Ives : Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord, Mass., 1840-1860"

Featuring

Paulina Ryjak
Daniel Brylewski
Carolin Ralser
Charles Ives

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Performer Biography

Daniel Brylewski, the pianist on this album, is a passionate interpreter of 20th-century and new music, having studied at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music and the Hochschule der Künste Bern.

Composer Biography

Charles Ives, the composer of the Concord Sonata, is considered the most outstanding American artist in his field, though he only gained recognition late in life, after he had stopped composing.

Critical Reception

During Charles Ives's lifetime, the Concord Sonata was considered unplayable due to its 'amateur notation and irrational modernity', and was rarely recorded.

Composition History

Ives's Piano Sonata No. 2, 'Concord, Mass., 1840-1860', is dedicated to the transcendentalist thinkers of Concord, Massachusetts, a town described by Henry James as 'The biggest little place in America'.

Performer Biography

Daniel Brylewski has won several awards, including the First Prize for Piano Duo at the International Competition of Contemporary Chamber Music in Cracov in 2008.

Compositional Technique

The Concord Sonata features innovative techniques such as heavy chromatization, complex multiple sound structures, polyrhythm, polymeter (with almost no bar lines), and clusters played with folded hands or a special 37-centimeter board.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Charles Ives believed that individual creativity could express universal truths, which he demonstrated by incorporating references and quotations from both classical and popular music into his works.