TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. This year marks the 150th birthday of Charles Ives. Many music lovers consider him the first truly great American composer, although some of them are bewildered by his untraditional methods. FRESH AIR's classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz thinks that there are many reasons to celebrate Ives, including a new recording by pianist Donald Berman that Lloyd thinks is a major addition to the Ives discography.
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN'S PERFORMANCE OF IVES' "PIANO SONATA NO. 2, 'CONCORD, MASS., 1840-1860': I. EMERSON")
LLOYD SCHWARTZ, BYLINE: The word that comes up in almost any discussion of Charles Ives is maverick. A Connecticut insurance actuary during working hours and a daringly inventive composer in his spare time. Or is it the other way around? He's still a mystery 150 years after his birth. He's both admired and attacked for his avant-garde atonality, the elimination of bar lines in his scores and his eccentric, often overlapping musical quotations of classical music, parlor and political songs, marches and hymn tunes.
SCHWARTZ: One of Ives' most challenging works is his nearly hourlong "Concord" sonata, which was first published in 1919 but didn't have its world premiere until his friend and editor, the legendary pianist John Kirkpatrick, played it in 1939. Kirkpatrick made landmark recordings of both that original version and an extensively revised later version. Now pianist Donald Berman, a student of Kirkpatrick's and president of the Ives Society, has released an impressive new recording that incorporates changes Ives made even after his later revision. Ives never stopped revising. He considered his scores more of a blueprint for performers than strict instructions.
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN PERFORMANCE OF IVES' "PIANO SONATA NO. 2, 'CONCORD, MASS., 1840-1860': I. EMERSON")
SCHWARTZ: The "Concord Sonata" gets its name from the American Transcendentalists, the great 19th century writers, intellectuals and abolitionists Ives admired who lived in Concord, Mass. The four movements are massive musical portraits of the figures for whom they are named. The first and biggest movement is "Emerson" - solemn, jagged, tonally unpredictable. The second movement, "Hawthorne," is just the opposite - fanciful, inventive and mesmerizing, the sound image of a great storyteller.
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN PERFORMANCE OF IVES' "PIANO SONATA NO. 2, 'CONCORD, MASS., 1840-1860': II. HAWTHORNE")
SCHWARTZ: The third movement, "The Alcotts," refers to teacher, philosopher, abolitionist and environmentalist Bronson Alcott and his more famous daughter, Louisa May. In the sonata, they are homebodies intimately sitting around the piano.
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN PERFORMANCE OF IVES' "PIANO SONATA NO. 2, 'CONCORD, MASS., 1840-1860': III. THE ALCOTTS")
SCHWARTZ: Suddenly, that quiet tune explodes into a quotation of the Beethoven Fifth Symphony.
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN PERFORMANCE OF IVES' "PIANO SONATA NO. 2, 'CONCORD, MASS., 1840-1860': III. THE ALCOTTS")
SCHWARTZ: One of my favorite tracks on this Ives disc is a short piece called "The St. Gaudens ('Black March')." It was inspired by the heroic bas relief on the edge of the Boston Common by Augustus St. Gardens, the sculptor's tribute to young Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and his troop of Black soldiers. They are on their way to the bloody Civil War battle at Fort Wagner, S.C., where most of them would lose their lives.
This magnificent public monument was also the subject of Robert Lowell's great poem "For The Union Dead." You can hear the tread of the soldiers marching to their deaths. In Donald Berman's performance, that sound makes a poignant prelude to the more abstract complexities of the "Concord Sonata."
(SOUNDBITE OF DONALD BERMAN PERFORMANCE OF IVES' "THE ST. GAUDENS ('BLACK MARCH')")
SCHWARTZ: Ives may be the most truly American of the great American composers. His music is so unashamedly and genuinely innocent, and at the same time, so completely subversive.
GROSS: Lloyd Schwartz reviewed Donald Berman's recording of Charles Ives' "The St. Gaudens" and the "Concord Sonata." Lloyd's latest book is "Who's On First? New And Selected Poems." It's published by the University of Chicago Press.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAPPY")
PHARRELL WILLIAMS: (Singing) It might seem crazy what I'm about to say.
GROSS: Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, our guest will be Grammy-winning songwriter, performer and producer Pharrell Williams. The new film "Piece By Piece" is an animated Pharrell biopic made entirely of Legos. It covers his childhood in Virginia Beach, his collaborations with artists like Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Britney Spears and Beyonce and his synesthesia - seeing color when he hears music. I hope you'll join us. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAPPY")
WILLIAMS: (Singing) Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth because I'm happy. Clap along if you know what happiness is to you because I'm happy. Clap along if you feel... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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