Barber & Ives: Piano Sonatas - Marc-Andre Hamelin

America’s two greatest twentieth-century piano sonatas are here given predictably stunning performances by Marc-André Hamelin. This is the pianist’s second recording of the Ives ‘Concord Sonata’, a piece he has played for over twenty years in performances that have often been regarded as definitive. As his thoughts on this landmark work matured, Marc became very keen to revisit the work in the studio in this 50th anniversary year of Ives’s death.

The Barber is an apt if unusual coupling. Premiered by Horowitz, with a blisteringly virtuosic final fugue written specially at his suggestion, this is one of only a few modern piano works to have become a genuine audience favourite.

‘Hamelin's performance of the Concord Sonata is in the truest sense transcendental, his facility allowing him a cool poetry and lyricism inaccessible to other, more strenuously employed pianists … Hyperion's sound is immaculate and Hamelin's disc is a valuable addition to his unique, tirelessly evolving discography’ (Gramophone)
‘Reviewing the Mayer, I described Aimard's recording as 'of unmatchable vividness and panache'; but I must now transfer both the description and the recommendation to Hamelin’ (BBC Music Magazine)

Piano Sonata No 2 'Concord'[43'00]Charles Ives (1874-1954)
1
Emerson: Slowly[15'40]
2
Hawthorne: Very fast[10'18]
3
The Alcotts[5'17]
4
Thoreau: Starting slowly and quietly[11'45]
with Jaime Martín (flute)
Piano Sonata Op 26[19'14]Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
5
Allegro energico[7'13]
6
Allegro vivace e leggiero[1'59]
7
Adagio mesto[5'22]
8
Fuga: Allegro con spirito[4'40]