Monday, November 12, 2012

Peloquin and Ives





I once saw a painting at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, titled “The Earth Everlastingly in Transition.”  It was a very beautiful painting, but what has stuck with me since then is the title.  Life and art are also everlastingly in transition.  At any given moment we can capture the experience of art, but then, almost immediately, we move on.  Even the memory we may have of experiencing the art at that moment is subject to change. Canadian pianist Glenn Gould made a recording of the Bach Goldberg Variations in 1968, when he was 30, and another recording 20 years later.  Those bookend recordings are astonishingly different from each other, yet they are the same piece.  The transition came within Mr. Gould.  Each performance brings its own insights into the music—each the same, each different.

Last spring, my colleague and friend of over twenty years Marc Peloquin gave a performance of Charles Ives Piano Sonata #2 (“Concord, Massachusetts 1840-1860”).  The Concord Sonata is a piece of music that is almost unimaginably complex and beautiful and a piece of music that Charles Ives was endlessly absorbed in.  Marc and I are working on a web project revolving around the Concord Sonata.  It’s a part of an ongoing conversation he and I have had about Ives in general and the Concord Sonata specifically.  It’s a piece that deserves every bit of attention you give to it and rewards your efforts with new revelations.  

I have heard Marc Peloquin play the Concord Sonata three different times and each time has been a completely different experience.  For me, Marc has been a fearless Concord Sherpa, who leads his audiences to the peak of the mountain and guides them safely back.  Marc is passionate about understanding the piece—researching, thinking, discussing, playing through the numerous edits.  This sonata was everlastingly in transition for Ives, as he never seemed to “finish” the piece, and now also for Marc and his audiences.  

                                                                                                  Lawrence Davis