Music by 20th-century composers.
Piano music by Charles Ives – 2
A large part of this episode is dedicated to Charles Ives’ Second Piano Sonata. The first sketches date back to 1904. He started working on it properly five years later and pretty much finished it in 1915.The work was published in 1920 and a revised version came out in 1947. Long story short, Ives spent a lot of time working on it.
The sonata is subtitled ‘Concord, Mass., 1840-1860’. Ives himself said: “[It is] an attempt to present one person’s impression of the literature, the philosophy and the men of Concord, Mass. Of over a half-century ago.” In 1833 philosopher, essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson settled in Concord. He was the founder of transcendentalism: a philosophical and literary movement that believes in the inherent goodness of man and nature. All four parts of Ives’ Second Piano Sonata are named for transcendentalists: besides Emerson they are Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott along with his daughter Louisa May, and finally Henry David Thoreau.
Besides the Second Piano Sonata, you will also be listening to a few excerpts featuring Ives himself at the piano.
Playlist
Charles Ives:
- 2 fragments form Piano Sonata no. 2 ‘Concord, Mass.’. Charles Ives, piano
- Charles Ives: Piano Sonata no. 2 ‘Concord, Mass.’. Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano; Tabea Zimmermann, viola; Emmanuel Pahud, flute
- Charles Ives: They Are There! (third take). Charles Ives, piano
- Charles Ives: March No. 6 for Piano ‘Here’s to Good Old Yale’. Charles Ives, piano
