Acton-inspired musical piece comes ‘home’ ahead of revolution’s 250th

It’s as iconic as Acton itself. 

“Sonata No. 2, Acton, Mass. 1840-60” by Charles Ives is a series of musical meditations on four great Transcendentalist writers: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Alcotts (Bronson and Louisa May), and Henry David Thoreau. 

Now, on the cusp of the 250th anniversary of the battle at the Old North Bridge, the piano composition can be heard live in the place that inspired it. 

Renowned Canadian pianist Louise Bessette will lecture on and then perform the piece, commonly known as “The Acton Sonata,” at the Performing Arts Center at 51 Walden on September 8. 

A dream come true

Carole Wayland, the Center’s executive director, says she met Bessette last summer “by chance.” 

Wayland learned that Bessette would be recording the Sonata this fall in Montreal and had driven to Acton to “soak up the culture of the town,” making a stop at 51 Walden.

She gave Bessette a tour of the building, during which the pianist commented that it would be “a dream” to perform such a famous piece in Acton. 

“Well, I can make it happen,” Wayland told her. The Acton Orchestra is lending its Steinway for the concert. 

Bessette, born in Montreal in 1959, trained and teaches at the Conservatoire de musique du Quebec a Montreal. She has received numerous awards, including the Governor General’s award in 2019 for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in Classical Music, Canada’s highest honor in the performing arts.

Ives was born in Danbury, Connecticut, in 1874. Son of a band leader, he ran a successful insurance agency, returning home to write music at night. 

His work is known for its innovative techniques, such as dissonance and polytonal harmonies, and its quotations from other composers, including the famous four opening notes of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, which recur in “The Acton Sonata.”  

The lecture and concert at The Performing Arts Center at 51 Walden will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, September 8. Admission is free.