Events at Hulbert Piano

Join Present Music in the beautiful, state-of-the-art showroom at Hulbert Piano in Brookfield for an intimate recital with past Present Music powerhouse pianist, Phillip Bush! Phillip brings his latest passion project to Milwaukee for a special Present Music subscriber-exclusive on October 19th, 2019 at 8:00pm.

The heart of the program features Charles Ives’ monumental solo piano work written in the latter 1910s, his Sonata No. 2 which is subtitled “Concord, Mass., 1840-60,” generally known today as the “Concord Sonata.” This four-movement, 48-minute work is a tribute to the New England Transcendalists of the mid-19th century, with a movements entitled “Emerson,” “Hawthorne,” “The Alcotts,” and “Thoreau.” Ives’ spirit of musical experimentation is present throughout, crashing dissonances juxtaposed with tender consonances, dense musical textures alternating with quotes from American folk and patriotic tunes.

To place Ives and this landmark piano work in context, the recital opens with a set of several short pieces for piano also written in the late 1910s, by other American composers whose style ranged from the more conservative and European-influenced side to the more boldly experimental. This set includes works by Arthur Foote, Charles Griffes, Marion Bauer, Leo Ornstein, and Henry Cowell.