Charles Ives (1874-1954), as is well-known, made important and lasting contributions to the business of life insur ance. A long-time business partner and close friend has written that Ives’ “... creative mind, great breadth of culture, intensive sympathies and keen understanding of the economic as well as the material needs of the community made it possible for him to evolve literature which paved the way for additional sales of life insurance... This remarkable student, seated in his Connecticut home with pen in hand, has loved to concentrate upon and to analyze the problems with a master mind.” Many noted musicians have tried to see to it that the musical product of this “master mind” should also be granted similar recognition. That this has not been fully accomplished is due to the need for a new generation of musical performers, with such ideals and perspective that the richness of musical imagination, invention and wit, panorama and power of his music would be presented as purposeful rather than laughable or eccentric. It was first necessary to develop performers who believed in the manners and tradition of America. Our conviction goes with this recording that audiences will now grant Ives that high position among music creators which specialists have long awarded to him. Ives did not meet an audience during his lifetime ; in fact he stopped writing music after the First World War because of this, being little satisfied to write only for his colleagues. As he himself wrote : “The fabric of existence weaves itself whole. You cannot set an art off in a corner and hope for it to have vitality, reality and substance. There can be nothing exclusive about a substantial art. It comes directly out of the heart of experience of life and thinking about life and living life.” Each movement of the Second Piano Sonata bears one of the names that made the village of Concord, Massachusetts famous during the mid-nineteenth century. The first, “Emerson,” is a substantial sonata-form movement ; the second movement bears the name “Hawthorne”— it is a fantastic scherzo. The third, “The Alcotts” is simple and religious ; and the last, “Thoreau,” is a kind of mystic reflection on man’s identification of himself with nature.
(From the original Liner Notes)
George Pappastravou
Plays
Charles Ives
(1874-1954)
Tracks
Piano Sonata n° 2
Concord, Mass., 1840-60
1 I. Emerson (slowly) 16:34
2 II. Hawthorne (very fast) 12:22
3 III. The Alcotts (moderately) 5:59
4 IV. Thoreau (starting slowly and quietly) 12:19
*
George Pappastravou - p
Bonnie Lichter - fl
Recorded ca 1962