Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2 “Concord, Mass., 1840–1860” • The St. Gaudens (“Black March”)
Donald Berman, piano
3rd May 2024
AV2678
£12.99 (1CD Jewelcase | 20 page booklet)
Summary:
Celebrating the sesquicentenary of Charles Ives’ birth, New England-based pianist and Ives scholar nonpareil Donald Berman releases a recording of the composer’s “Concord Sonata” using his own newly prepared edition which reveals fresh insights into the iconic work. Berman’s immersion into Ives’ sound world began under the tutelage of pianist John Kirkpatrick who gave the New York premiere of the “Concord Sonata” in 1939. Throughout many years of study and reflection, Berman discovered numerous notes and alterations that Ives made within the Concord’s manuscript pages, each one “a step toward realising his vision for a three-dimensional auditory experience.” Berman concluded that the first movement of the Concord, as Ives imagined it, is quite different than today’s commonly accepted version; his new edition includes two pages worth of material, masterfully recorded here for the first time.
The album opens with the elegiac “The St. Gaudens (Black March)”, referring to the eponymous sculpture in the Boston Common that depicts the Massachusetts 54th, the first Union army regiment of African American soldiers, that is known widely in its orchestral version as the first movement of Ives’ Three Places in New England.
Tracklist:
CHARLES IVES (1874–1954)
1. The St. Gaudens (“Black March”) 6.18
Piano Sonata No.2 “Concord, Mass., 1840–1860”
2. I. Emerson 17.44
3. II. Hawthorne 11.52
4. III. The Alcotts 5.37
5. IV. Thoreau 10.54
Donald Berman, piano
Recorded: 3 & 4 January 2022, Abeshouse Productions, Pelham, New York
Publisher: Associated Music Publishers, Inc.
Producer and Engineer: Adam Abeshouse
Piano Technician: Rick Prokop
Edited, Mixed and Mastered by Adam Abeshouse
With thanks to The Charles Ives Society for their generous support for this recording.
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