IVES: Concord Sonata; BARBER: Piano Sonata (Marc-André Hamelin) (2004) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This 2004 Hyperion recording is actually Marc-André Hamelin's second traversal through Ives' Concord Sonata; his initial venture being among the first of his commercial recordings, made back in 1988 for New World Records. Back in the days of LPs, you were lucky to get two new "Concords" in the course of a decade; Hamelin's was at least the third new recording of the sonata in 2004. No two recordings of the "Concord" are quite the same, not even Hamelin's two, for in comparison to the New World, the Hyperion is shorter overall by about a minute, shorter in each movement except "Thoreau," which is a shade longer.

At a total time of 42:54, this is one of the faster recordings of the "Concord," and to some degree faster is better, as Ives himself played it pretty fast, judging from his own fragmentary recordings of this work. No one, however, has quite gotten the "Concord" down to the zippy 38 minutes that John Kirkpatrick delivered on his Grammy-winning, and long unavailable, 1968 recording for CBS. Some recorded performances of the "Concord" have taken in excess of 50 minutes, a bit too slow, but it gives the reader an idea of how widely a performance can range in terms of time.

But timings and other details aside, this Hamelin recording of the "Concord" is just about the best one, ever -- certainly it's the finest since Gilbert Kalish recorded the work for Nonesuch back in 1977. What works so well is that Hamelin has an excellent sense of the score's ebb and flow and an ability to project the shape of Ives' craggy, uneven phrases. Hamelin has been playing the work a long time, and the technical struggle is over, leaving Hamelin able to refine details of interpretation that are often discouraged by the sheer effort of having to get through Ives' score. The filler is a totally oddball choice, the Piano Sonata Op. 26 of Samuel Barber. But it makes sense -- Hamelin plays the Barber with the same confidence and authority to which he brings the Ives, and it is clear that these two "great American piano sonatas" can inhabit the same house, even though in life the composers would've been unable to enter the same room. This disc is likewise distinguished with excellent liner notes by Jed Distler; this Hyperion release is a winner and is enthusiastically recommended to anyone interested in either work. by Uncle Dave Lewis  
Tracklist :
Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-60, for piano (& optional viola, flute), S. 88 (K. 3A2) (42:54)
Charles Ives
1     Emerson. Slowly 15:40
2     Hawthorne. Very fast 10:18
3     The Alcotts 5:17
4     Thoreau. Starting slowly and quietly 11:45
Sonata for piano, Op. 26 (19:15)
Samuel Barber
5     Allegro energico 7:13
6     Allegro vivace e leggiero 1:59
7     Adagio mesto 5:22
8     Fuga. Allegro con spirito 4:40
Credits :
Illustration [Front Illustration: 'Shrewsbury River, New Jersey, 1859' (Detail)] – John Frederick Kensett
Piano – Marc-André Hamelin