Heather O'Donnell

Responses to Ives was conceived in 2003 by pianist Heather O’Donnell as a way to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of Charles Ives’s death (May 19, 2004). She approached composers spanning a generation, known to have strong affinities for Ives and asked them to write a “musical reflection” on the presence of Ives in their lives and work.

The set was premiered at the MaerzMusik Festival in Berlin in 2004 in the midst of a twelve hour extravaganza of Ives. In the months following repeat performances took place in South Africa, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the U.S.

The CD includes the first recording of Ives’ London Bridge is Falling Down!

O’Donnell intersperses short, and often less known, works of Ives with the contemporary composers’ “responses”, all of which are first recordings. The “responses” could not be more varied from each other, from introspective to virtuostic to meditative to extended techniques.

Liner notes by Heather O’Donnell.

Charles Ives: Study No. 21: Some Southpaw Pitching! (2:15); Set of Five Take-Offs (11:55); From Four Transcriptions from “Emerson”, ii. Moderato (3:47) and iii. Largo (2:35); Study No. 9: The Anti-Abolitionist Riots in the 1830’s and 1840’s (3:22); London Bridge Is Fallen Down! (1:03)
Walter Zimmermann: the missing nail at the river for piano and toy piano (5:50)
Sidney Corbett: The Celestial Potato Fields (10:07)
James Tenney: Essay (after a sonata) for inside piano (11:30)
Michael Finnissy: Song of Myself (11:07)
Oliver Schneller: “And tomorrow…” for piano and electronics (5:41)

Heather O’Donnell, piano