” is an animated Pharrell biopic made totally of Legos. It covers his childhood in Virginia Seashore, his collaborations with artists like Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Britney Spears and Beyonce and his synesthesia – seeing colour when he hears music. I hope you will be a part of us. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley. I am Terry Gross.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HAPPY”)
WILLIAMS: (Singing) Clap alongside in the event you really feel like happiness is the reality as a result of I am pleased. Clap alongside if what happiness is to you as a result of I am pleased. Clap alongside in the event you really feel…
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