Nathan Williamson brings together works by four American composers, mostly from the 1930s. Copland’s Piano Sonata (1939-41) is striking and desolate, especially the heavily chordal finale which sinks into quiet, mysterious retreat. Bernstein’s, composed when he was still a student at Harvard (1938), has a free structure but a dense texture, full of toccata and syncopation. Lou Harrison’s Sonata No 3 (1938) exemplifies his love of process and rules, though is hugely more rewarding than that may sound. Ives’s short Three-Page Sonata (1905), bold, dissonant and also schematic in its use of the B-A-C-H motif, ends with jubilant marches: iconic Ives that looks back to an American past as well as forwards. All fascinating.
