New York Classical Review

There’s little of Charles Ives’ music being played this fall in New York City, for his 150th anniversary, but at least what has been played has been meaningful. The latest Ives experience, Tuesday evening, in the crypt under the Church of the Intercession, was a small, but powerful tribute to the man who created American classical music.

Presented by Death of Classical for their Crypt Sessions, violinist Stefan Jackiw and pianist Jeremy Denk played Violin Sonatas Nos. 4 and 1, with the “Barn Dance” movement from Violin Sonata No. 2 in between. In the snug, warm resonance of the crypt, these were superb performances. That was expected, as the two musicians are some of the strongest contemporary Ives players. Nonesuch has recently released a new album with the two playing the complete Violin Sonatas (with a reissue of Denk’s Ives piano recordings), and it’s all anyone interested in this music would ever need.

Music this packed with ideas and complex emotions that can barely be contained by notes, much less bar lines, demands more than technique. Jackiw and Denk made everything clear, robust, and human. In this special space, with a small audience, this was as much séance as celebration, as beautiful in feeling as the music often is dense in sound.

What makes these two so excellent in this music is not just their knowledge of the scores and their technical skills, but their understanding of and comfort with Ives’ personal, idiosyncratic, often near-chaotic sound. His experiences growing up in a small town, playing music and sports, working in business, reading the Transcendentalists, and just living were the actual stuff of some of the utopian myths that are so prevalent, and at times so dangerous, in American culture.

While their recordings are full of supple life and compelling details, especially the way Jackiw twists and teases at the the shape of the lines, the live performance was packed with the urgency of Ives’ emotional and psychological world. Denk gave a few comments before the pieces, and also sang and played a little of the hymns and 19th century songs that spilled out of Ives’ memory and into his composing—always invaluable with this music—and those and the playing made clear the duo’s dedication for this music.

The commitment and expertise came through in the type of playing that’s the highest level of chamber music, a naturalness that felt both spontaneous and like a conversation—the two trading ideas through their instruments, changing the direction of each other’s statements and finishing each other’s sentences. These pieces very much have the violin as the lead voice, and Jackiw played with a sense of size and toughness that was driven by a sense of deep care and dedication for the music. Denk followed and supported each idea, playing the musical interjections in a way that was close to being wild. There was the uncanny sense that he was channeling Ives’ own playing, which was often almost disorderly and full of mistakes but with the spirit of the man coming through.

The encore was lovely and also outlined Ives’ importance. He was the composer who shed European styles, especially Brahms, to be American. So the two played the Adagio for Brahms D-minor Violin Sonata, Op. 108. This was a more orderly and formal nostalgia then Ives’ multitudes, played with the same burgeoning expanse of meaning, no less human or moving.

Ekmeles performs David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion in the Crypt, December 4-6. deathofclassical.com