Charles Ives: Four Sonatas; Hilary Hahn, violin; Valentina Lisitsa, piano

"If anyone can be said to be the father of American classical music, it's the Connecticut-born visionary Charles Ives (1874-1954). Combining the classical tradition of Brahms and Beethoven with the vibrant, self-reliant spirit of an optimistic, growing, still-young United States, Ives's music parallels and in many ways outpaces the European modernism of Stravinsky and Schoenberg. At the same time, he was in part a homespun populist, tapping into America's day-to-day musical life by quoting hymns, dances, and patriotic tunes known to nearly every listener. The four violin sonatas are emblematic of Ives's highly original and immediately engaging music. Although virtually unknown at the time they were written, the sonatas are now performed alongside Beethoven, Franck, or Schumann. And yet, in whatever context, the music is still bracing and fresh, still sounds 'new.' ... All four of the violin sonatas were completed in the middle 1910s, but their origins are even earlier" (CD notes by Robert Kirzinger).
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