Description
For her latest musical journey, pianist Louise Bessette visits the port of call of New England. Her musical guideposts are works by two American composers: Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass., 1840-60,” by Charles Ives (1874-1954), and New England Idyls, Op. 62, by Edward MacDowell (1860-1908).
The “Concord Sonata” is one of the great masterpieces of the piano literature, and Ives’ revised 1947 edition is the version most often performed today. Scholars such as Jay Gottlieb, with whom Louise Bessette worked on her interpretation, have improved the 1947 edition by adding details that Ives had included in the manuscripts, but later omitted in the published scores. The brief parts for viola (first movement) and flute (fourth movement) are marked as optional. Louise Bessette chose to include them on her recording, calling on violist Isaac Chalk and flutist Jeffrey Stonehouse.
New York-born pianist and composer Edward MacDowell was particularly renowned for his piano music—concertos, sonatas and etudes. MacDowell wanted to add a “local flavour” to the music he had learned in the European tradition, and drew inspiration, for example, from the music of America’s First Nations. In his score for the cycle New England Idyls, each of the ten short pieces is preceded by a short poem, including “Indian Idyl,” which is based on a love song of the Iowa nation. Composed in 1902, Opus 62 would be the last work in Edward MacDowell’s catalogue before his death in 1908.
With an exceptional career spanning forty years, pianist Louise Bessette stands out for the excellence of her live performances. In 2019, Bessette received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for Classical Music. The GGPAAs are Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts. In 2015, she was listed as one of Canada’s top 25 pianists by CBC Music, and received her tenth Opus Prize from the Conseil québécois de la musique in 2021. She has been a professor of piano at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal since 1996. In 2024, she was named Knight of the Ordre de Montréal.
