Ives: Piano Sonata No. 1

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[Gander] As in the Ives, technical challenges are formidable but dispatched with stunning ease and equal clarity. It could be that the cartilage connecting these works composed a century apart... — Fanfare, Nov/Dec 2021 More…

Release Date: 30th Jul 2021
Catalogue No: BIS2409
Label: BIS
Length: 61 minutes

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Ives, C: Piano Sonata No. 1

Work length41:04

$9.55

$14.25

$19.25

Joonas Ahonen (piano)

I. Adagio con moto

Track length9:38

$2.05

$2.60

$3.50

IIa. Allegro moderato - Andante

Track length1:40

$1.50

$1.30

$1.75

IIb. In the Inn

Track length4:32

$1.50

$1.30

$1.75

III. Largo

Track length8:19

$1.00

$2.60

$3.50

IVa.

Track length1:14

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IVb. Allegro

Track length3:10

$1.50

$1.30

$1.75

V. Andante maestoso

Track length12:31

$1.00

$3.85

$5.25

Gander: Peter Parker (2005)

Work length11:37

$1.00

$3.85

$5.25

Joonas Ahonen (piano)

Ives, C: Three-page Sonata

Work length8:25

$2.05

$2.60

$3.50

Joonas Ahonen (piano)

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Of the two large piano sonatas composed by Charles Ives, No. 2 (’the Concord Sonata’) is by far the bestknown, overshadowing its sibling. The First Piano Sonata is comparably ambitious, however, and with a playing time of more than 40 minutes, similarly expansive. Like many works by Ives it had a long gestation period, beginning in 1901 with additions and revisions being made well into the 1920s. In contrast to the Concord, Ives didn’t provide the work with an explicit programme, but wrote that it was ‘mostly about the outdoor life in Connecticut villages in the 1880s and 90s.’ This can to an extent explain the various borrowings from hymns, but New York City, where Ives was living, has also left a clear mark with a liberal use of ragtime rhythms. Ives composed a third ‘sonata’ for the piano, the socalled Three-Page Sonata, cast in three brief but challenging movements. The two works are both included on this recording by Joonas Ahonen, who released the Concord Sonata in 2017 to critical acclaim, with the French magazine Classica praising ‘his youthful impetuosity and technical prowess’. Ives’ sonatas frame the third work on the disc, the Austrian composer Bernhard Gander’s Peter Parker from 2004. It is the alter ego of the superhero Spider-Man that has lent his name to Gander’s highly virtuosic and original piano piece which presents a panorama of the superhero’s patterns of movement, transformed into music.

Reviews

Nov/Dec 2021

[Gander] As in the Ives, technical challenges are formidable but dispatched with stunning ease and equal clarity. It could be that the cartilage connecting these works composed a century apart lies in their sense of adventure, the deep and whimsical moment-to-moment changes that bring spontaneity to each performance.

Ives: Piano Sonata No. 1

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