I’ve been having an Ivanovs phase for the past couple of weeks.
As has been noted Naxos/Marco Polo have recorded the Symphonies 2, 3, 5, 8, 12 and 20. MP3s of old Melodya recordings or Latvian radio recordings of all the remaining symphonies and many other works are available at the Arts Music Forum.
The early symphonies remind me of Allan Peterson, there’s the same sort of declamatory style and relentless momentum, though Ivanovs usually writes his symphonies in the familiar four movement pattern (scherzo usually second), instead of one span. The orchestration is very good and you get really exciting moments, for example where the strings are giving out a thrilling rhythmic figure and the brass are blasting away underneath with threatening or heroic figures (the strong brass is a strong point of the Naxos/Marco Polo recordings). The mood is very like Peterson as well, enigmatic, with joy and sorrow both wrapped up in the music, and the music ultimately being hopeful because it does progress towards a conclusions. Ivanovs does very effective quiet and slow endings to otherwise loud and brusque movements.
Each symphony is quite different from the previous, for example in one or two the harp is prominent, in others piano, Symphony 5 is consciously folkloric &c.
In the later symphonies there is more breadth, and the declamatory style gives way to one with more contrapuntal work and motivic development, thought here are still exciting moments of declamatory drama. In all the symphonies there are slower interludes in the fast movements (and usually the slow movements are ABA with a faster central section). In the later ones these changes in tempi become more marked but they don’t hold the music up, instead they make for dynamic contrast. In these later symphonies the slow movements are almost Brucknerian in their solemnity.
Symphonies 17, 18 and 19 are his masterpieces and are as good as any symphonies written in the C20. Of all the symphonies my favourites are 7, 8, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 (completed by Karlsons).
Of the other works I haven’t listened to his choral and keyboard works, but his orchestral music (tone-poems) are very good and are more Sibelian than his symphonies. His Concertos (piano, cello and violin) are in the Romantic lyrical tradition and are full of beautiful moments. The Violin Concerto reminds me of the Rubbra Violin Concerto with its beautiful themes and light dancing rhythms. His string quartets and other chamber works are very good too.
I think he is a major composer.
