Charles IVES (1874-1954)
Con slugarocko - Complete Violin Sonatas
Violin Sonata No. 1 (1903, 1914-17) [22.57]
Violin Sonata No. 2 (1914-17) [14.52]
Violin Sonata No. 3 (1901-4, 1914) [29.17]
Violin Sonata No. 4 (1902-16) [10.46]
Annabelle Berthomé-Reynolds (violin)
Dirk Herten (piano)
rec. White Atrium, Avenue de la Toison d’Or, Brussels, Belgium, 27 January-4 February 2016
WH’TE 2016 [79.24]
The first things which might surprise you on opening up this
CD is that there are no booklet notes, just a picture of an old typewriter
with an Ives quote alongside: “And I did what I wanted to, quite sure
that the thing would never be played, and perhaps never could be played”.
You will have gathered therefore that any information I can offer I have gleaned
myself from various sources and I must say immediately that the above dates
for the works are, to a certain extent, guess-work even by Ives scholars.
First, there are four sonatas. The sequence began as early as 1902/3 when
the initial ideas for the First Sonata were developed.
It is in three movements. The first begins Andante and moves into
an Allegro Vivace. The middle movement is marked Largo cantabile
but the last word does not apply consistently as the movement develops aggressively
at times. The finale is an Allegro. The usual Ivesian fingerprints
are here. Its composition came about when he was finding himself at the time
of the Third Symphony The Camp Meeting. You hear hymns, popular tunes
and ragtime, poly-rhythms and cross-rhythms with many of the melodies recognisable
from other works like Orchestral Set II and the Symphonies 3 and
4. One must think of Ives, to quote Stuart Feder in the "Life of Charles
Ives" (Cambridge University Press, 1999) as nostalgic for “the
Danbury of his childhood (indeed childhood itself) and was and forever remained,
a sojourn into American Arcady”, the America of his father — who
was a very considerable influence on him — and grandfather.
The form in an Ives movement is unique. Taking the middle movement of this
First Sonata, he begins simply with a lovely child-like melody and gradually
adds complexities and abstractions. Vivid memories start to pile in from all
sides resulting eventually in a passionate crescendo and an outburst reaching
a wild climax. This suddenly fades as Ives releases the reverie and becomes
aware of his present world.
This analysis could equally apply to the third movement of the Second
Violin Sonata. To an even greater degree it is filled with the
Ivesian fingerprints mentioned above. The difference is that it is openly
programmatic. Movement I is entitled Autumn and one might think here
of harvest-time. Ives had written Three Harvest Home Chorales several
years before; the gathering of the crops was a significant village/town event.
The second is In the Barn; once the crops are in the village can
celebrate with a dance of wild abandon. The third, which is nostalgic and
reflective in the main, is The Revival with its quasi-religious mood.
The first movement of the Third Sonata is as long
as the whole of the Second Sonata. At this time Ives was at his most prolific.
In the early 1920s he started to gather his music together with a view to
some of the works being published and he may well have enlarged or at least
revised some of them. It appears in fact that the movements of this Sonata
may have been cobbled together from separate pieces during the First World
War. This Third Sonata is very approachable with its poised and melodic first
movement, its jazzy middle Allegro and its Cantabile Adagio
opening to the third.
You will have noticed that, as yet, I have not mentioned the performances
or the recording. The weakness of each is manifested in this aimlessly played
first movement. There is little sense of musical direction and the performers
are not helped by an awkward recording, the sound of which can often over-emphasise
the piano especially in the heavy chordal passages. In fairness I didn’t
entirely realise this until a friend lent me the version recorded by Curt
Thompson and Rodney Waters on Naxos
8.559119, which sounded so much better prepared and understood. Sadly
Berthomé-Reynolds’ tone quality is not consistent and this compounds
the problem. It’s also a pity that so little space has been left between
the sonatas.
The Fourth Sonata begins after only a few seconds.
Its subtitle Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting gave Ives the
chance to recall his 1870s childhood with much “inventive play at the
summer camps” (Feder). It's also based on hymns, which were sung
by children at their services. Ives said that he wanted to write a sonata
which his “twelve year handicapped nephew could play”. That may
be so in the first movement (Allegro) but the second one "got
away". Indeed Ives’ demands on the violinist are often so extraordinarily
impossible in many places in these sonatas, that it's as if he is asking
the player also to help in the creation of the work. The length of the whole
Fourth Sonata, a generally very approachable work, is less than the Third
Sonata’s first movement.
This is not top-drawer Ives nor are these performances necessarily on top
of the music. I like the way Annabelle Berthomé-Reynolds and Dirk Herten tackle
the slower more sensitive sections but the more abrasive and fierce passages,
of which there are many, sound rather congested and unpleasing. As I indicated
above this, no doubt, is also, down to the recording.
Gary Higginson
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