|
| |||||||||||||||
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy a CD or a vinyl record, get a $1 Amazon MP3 Credit. Limit one promotional credit per customer. Here's how (restrictions apply)
- Includes FREE MP3 version of this album Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Editorial Reviews
From the Artist
This disc contains all four of Ives's sonatas for violin and piano. The First Sonata is relatively conservative: dense but mostly tonal. The Second Sonata is split into three movements, each carrying an affective name: "Autumn","In the Barn", and "The Revival". The next sonata aims to "express the feeling and fervor - a fervor that was often more vociferous than religious - with which the hymns and revival tunes were sung at the Camp Meetings held extensively in New England in the 70's and 80's." The final sonata is lighter in mood and smaller in scope than the other three pieces.
Product Description
Charles Ives's idiom is in Hilary Hahn's American blood - which her fierce and fitting playing shows. Her partnership with pianist Valentina Lisitsa models what two singular artists can accomplish in the interests of a common cause. Quirky, peculiar, rich with Charles Ives's idiosyncratic notion of melody, peppered with dissonance yet also logical - Ives's works for violin and piano turn familiar musical expressions upside down. They are an alternate universe of aesthetic pleasure.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was eagerly awaiting this album from Hilary Hahn and Valentina Lisitsa, and it has certainly proven to be worth the wait. These are wonderful performances of Charles Ives' violin sonatas.
In advance of this release, in recent weeks I have been listening quite a bit to the great performances of these same works by Curt Thompson and Rodney Waters on the Naxos American label. While both discs are outstanding, I do somewhat prefer these new interpretations by Hahn and Lisitsa. It is an overgeneralization, so take it with a big grain of salt -- but I'll still say the Thompson/Waters performances bring out more of the darker beauty of these sonatas, while Hahn and Lisitsa bring out more of the light and lyricism. I hate to use the "a" word, but these are surely some of the more accessible performances of the Ives violin sonatas available.
This is apparent from the first strains of the album, when the first notes of the first movement of Sonata No. 1 are played with a flowing grace, rather than the clipped brooding I had been accustomed to. Or in the second movement of Sonata No. 2 -- Ives' mash-up of "Turkey in the Straw" and "The Battle Cry of Freedom" -- which takes on more of the feeling of a playful romp. And I really loved the performance of Sonata No. 3, which is my favorite of the lot.
Tempos are brisk. In fact, looking through the four sets of the complete Ives sonatas available on Amazon's MP3 site, these Hahn/Lisitsa recordings have significantly shorter total runtimes than almost any sets of the sonatas out there. This is also true for most individual movements of most of the sonatas.
These performances won me over. I will continue to value the Thompson/Waters, but Hahn and Lisitsa have given a sunnier alternative, and have also inspired me to check out more of the other available recordings of the Ives sonatas. These are rich and satisfying works that can easily take on different colors based on interpretive choices. I like the colors presented here. Warmly recommended.
In advance of this release, in recent weeks I have been listening quite a bit to the great performances of these same works by Curt Thompson and Rodney Waters on the Naxos American label. While both discs are outstanding, I do somewhat prefer these new interpretations by Hahn and Lisitsa. It is an overgeneralization, so take it with a big grain of salt -- but I'll still say the Thompson/Waters performances bring out more of the darker beauty of these sonatas, while Hahn and Lisitsa bring out more of the light and lyricism. I hate to use the "a" word, but these are surely some of the more accessible performances of the Ives violin sonatas available.
This is apparent from the first strains of the album, when the first notes of the first movement of Sonata No. 1 are played with a flowing grace, rather than the clipped brooding I had been accustomed to. Or in the second movement of Sonata No. 2 -- Ives' mash-up of "Turkey in the Straw" and "The Battle Cry of Freedom" -- which takes on more of the feeling of a playful romp. And I really loved the performance of Sonata No. 3, which is my favorite of the lot.
Tempos are brisk. In fact, looking through the four sets of the complete Ives sonatas available on Amazon's MP3 site, these Hahn/Lisitsa recordings have significantly shorter total runtimes than almost any sets of the sonatas out there. This is also true for most individual movements of most of the sonatas.
These performances won me over. I will continue to value the Thompson/Waters, but Hahn and Lisitsa have given a sunnier alternative, and have also inspired me to check out more of the other available recordings of the Ives sonatas. These are rich and satisfying works that can easily take on different colors based on interpretive choices. I like the colors presented here. Warmly recommended.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
AN EXHILARATING ENCOUNTER: HILARY & VALENTINA MEET THE BRILLIANCE OF CHARLES IVES
October 12, 2011
Format:Audio CD
Five BRILLIANT Stars. Three outstanding musical talents in a singular exhilarating encounter. This recording has two classical music superstars, American violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn and Ukrainian-born piano virtuoso Valentina Lisitsa, playing four beautifully evocative and challenging sonatas by America's genius modernist composer Charles Ives (1874-1954). The Pulitzer Prize-winning Ives' idiosyncratic music is an amazing vortex of classical, spiritual, and folk influences blending with early 20th Century Americana into his own unique timeless musical vision. Hilary notes the initial difficulty they had in deciphering Ives' detailed, demanding notations, which makes the wonderful flow of these recorded pieces all the more appreciated. Then they took these sonatas on a well-received world tour over two musical seasons before going into the studio: this enjoyable recording is the outcome of that remarkable, evolving musical experience. These are musical marvels with the ladies playing wonderfully, individually and collectively, with fire and emotion. The 'best of the best' begins with the brilliantly-played Sonata for Violin and Piano No 1, especially the amazing mercurial 8 minute Allegro movement which sounds avant garde with 2 divergent juxtaposed lines amid florid conventional beauty. In the Sonata for Violin and Piano No 2, Ives' "Autumn" luminously captures the season, "In The Barn" has sprightly country-dance figurations and "turkey in the straw" allusions, and the calm of "The Revival" movement ultimately is whipped into a frenzy and then calmness, all in just over 3 minutes. Sonata No 3 starts with the remarkable 12 minute Adagio, double versed into Andante & Allegretto sub-movements with "Shenandoah" quotes throughout the movements. In Sonata No 4, Children's Day at the Camp Meeting, the wide-ranging Largo movement goes from reverie to revelry to a snipet of "Yes, Jesus". The Allegro movement alludes to and then becomes "Shall We Gather At The River". Charles Ives might have been very pleased with this recording of his music. These enormously-gifted musicians function as a dynamic integrated duo that is well-recorded by Deutsche Grammophon. Bravo, Hilary, Valentina and Charles! My Highest Recommendation. Five MARVELOUS Stars. (mp3 download of 12 tracks; Time: ~64m:45s. Trivia: Charles Ives wrote his last piece, "Sunrise", 27 years before his death. His music comprises over 100 works, detailed in his "114 Songs".)
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
I think it's definitive. Compared with the plays by Gregory Fulkerson, Hansheinz Schneeberger and Curt Thompson
November 28, 2011
By K. MIURA
Format:Audio CD
Compared with the plays by Gregory Fulkerson, Hansheinz Schneeberger and Curt Thompson, I like Hahn's Ives best. I think it's definitive. Mr. Giordano Bruno says Hahn's tone is dry and thin; her bowing is agile but inexpressive. I agree with him. And I think Hahn intentionally did it so.
The verse III (Allegretto) of the first movement of Sonata No. 3 is in three-eight time and it's gigue like and scherzo. Hilary and Valentina play it aggressive. And they play the second movement of Sonata No. 3 acrobatic. I like it.
Not only brisk music fascinates. Valentina plays the complex introduction of Sonata No. 1 LEGATO (the first six notes are described STACCATO in the sheet music). It's beautiful. My first impression of the second movement (Largo cantabile) of Sonata No. 1 played by Hilary Hahn was good. Only Hilary's "The Old Oaken Bucket" sounds nostalgic to me. The fantastic obbligato of violin (from bar 12 of the second movement of Sonata No. 1) is heard only by Hilary Hahn, not heard by Fulkerson, Thompson and Schneeberger, being lost in the sound of the piano.
The verse III (Allegretto) of the first movement of Sonata No. 3 is in three-eight time and it's gigue like and scherzo. Hilary and Valentina play it aggressive. And they play the second movement of Sonata No. 3 acrobatic. I like it.
Not only brisk music fascinates. Valentina plays the complex introduction of Sonata No. 1 LEGATO (the first six notes are described STACCATO in the sheet music). It's beautiful. My first impression of the second movement (Largo cantabile) of Sonata No. 1 played by Hilary Hahn was good. Only Hilary's "The Old Oaken Bucket" sounds nostalgic to me. The fantastic obbligato of violin (from bar 12 of the second movement of Sonata No. 1) is heard only by Hilary Hahn, not heard by Fulkerson, Thompson and Schneeberger, being lost in the sound of the piano.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another great recording by Ms. Hahn
When I purchased this CD I was wholly ignorant of Ives' works. I bought it because Hilary Hahn, whose recordings are always revelatory, recorded it. Read more
Published 2 months ago by George C. Reynolds Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ives the lover of Brahms.
Hear we do not hear a "brash" or "ugly" Ives, although the recording show much strength and dynamic range (really, other reviewers? H. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Charles Baker
4.0 out of 5 stars
outstanding playing
I found much of the music rather repetitious or not terribly exciting, but the performance was excellent by both musicians.
Published 4 months ago by larry j gerstein
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best
Hilary Hahn plays the violin and Valentina Lisitsa plays the piano in this CD of all four of Ives' Sonatas. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Tony Marquise Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Four from Two.
*The Superman and Batman
*The Farrah Fawcett and Tanya Roberts
*The Luke Skywalker and James T Kirk
*The Shakespeare & Cervantes
...In my opinion.
*The Farrah Fawcett and Tanya Roberts
*The Luke Skywalker and James T Kirk
*The Shakespeare & Cervantes
...In my opinion.
Published 8 months ago by QReview
2.0 out of 5 stars
Incomprehensible
The title of my review refers to Hahn/Lisitsa's interpretation, not to the beautiful Ives Sonatas themselves! I would definitely go with Thompson/Waters in this repertoire. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Michael Gunther
3.0 out of 5 stars
Three and a half stars: It's not the performances
It's the room. The recorded sound overall is very dry, although one's hearing might adjust after listening for a few minutes. Read more
Published 10 months ago by A Reader from
3.0 out of 5 stars
Marred by poor recording technology, but fine performances
It may have been my stereo setup but in the #2 violin sonata, in the 1st movement especially, the piano dominates the violin so overwhelmingly that at times you could just make out... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Rudolf Dankwort
5.0 out of 5 stars
First time I've enjoyed Ives
I enjoy this CD as much or more than Ms. Hahn's others. The mutual agreement between these young performers to channel what they have learned about Ives' feelings works very well. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Arthur Craig
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bravo!
I adore Charles Ives. Every instant of these violin sonatas is a moment of sincerity, inventiveness and fullness; but for me as a whole this rhapsodic style lacks form, composition... Read more
Published 15 months ago by rumpelstilz
