If I Could Choose Only One Work By...IVES
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- Опубліковано 5 лип 2024
- It Would Have To Be...Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord"
One of the most extraordinary creations in the piano literature, and arguably a more remarkable achievement (given its medium) than Ives' visionary orchestral works.
The List So Far...
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations
13. R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
14. Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
15. Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87)
16. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
17. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
18. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
19. Chopin: Preludes
20. Verdi: Rigoletto
21. Roussel: Symphony No. 2
22. Copland: Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
23. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2
24. Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
25. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
26. Rimsky-Korsakov: Opera Suites (Scottish National Orchestra/Järvi) Chandos
27. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
28. Smetana: Ma Vlást
29. Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
30. Bizet: Carmen
31. Elgar: In the South
32. Sullivan: The Mikado
33. Dvořák: Symphony No. 8; Cello Concerto (Piatigorsky/Munch/Boston Symphony) RCA
34. Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies
35. Monteverdi: Orfeo
36. Scarlatti: Sonatas
37. Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op. 17
38. Berg: Wozzeck
39. Hermann: Psycho (film score)
40. Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini
41. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
42. Holst: Suites for Military Band
43. Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
44. Respighi: Three Botticelli Pictures
45. Sibelius: Symphony No. 5; Pohjola’s Daughter (Bernstein, New York Philharmonic) Sony
46. Britten: The Turn of the Screw
47. Borodin: String Quartet No. 2
48. Janácek: The Cunning Little Vixen
49. Korngold: Violin Concerto
50. Tallis: Spem in Alium
51. Nielsen: Symphony No. 5
52. Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915
53. Hindemith: Symphony in E-flat
54. Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
55. Franck: Violin Sonata
56. Rossini: La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie)
57. Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 “Egyptian”
58. Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins
59. Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
60. Albeniz: Iberia
61. Bernstein: Mass
62. Schreker: Chamber Symphony
63. Walton: Variations on a Theme by Hindemith
64. Dukas: Piano Sonata
65. Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
66. Tippett: Piano Concerto
67. Poulenc: Songs (ATMA, 5 discs)
68. Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1
69. Gluck: Alceste
70. Vivaldi: L’estro armonico, Op. 3
71. Puccini: La Bohème
72. Hanson: Symphony No. 2 “Romantic”
73. Alkan: 12 Etudes in All the Minor Keys, Op. 39
74. Dutilleux: Métaboles
75. Glinka: Kamarinskaya
76. Crumb: Makrokosmos III (Music for a Summer Evening)
77. Biber: Sonata violino solo representativa
78. Josquin: Missa Ave maris stella
79. Arnold: Symphony No. 5
80. Fauré: Piano Quartets (Trio Wanderer) Harmonia Mundi
81. Hovhaness: Fra Angelico
82. Martinu: Symphony No. 6 “Fantaisies symphoniques”
83. Grainger: Lincolnshire Posy
84. Corelli: 12 Concerti grossi, Op. 6
85. Bellini: Norma
Ah. I used to perform that piece. The third movement is to die for....
Looks like this Ives sonata is like the grape "CONCORD" !!!! Have a strong liking for Ives' First Symphony. Always have that first movement theme going through what little mind I have left. Thanks Dave.
Ives is my boyy! one work? Probably Holidays Symphony or concord sonata
I think I might pick the DeGaetani/Kalish Ives songs album.
It took a reading of Jan Swafford's biography on Ives before I really appreciated his work, but I've seen the light - a true original if there ever was one. I'd throw in a vote for The Unanswered Question, even though the Concord is more interesting and less well known. It sums up the human condition in a few minutes - the trumpet asking "why", the winds answer with indecipherable or even mocking/cruel responses, and the strings (the "ancients", the universe perhaps) calmly existing knowingly, indifferent (?) in stoic silence amidst it all. It can be interpreted in so many other profound ways and I think is one of the greatest pieces of art.
Splendid pick. Mine's the Orchestral Set no. 2. Remarkable work.
Great choice but I have a confession to make. My ear has been re-trained to hear the Concord Sonata as the Concord Symphony as arranged by Brant! Especially the 2nd movement ("Hawthorne") which is as jaw-dropping a feat of orchestration as I've ever encountered.
My thoughts, too.
I agree it was an amazing orchestration. Saying that doesn't even do it justice. But rather than taking anything away from the original composition, it only makes me appreciate what Ives did, even more. If only Ives had considered orchestrating it instead of trying to write the Emerson Concerto, he might have had an easier time. Not to say he would have equaled Brant's orchestrational efforts, which are the culmination of true love and respect, but an Ives orchestration of the Concord Sonata, would have provided a unique window into the piece. At any rate, what we have is the best piano sonata of the 20th Century and an outright first-rate orchestral realization.
That was so interesting ,and your family history with Ives!
I almost chose the Concord Sonata as our offering to the Dark God. In the end, though, I thought an orchestral work might be more representative. There are two orchestral effects, dear to Ives, that can't quite be reproduced on the piano: brass bands and distant church bells/chimes. The latter apparently had a special significance for the composer. But I agree with you, Dave, that in every other respect the Concord Sonata is the very heart of Ives's muse. We can't forget that Ives composed some truly great chamber music--Quartets and Violin Sonatas, which don't get the attention they deserve. Ives's music will always evoke everything I love about New England.
Surprising amount of piano solo in this list but still have to get to know this sonata so thank you. Looking forward in anticipation to Khatchaturian, Webern, Moeran, Glazunov, Rozsa, Vasks, Kallnnikov, Bliss, Scriabin, PIston, Paganini ... so many delights in the classical music world.
Great choice, but my vote goes to The Unanswered Question, IMHO the most significant piece in the 20th century and maybe all time.
Sadly as I was working as a professional, orchestral, freelance Tuba player other than "Variations on America " Ives was never programed so I never really listened to his music.
Thanks to you and your videos I have dived into Ives over the last couple years, and LOVING IT!!!!
A true Master 👍
Good choice. Coincidentally, I listened to the old Kirkpatrick recording of it just a few days ago.
I completely agree, this is one of 'those' pieces that stand outside regular music for me. I think I picked up a recording on a whim when I was still in University, probably the old Nonesuch with Gilbert Kalish, and it still exerts quite a pull. Forty something years later it's one of those pieces that still speaks strongly to me and I continue to seek out different interpretations, just to learn more. So obviously I would consider this one of my favourite pieces, but that's not to say I have a favourite performance. Can a single interpretation reveal everything contained inside? It seems like Ives didn't think so since he spent his life tinkering with it.
The Concord sonata is one Ives composition I have not yet heard,; this video has sparked my curiosity and I will be listening to the Hamelin recording (on Hyperion) very soon.
BTW this scenario has occurred for several of the works you have discussed in this series and I have discovered or re-discovered distinctive and characteristic works by
Szymanowski, Berg, Beethoven, and Bernard Herrmann, to name just a few.Thank you for providing more avenues for broadening our horizons ( in addition to presenting these well-chosen works to the evil god Cancrizans).
I thought perhaps you'd pick the 114 songs as a whole (as you did with Poulenc if I recall) as having a little of everything Ives has to offer, career-spanning as they are.
Totally agree, when I first heard it I was blown away. A great choice!
BTW, just listened to Bychkov's Mahler2... You are going to LOVE it (see what I did there?) 😁
I would have gone with Michigan J. Frog's favorite Ives composition, "Central Park in the Dark'. Any work that features "Hello, ma baby!" on acid, gets my vote.
I 100% agree with choosing the Concord Sonata, and while I love the piece, I think it’s typical of Ives in yet another way: it might not be entirely successful in accomplishing what it sets out to accomplish. By virtue of being outside of the musical establishment, Ives was free to experiment, to take risks, and to fail. Maybe to others, the Concord Sonata is perfect exactly as it is with not a note out of place, but to me it has that “take this how you will” quality in common with so much of his music.
This is indeed one of his best major works. I think my pick would be the "Variations on America" originally for organ where it sounds absolutely ridiculous, then orchestrated by William Schuman for orchestra and then that version was "bandestrated" by Bill Rhoads. Since then it has become a huge staple of the wind band rep especially. A work from his youth, to be sure, and a brief one, but the more developed ideas you mention in the Concord are there in tongue-in-cheek fashion in the America Variations.
Oh, boy! I've been secretly hoping for this one. I first heard Ives in a music class I took as a general election back in college and I've been listening to him ever since.
You are correct
Yes! This is fourth one I’ve chosen correctly!:)
Had to be this piece, as I anticipated, or Sym 4 or Three Places in New England, but theres an abundance of worthy runner-ups. With Ives' even more irascible friend Carl Ruggles, the least prolific composer of the 20C (even less than Varese!) despite his remarkable longevity, theres only one choice: Sun-Treader.
I'm not saying this should be the choice but I love the Variations on America,not the orchestration by William Schuman which is OK,but the original for organ he composed when he was 17. It is so much fun to listen to especially the finale,as played by E.Power Biggs.
Heard John Kirkpatrick in Yale’s Sprague Hall play Ives with the prepared piano - I recall he held a wooden(?) rack-like apparatus to strike clusters of keys to achieve simultaneous effects. Good chance you were there; early 1970s.
I wasn't there. It's not a "prepared piano"--it's just a board of a certain, specified length.
One could choose all kind of pieces for most composers. But I think in Ive's case, this is the only choice. It is representative, and it is the only Ive's work I wouldn't want to be without.
Spot on. Pretty damned great music, for an insurance executive.
Fine choice, but mine would have been the Trio. Or the 4th Symphony.
Messian is the same. Where would we be without the organ works?
"Central Park in the Dark" and "The Unanswered Question."
I only wish Ives had spent less time selling insurance, and more time with his music!
He was a very good insurance salesmen. His pamphlet "The Amount to Carry" is still standard reading.
Wondering if Dave’s father knew Charles Ives 😉
No, he didn't.
Have to say, before I clicked on the video, I said Fourth Symphony.
Ives had the luxury of not being dependent on music for his livelihood. So he could write pretty much write what he wanted to. The crabby "dog" (god spelled backwards) can't take that away from him. LOL. 🤣
Hey Dave, to me it was a clear choice between Piano Sonata n.2 and Sym.4. Please don’t forget America’s greatest and most important composer… HENRY COWELL!
P.S. I love MAH’s recording of the Concord Sonata on NWR