As I wrote in my review
of a rival issue of the Ives sonatas,
on Bridge, played by Fulkerson and Shannon,
the Ivesian aesthetic is at its most
radically advanced in these four teeming
works with their juxtapositions of the
hymnal, revivalist and marching songs,
laced with clusters and polychords.
The tension engendered never lets up
and the expressive depth is palpable,
curious and affecting. It takes a fine
pairing to get around some of the technical
complexities, but even more so to explore
the depth and peculiarities of the music
without lapsing either into archness
or into aloofness.
Thompson and Waters
keep quite a strict rein on the First
Sonata and they essay few of Fulkerson
and Shannon’s more heartfelt gestures.
The Naxos pairing isn’t helped by a
sometimes troublesome acoustic – rather
tiring and one that can impart a metallic
hardness to Thompson’s tone (and he
does make the odd intonational slip
as well) and I find the new pairing
somewhat trait laced and relatively
humourless in comparison with the Bridge
pairing or, say, Zukofsky and Kalisch
on Nonesuch, another excellent duo.
In the Second the sense of dialogue
is that much more sharply etched by
the Bridge pairing, with Shannon a far
more assertive pianist, though I enjoyed
the resinous attack in the second movement
In The Barn and the way in which
Thompson, who has written a doctoral
thesis on Ives, bleaches his tone white
in The Revival. Even here though
the greater nuance of rivals tells the
harder, as it does in matters of tone
projection – in the Adagio of the Third,
for example, where Fulkerson’s more
variegated tonal resources score over
Thompson’s quick and somewhat monochrome
playing.
I wouldn’t want to
underestimate this new pairing’s perception
though, as they do bring numerous thoughtful
and well-considered moments to this
kaleidoscopic scores. I think of the
Allegro of the Third where, though Waters
doesn’t shape with as much decisiveness
as Shannon, he stabs the bass notes
with great verve allowing Thompson to
slide in unobtrusively. Or in the Allegro
of the Fourth, where youthful spirits
pay dividends and in the quick linearity
of their approach to the Largo where
they "balance" a Sonata that
can easily become one long slow movement
surrounded by two brisk Allegros.
Newcomers to Ives’
unique Violin Sonatas will find much
to enjoy here but as a recommendation
I would go for the Bridge pairing. Their
richness and depth of response are superior
and their instrumental control palpably
more engaged.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Colin Clarke
Curt Thompson (violin) 
