Charles Ives’ remarkable
set of violin sonatas deserve the best,
and Thompson and Waters certainly strive
to make the best possible case for them
in very attractive sound. Elsewhere
on this site I reviewed the super-budget
rival to this disc, that on Arte Nova
(with Nobu Wakabayashi, 74321754952,
spread over two discs but including
the Pre-First Sonata and Largo. A useful
survey of recordings appears at http://www.musicweb-international.com/Ives/RR_Violin_Sonatas.htm
. These Naxos recordings were made as
long ago as 1998.
To say the violinist
has done his homework is a bit of an
understatement. His Ph.D. dissertation
was on these very works, so it is safe
to assume it lived with them for a while.
And it shows. His accompanist Rodney
Waters is a pupil of Richard Goode,
and he plays with great sensitivity.
This is real chamber music, with both
artists intertwining and really, really
listening to one another.
The First Sonata includes
typically Ivesian fingerprints. Hymn
tunes and popular melodies vie with
scrunchy harmonies in a kaleidoscopic
manner (try the hints of hoe-down at
around 3’35 in the first movement, and
contrast that to the wistful opening
of the second movement). The finale
is, at just a tad under nine minutes,
perhaps overly discursive, yet it ends
with a typical, and delicious, Ives
question mark. There is joy here, too,
although it never appears totally unfettered.
It is an interesting listening exercise,
by the way, to attempt to track the
emergence of the popular tunes Ives
quotes, from embryo to full (but still
Ivesian) statement.
Sonata No. 2 is the
only one of the four to have movement
titles: Autumn; In the Barn; The Revival.
‘Autumn actually uses as source material
a hymn tune of that name, Both players
are rhythmically on-the-ball, and both
exude the requisite sense of abandon.
Nice to hear the violin line so accurate
‘up top’.
The echt-Hoedownish
(or should that be ‘Hoedownisch’?!)
second movement (‘In the Barn’, appropriately
enough) reveals both executants getting
into the spirit of things, contrasting
well with the tender pianissimi of the
finale.
The longest Sonata
is the Third (clocking in at half an
hour). Ives referred to the first movement
as ‘a kind of magnified hymn of four
different stanzas’. There is tender
sweetness in Ives’ manipulation of hymnic
material, something Thompson and Waters
react well to. Overall this is a very
ruminative movement, the first three
stanzas getting progressively faster
(Adagio-Andante-Allegretto) before a
return to the original Adagio at around
11’30. This is Ivesian peace at its
best, and represents the composer at
his very best.
The tentative (compositionally,
that is) piano of the second movement
builds towards a more dancing spirit
which nevertheless remains fragmented
at heart. The finale throws great technical
challenges at the performers, challenges
fully met here (the demanding descending
violin scales around 3’30 are much more
than just scales, for example, they
carry real meaning).
The Fourth Sonata is
less than ten minutes long. Its subtitle,
(Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting’)
tells much as to its irrepressible inner
life. Popular tunes are, of course,
there, now full of joie-de-vivre in
the first movement; the second movement
presents the meditative’ Jesus loves
me’ as aural balm. The finale is a mere
1’45 long. Tunes seem bursting to get
out from being entwined in the musical
fabric, and it is this that creates
the friction that feed the movement.
The ending is great – it just stops
mid-flow. Typical.
Highly recommended
listening, then. The unswerving advocacy
of these two youthful performers will,
I am sure, win many converts.
Colin Clarke
Curt Thompson (violin); Rodney Waters (piano).
