Denk is the dream spokesman for classical music today. He’s as adept at the keys of a Mac as he is at the ivories of a Steinway. His irreverent blog: www.jeremydenk.net/blog follows the not-so-glamorous yet glorious life of a concert pianist. He’s as likely to talk junk food as he is to diagram a measure of music.
This correspondent interviewed him by phone to get the scoop on what’s so astounding about Charles Ives and why you can’t miss this festival.
Gay Life: On your blog, you write that a good muffin can be equivalent to sex. If Charles Ives were a muffin, what flavor would he be?
Jeremy Denk: A good, solid corn muffin. Ives was obsessed with integrity. But it would have to be a little naughty too, to capture the dissonance.
How about cranberry relish?
Yes, that’s good, very Yank. But he’d probably be a casserole.
What makes Ives distinct and American?
The way he’s able to travel from the ridiculous to the profound. His quoting is not pastiche. It’s collage. Multiple streams of consciousness with layering. Everything must end up in the pot—so much that has receded into American memory. He’s a very lovable old coot, but maybe I’m nostalgic. His sonorities are gritty and uncompromising.
You’ve paired “Concord” and “Hammerklavier” since at least 2007. Why?
They’re desperately entwined sister pieces. Bonkers. Outlandish and marvelous things. In Beethoven there’s the heroic first movement, the ridiculous second, the third sublime, tragic. Finale, most preposterous: [Denk laughs] “an alien fugue from another dimension.” The key for him that joins the two is the zany that transforms and transcends. The “Concord Sonata” gives tonal portraits of New England Americans in each of its movements: Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts, and Thoreau.
One of your “deadly sins of program notes” is historicization. The whole idea of saying “oh, it was so revolutionary back then.” You say that what is revolutionary will sound so always. What’s revolutionary about the “Concord Sonata”?
The universal themes never get old. Thoreau matters more and more today. And Emerson, I went nuts for Emerson, his ecstatic quality. They’re the embodiment of the romantic revolution. Like bloggers. Hawthorne though, he’s the novelist, the writer’s-writer and Ives makes him a comic character sketch. Thoreau and Emerson are statements.
One author speculates that Ives’ disposition for dissonance comes from an exaggerated masculinity? Do you buy that?
Ives did have issues… Leads one to be suspicious. His time was music for polite high society, ladies clubs and tea gatherings. He said NO to all that. He was all power. Michael Tilson Thomas has this great quote: “Ives tolerated lots of people except for Jewish homosexuals. But those are the ones that got him the most!”
What brought you to work with Post-Classical Ensemble?
They’re championing Ives. It’s a beautiful hall, a chance to be immersed in his world. What could be better? It’s a blast to hear Joe [Horowitz] talk, and no one’s ever read a selection of essays before the Sonata. That’s fabulous.
Ives wrote an 80-page work: “Essays Before a Sonata” as a kind of preface to Concord. What is it about music and writing? You blog, why?
Ives was being pre-emptive, descending himself. He was cantankerous. My blog is sometimes too, although I hope it balances with pleasure. It’s a compulsion. Piano is solitary, so it’s less continuous masturbation—not really—it’s thinking, the blog is a release valve, a place puncturing the pompous in classical music. Beethoven and Mozart had something real, real relations. I want to mirror that element in music, getting rid of the clutter of tradition and habit.
Do you write to correct people’s bad writing about music?
I do hope to set a good example and give the total effect of what’s interesting. It’s worst of all when people don’t write with a sense of fire.
Who else do you read? You’re featured on My Big Gay Ears. Do you like it?
I’ve also been to My Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, but I don’t think they’re related. No, it’s a good blog, I should look into it more.
So readers will wonder, are you single?
Partnered. Patrick Posey from Julliard.
He’s a saxophone player, right? How is it a musician dating a musician?
Did once date a pianist, didn’t work out so well. It’s hard to date a musician, it’s hard not to. I’m not sure I’ve ever been particularly rational. I want to be, but…
Ives Project: Beethoven & Ives feat. Pianist Jeremy Denk.
Friday, Nov. 4, 8pm. $15-45.
Music Center at Strathmore
5301 Tuckerman Ln. Bethesda.
301.581.5100 Strathmore.org
