Ives First Piano Sonata

I first encountered Ives’ First Piano Sonata in my early teens and sensed immediately that at some point I would learn how to play it. That performance finally occurred some years later on my Masters Recital in 1977 at The University at Buffalo. This performance is from a 2001 concert at Manhattan School of Music. Despite the fame of Ives’ Second Piano Sonata, Concord, Mass., 1840-60, I have always thought that the earlier piece was stronger, particularly in the heroic scale of the writing for piano, which is carried out throughout the piece. In this regard the Concord is split in half, the first two movements dwarfing in instrumental scale and duration of the last two. The First Sonata is also a much livelier piece, much of it based on ragtime. Ives was by many accounts an easily excited person and this is reflected in this piece which bubbles with animation and drive. Controlling this, resisting the urge to always push the music forward, is the greatest difficulty in performing it. I cannot say I entirely resisted this impulse. Nevertheless, learning and performing the piece remains one of the most satisfying events of my musical life.