Celebrating an Original

Like someone’s eccentric uncle, Charles Ives (1874-1954) has been largely stashed in the attic of music history, along with most of his compositions. Concertgoers who have heard the handful of Ives pieces in regular rotation tend to get a one-dimensional view of him as a borrower of small-town parade music and other Americana. But this Danbury native, an insurance clerk by day, was more of a visionary than just a novelty, and more of a seminal figure in modern 20th-century music than merely an iconoclast. His music deserves greater exposure and appreciation. So it is a pleasure to see that the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, which begins this weekend, has made Ives the featured composer of its 2011 season and New Music Workshop. Ives wrote original, challenging and daring experimental music that anticipated many subsequent developments, including atonality, polytonality, dissonance, and even aleatoric (free-form or random) techniques. Sometimes these elements were overlaid on a foundation of American hymn music or the echoes of marching bands, but at other times the music is purely modernist. The New Music Workshop involves 11 students who will compose and perform original works of their own, drawing on Ives for inspiration. The workshop opens on Saturday, June 18, with a song recital by soprano Susan Narucki, accompanied by pianist Donald Berman in works by Ives, as well as by Chopin and Brahms. Narucki is a Grammy-winning singer who performs in opera houses and concert halls around the world. The following weekend, the workshop concludes with free performances of the student composers’ works led by conductor Julian Pellicano. For tickets, call 860-542-3000 or go to www.norfolkmusic.org. Also this weekend, the 82nd annual Music Mountain season gets underway with a special benefit concert featuring the legendary pianist Misha Dichter in his first appearance at the Falls Village chamber music Mecca, along with the Harlem Quartet. The program includes well-known works by Mozart, Borodin and Schumann, as well as Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the A Train.” The concert takes place on Sunday, June 19, at 3 p.m. For tickets, call 860-824-7126 or go to www.musicmountain.org. To read an extended article and a brief interview with Dichter, go to the newly revamped website of the Lakeville Journal newspapers, www.tricornernews.com.

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