Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2 & Violin Sonata No. 4

Album review

Ives “assembled” his fourth and final sonata for violin and piano around 1916 based on diverse movements written between 1901 and 1910; that was his “modus operandi”, that would later be confirmed by the Concord Sonata, which follows the same rule in the creative process of this genius who knew how to masterfully construct a coherent work using the elements that were disparate in theory, conceived throughout a gestation period that could be as long as several decades. As with the preceding sonatas, Ives places each of his movements under the guise of a religious hymn, initially presented in a fragmented way, unstitched and ambiguous, before finally unveiling the theme in its entirety. Shortly after its official creation in 1940, the Quatrième Sonate would attract the attention of Szigeti who, not long after, performed it at the Carnegie Hall, leading to a recording for the radio and even a publication. This sonata is now one of Ives’s most played works. As for the Concord Sonata: in the “authors preface” of his Essai avant une Sonate, Ives described his objective: an attempt at presenting his impressions of the transcendental spirit, which, for more than half a century now, many people have associated with Concord, Massachusetts. To this end, each of the four movements make references to the great literary figures that lived in this small town between 1840 and 1860: Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, as well as a local family – the Alcotts. Amongst these musical references, we find Beethoven, some religious hymns, patriotic hymns, circus marches, as well as brief appearances from two “guest stars”: the viola and the flute (the flute being Thoreau’s instrument). Of course, the Concord Sonata will never dethrone the Hammerklavier or the Sonate by Liszt (in the essential repertoire of any self-respecting pianist) but the Concord always attracts the greatest soloists who make themselves champions of the work. Among these soloists we find the Finnish pianist Joonas Ahonen, who achieved great success not long ago with his recording of Concerto by Ligeti, as well as his interpretations of Beethoven on pianos of that era. Since 2011, Ahonen has also been a member of the prestigious ensemble Klangforum Wien. As for the violinist Pekka Kuusisto, he has already performed as a soloist for orchestras in Seattle, Cincinnati, for the BBC, on the Finnish Radio and the Philharmonic orchestras of Los Angeles and Oslo - to cite but a few. © SM/Qobuz