This excellent project
would be valuable even if it weren’t
of such high quality, since these unique
sonatas aren’t exactly an over-recorded
commodity in the catalogue. I have not
yet heard the highly regarded Bridge
recording with Gregory Fulkerson and
Robert Shannon.
Composed between 1902
and 1916, these four gems range from
just over nine minutes to over thirty
for the longest. And as H. Wiley Hitchcock
comments in his excellent liner notes,
they share much in common. Each has
three movements, each is "tinged
with the music of American Protestant
hymnody and ends with a finale based
on a hymn-tune," each uses the
prototypical "cumulative form"(*)
that Ives developed, and each is relatively
– emphasis on the word "relatively"
– easy to play. They also share a love
of beloved American songs from the later
part of the 19th century
– tunes that drift in and out with dreamlike
purity, zigzagging with bold changes
in metre and the furiously spiky harmonies
that Ives favored.
[* A phrase coined
by Ives scholar J. Peter Burkholder,
who observed that many of Ives’ pieces
begin with bits and pieces of a musical
phrase – tiny fragments that gradually
coalesce until the "entire"
melody is revealed at the end of the
piece.]
The First Sonata
was designed to depict outdoor gatherings,
climaxing with the third movement depicting
a farmers’ camp meeting, where hymns
incite them to "work, for the night
is coming." The Second Sonata
has no notes, possibly as Hitchcock
suggests because its subtitles are descriptive
enough: "Autumn," "In
the Barn" and "The Revival."
The Third was "An attempt
to suggest the feeling and fervor ...
with which the hymns and revival tunes
were sung at the camp meetings held
extensively in New England in the 1870s
and 1880s." And the Fourth
evokes children running loose, thrilled
to be outdoors on a gorgeous summer
day.
Curt Thompson plays
with absolute assurance, and a combination
of intimacy and gutsy immediacy. Consider
the short "Allegro" movement
of the Third Sonata, which becomes
completely electric in Thompson’s hands.
But equally moving is its final "Adagio",
which begins with a sort of "free
fantasia". All of these works have
moments of hushed quiet and solitude,
but usually not for long, when they
careen into vigorous explosions where
rhythms and tonal centers collide. Hitchcock
cites a touchingly humorous complaint
from Franz Micke, a German violinist
whom Ives invited to try the First
and Second sonatas: "When
you get awfully indigestible food in
your stomach that distresses you, you
can get rid of it, but I cannot get
those horrible sounds out of my ears."
Thankfully Ives trusted his instincts
to let those of us in the present day
come to our own conclusions.
Rodney Waters gives
Mr. Thompson alert support, plunging
into the piano parts with gusto but
not at the expense of sensitivity where
needed. His playing in the touching
second movement of the Fourth Sonata
elevates one of the simplest hymns,
Jesus Loves Me, to celestial
status. Part of the beauty of Ives is
the almost constant pull and tug between
moments that are ineffably beautiful,
and those that might seem hackneyed
or trite to some listeners. Further,
this is not music that rewards timid,
laid-back performers, and both Waters
and Thompson hurl themselves into Ives’
compelling sound-world and present his
often complex, overlapping ideas with
matter-of-fact expertise.
The recording, completed
at Rice University in Houston, Texas,
is intimate and close-up, suiting the
material. Another of this project’s
many virtues is that it showcases two
excellent, under-the-radar artists,
whose terrific work might otherwise
go unnoticed. Highly, highly recommended.
Bruce Hodges
Curt Thompson (violin), Rodney Waters (piano).
