Older Ives enthusiasts may recall the First Piano Sonata in performances by William Masselos who played the work for the first time in 1954, the year the composer died. Odd, but familiar in Ives, for such a masterpiece to have to wait 45 years to be heard! Masselos made two recordings (nla) which established the character of this richly inventive work. The one by Noel Lee (on a Nonesuch LP—only available in the USA) made in the late 1960s is almost as impressive. Joanna MacGregor's recording is now a landmark since there is effectively no competition in the British catalogue: DJF found little to recommend in John Jensen's performance on Music and Arts (9/90) so it is best to compare MacGregor, who is certainly busy in the recording studios these days, with these earlier Americans.
She comes out of the comparison so well that the chief feature of this Ives/Barber release is undoubtedly the Ives. The sonata contains some of the most remarkable examples of Ives's notated improvisations influenced by ragtime performers, especially in the second and fourth movements. In the latter MacGregor outshines Lee in masculinity, which would have appealed to Ives, by playing with a driving rhythm, loud throughout. At 0'59'' when Ives specifies ''as fast as possible'' she throws caution to the wind more or less regardless of the consequences—particularly from 1'28'' onwards! After all that, though, the slow postlude based, with transcendental mysticism, on one of the hymns (I hear Thy welcome voice) is not quite slow or rapt enough. But the slow movement, mostly concerned with that fine hymn What a friend we have in Jesus, is beautifully appreciated by MacGregor, who also makes excellent sense of the finale, although she has a mannerism here and in the Barber of holding up the flow with slight pauses. But overall this is a performance which represents Ives in his many inter-related facets so faithfully that it ought to have an impact in the USA where there is more competition.
With the Barber Sonata there is much more on offer. In January I selected Peter Lawson's performance with other American sonatas on Virgin Classics as one of my ''Critics' Choices''. Horowitz, for whom the work was written, is available on RCA, recorded in 1950 ((CD) GD60377—to be reviewed later). The Sonata has regularly attracted performers who enjoy its challenges. MacGregor is at least the third recent British success on record—apart from Lawson there is Angela Brownridge on Hyperion. Everything from MacGregor is well controlled, although her slightly free approach to the first movement brings out the Chopin connection. The scherzo is neat and the eloquent slow movement has exactly the right cumulative intensity. Almost the only American qualities surface in the syncopated fugue-subject of the finale. Both here and in the four Excursions which complete this well-recorded CD, MacGregor's enthusiasm for popular idioms comes through and pays off.'