The pianist Jeremy Denk (of Think Denk fame) has gotten a very nice mention of his performance of Charles Ives‘ “Concord” Sonata. Now Jeremy can use “brilliant” – the New York Times, in his promo materials! You can read the entire article (ostensibly a review of a concert from the Emerson Quartet’s Beethoven “Quartets in Context” series going on a Carnegie Hall this month) here. Here’s the bit on Mr. Denk:
In fact, the stimulation began before the Emerson players took the stage, in a prelude concert by the American pianist Jeremy Denk: a performance of Ives’s juggernaut Piano Sonata No. 2 (“Concord, Mass., 1840-60â€).
That sonata (1911-20) begins, appropriately enough, with a movement called “Emerson,†which makes heavy use of the motto theme of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Mr. Denk’s brilliant performance made the most of the contrast between Ives’s bullying textures and the abrupt transcendent or comic effusions.