# 100 Favorites: # 40



## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

Charles Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord, Mass., 1840-60"
Marc-André Hamelin (New World)










To my knowledge, Hamelin is one of only two pianists who have recorded the "Concord" twice. (The other is the artist who premiered the work, John Kirkpatrick.) Both of Hamelin's recordings are exceptional, but I prefer the rougher-hewn, rhythmic vitality of the first version, made in 1988 for New World Records.

Here are a few of my thoughts on this particular recording from my Ives site:

_In his writings, Ives imagines Emerson as someone who is so "intensely on the lookout for the trail of his star that he has no time to stop and retrace his footprints." On the CD, Hamelin not only looks up at the sky, he launches into the stratosphere. It's a performance that makes one think of space travel: planets, meteors, stars. All go coursing by in a flash. Hamelin has staggering technique, and at times it is breathtaking. But he brings more than just flash to the performance. It is deeply felt, and Hamelin seems completely at home in Ives' idiom. Listen to the closing moments of the sonata. It's breath-taking music and pianism._


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