Charles Tomlinson Griffes Sonata

Thomas Hunter (?) piano

This sonata is, by wide agreement, the greatest work of Charles Tomlinson Griffes who died in the influenza pandemic in 1920.   He was 35.   His relativly small body of very distinguished works shows that he was one of the great composers of his generation, someone whose work showed continual growth and development.   Like all great music, in the hands of good players, it will show different things.  Some, like that last one, I don't agree with but the piece is still there.  This piece was a major departure from Griffes' earlier music and we can only guess where he was headed with it.

This is a very fine performance that presents things about it that other very fine performances don't and which doesn't contain everything those performances do.   In that it shows how a great piece can contain different meanings, that the music is a collaboration between the composer and performers. And that leaves out the third participant, the listener.   It's the performer's responsibility to try to find what the composer put there and to communicate that and that is as much an act of creative imagination as the original composition of it was, though the primary responsibility of the composer comprises the greatest act of the three.   This pianist fulfilled his part, very well.

Score