Charles Ives

[Cato]

Any performer preferences here on GMG ?

Is John Kirkpatrick's still the standard?

Speaking of whom, here is an article from almost 40 years ago (!) on hearing Kirkpatrick play the piece live...in Concord!

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/1975/michaelsteinbergreview_kirkpatrick/

[Concord]

Any performer preferences here on GMG ?

Is John Kirkpatrick's still the standard?

I'll try this again:

My two fave performances at the moment are by Nina Deutsch (on Vox) and Stephen Mayer (on Naxos) - and for oppostie reasons. Deutsch's reading is fast and propulsive, Mayers more magisterial, almost pastoral (there's a 10-15 minute difference in timings), but both work very well.

Denk has received ecstatic reviews, but I'm not a fan.

[TheGSMoeller]

These are the two I've had for a while now and they both catapulted this sonata to my favorite 20th Century piano piece. Mayer is wonderful, but I always tend to lean towards Aimard for a top choice, plus he adds in the optional flute and viola cameos.





Just acquired Hamelin's second account here a few months ago, only gave it a few spins, but it's also quite spectacular.

[TheGSMoeller]

Slatkin and Detroit SO performing all 4 Ives Symphonies in one night at Carnegie 


http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2013/5/10/0730/PM/Spring-for-Music-Detroit-Symphony/

[Karl Henning]

These are the two I've had for a while now and they both catapulted this sonata to my favorite 20th Century piano piece. Mayer is wonderful, but I always tend to lean towards Aimard for a top choice, plus he adds in the optional flute and viola cameos.

Sweet! I have that Mayer, but I am not sure I've listened to it, yet . . . .

Slatkin and Detroit SO performing all 4 Ives Symphonies in one night at Carnegie 

Sweet II!

[TheGSMoeller]

The Ives Of March - 2013

I attempted this last year, didn't have many participants, but I'm gonna do it again. I'll focus a good portion of my March listening to the works of Charles Ives. I'll explore the many facets and genres that Ives covered during his lifetime and compare and contrast performances and recordings. I will also include my own personal notes on the music, along with writings from others.

I'll create a listening log, hopefully within a day or two, and place certain genres into each week. For sure I'll give each Symphony its own week, and will separate each of the Holidays since there are four, and were initially composed individually.

I hope many will join me and chime in from time to time with thoughts and comments. This will be an exciting journey for me, Ives is a favorite of mine, and what I believe to be the finest American classical composer.



And no need to only discuss his music, we could span out to his pioneering of the Insurance business, and possibly improve the quality of life for us all. 

[Mirror Image]

Sounds good, Greg. I'll be happy to participate since Ives in a favorite of mine as well. I'll be on vacation week after next, so I'll definitely set aside a day or two for Ives.

[some guy]

How fleeting is fame.

Even when it's been digitized and reissued....

Aloys Kontarsky, Ives' Concord Sonata. With Theo Pluemacher, viola and Willy Schwegler, flute.

CD 2 in the three CD set of Volume 5 of the Wergo reissue of the Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series.

(CD 1 is the wildly spectacular Sonic Arts Union: Electric Sound. CD 3 is some delightful flute and piano pieces from Evangelisti, Castiglioni, Berio, Messiaen, Matsudaira, and Maderna.)

All six volumes (18 CDs) are worth getting, though there's only the one Ives CD.

[TheGSMoeller]

Getting an early start, here is what I wrote last year about Ives Symphony No. 1

THE IVES OF MARCH


Let's start with the Symphony No. 1 (1898-1902) Written while attending Yale University, Ives symphony No.1 displays musical qualities and influence of late-romantic composers. Not as inventive compared to later pieces, although you can hear the young, foreshadowing Ives fighting with conventional sonata-form at times, his first symphony is an important key to understanding the development and metamorphoses of Ives' compositional style.
I am recommending this Naxos disc with James Sinclair, who has recorded many great Ives discs, Sinclair convinces his listeners that is not just a student piece, it carries weight and it's reminiscent of composers from that era.

[asin]B0000CDJKI[/asin]

In addition to this Sinclair, another good version can be found from Litton with the Dallas SO...

[asin]B000I8OIHA[/asin]

[TheGSMoeller]

Ives: Symphony No. 1
1st movement Allegro (con moto)

http://www.youtube.com/v/xhS2M-gpHIM


2nd movement Adagio Molto

http://www.youtube.com/v/7cFM0xmu2Pk

[TheGSMoeller]

Songs

Charles Ives composed well over 100 songs, widely ranging in style and emotion. Scott Mortensen wrote a well-written piece that describes Ives' comprehensive output.

"Charles Ives' song legacy presents a unique set of challenges to its interpreters. Ives' songs derive from an enormously wide variety of musical traditions, from the German lied tradition (and European art song in general), to American parlor songs, hymns, and folk tunes. In addition, Ives' own relentless experimentation, which often bore little resemblance to anything that preceded him, led to a body of works that still presents formidable obstacles to any performer, regardless of their background. In short, how many singers are capable of singing like Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau one moment and an authentic Texas cowboy the next? What's even more difficult: Ives' greatest songs typically don't come from any clearly defined performance tradition, so the performer must internalize them and come up with something new, a kind of Ivesian cultural synthesis encompassing almost everything: high and low, new and old, secular and sacred, comical and serious, American and Universal.

Aside from stylistic variety, Ives' songs also call for an enormous range of emotional responses: from mystical meditations on God and Nature to sentimental recollections of days gone by; from sarcastic, bombastic political commentary to the innocent, wide-eyed wonder of a child. The songs' broad emotional spectrum presents yet another challenge to any artist who chooses to perform them."

You can find this write-up along with recommendations here

I've selected a few songs from Ives that display this wide range of style.

http://www.youtube.com/v/c3gU5hAXZ08&playnext=1&list=PL3B12BBAD996FC173&feature=results_video

Memories: Gerald Finley, Julius Drake (piano)


http://www.youtube.com/v/gJFKLTA0vq0

Like A Sick Eagle: Susan Narucki, Alan Feinberg (piano)


http://www.youtube.com/v/cgGA1eEjhLA

Feldeinsamkeit: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau


http://www.youtube.com/v/SnbGruNIV1o

General William Booth Enters Into Heaven: William Sharp, Stephen Blier (piano)



Elegie, Romanzo, Sunrise and The Circus Band are a few more of my favorites that I could not find samples of.

[snyprrr]

Sweet! I have that Mayer, but I am not sure I've listened to it, yet . . . .

Sweet II!

LOLZ!! Karl, the little engine that... might!

[Karl Henning]

(* chortle *)

[TheGSMoeller]

Continuing with vocal music...

Ives composed Psalm 90 for chorus, soprano and tenor soloist, organ and percussion in 1923-24. This is one of Ives most challenging and rewarding works, mostly because of its large spectrum of musical offering. The first five to six minutes are filled with unyielding progressions and dissonance in the chorus, followed in the final 4-5 minutes of a calmly tranquil major-key flow. It's truly amazing how Ives can transition from two different sound-worlds without distracting the overall direction of the music. I was lucky enough to find a good performance of Psalm 90 to post. I hope you all get a chance to listen. 

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZPlCWI8RImA

Ives: Psalm 90

Pamela Pristley-Smith, soprano
David Roy, tenore
Christopher Hughes, organo
solisti della The New London Orchestra
BBC Singers diretti da Stephen Cleobury.

[North Star]

Continuing with vocal music...

Ives composed Psalm 90 for chorus, soprano and tenor soloist, organ and percussion in 1923-24. This is one of Ives most challenging and rewarding works, mostly because of its large spectrum of musical offering. The first five to six minutes are filled with unyielding progressions and dissonance in the chorus, followed in the final 4-5 minutes of a calmly tranquil major-key flow. It's truly amazing how Ives can transition from two different sound-worlds without distracting the overall direction of the music. I was lucky enough to find a good performance of Psalm 90 to post. I hope you all get a chance to listen. 

Amazing piece! Thanks for posting, and writing of it, Greg!
Do you know this (or any other) recording?
[asin]B001FXSN50[/asin]

[TheGSMoeller]

Amazing piece! Thanks for posting, and writing of it, Greg!
Do you know this (or any other) recording?
[asin]B001FXSN50[/asin]

I do not have this album, but have been wanting it for some time. The samples sound lovely, might be the best recorded versions of his Psalms.

[TheGSMoeller]

Ives: Symphony No. 1
1st movement Allegro (con moto)

http://www.youtube.com/v/xhS2M-gpHIM


2nd movement Adagio Molto

http://www.youtube.com/v/7cFM0xmu2Pk

Just realized I forgot to post movements 3 and 4. Such a romantic piece, so many influences can heard throughout the third mvt. Scherzo. What might sound like some European-influence from the 3rd, is followed by strong hints of the All-American Ives that is so prominent in his following symphony No.2.


http://www.youtube.com/v/QHxMTKexuGo

http://www.youtube.com/v/1hNGBIZDbYM

[TheGSMoeller]

We are fortunate to have a little of Charles Ives own performances on record. One of the most spectacular is his performance of his song "They Are There". It's a very patriotic piece but underlined with a hodgepodge of Ives own style. There even seems to be a little improv by Mr. Ives 


http://www.youtube.com/v/10pqluMwgXQ


There's a time in many a life,
when it's do though facing death
and our soldier boys will do their part
that people can live in a world where all will have a say.
They're conscious always of their country's aim,
which is Liberty for all.
Hip hip hooray you'll hear them say
as they go to the fighting front.

Brave boys are now in action
They are there, they will help to free the world
They are fighting for the right
But when it comes to might,
They are there, they are there, they are there,
As the Allies beat up all the warhogs,
The boys'll be there fighting hard
a-a-and then the world will shout
the battle cry of Freedom.
Tenting on a new camp ground.

When we're through this cursed war,
All started by a sneaking gouger,
making slaves of men
Then let all the people rise,
and stand together in brave, kind Humanity.
Most wars are made by small stupid
selfish bossing groups
while the people have no say.
But there'll come a day
Hip hip Hooray
when they'll smash all dictators to the wall.

Then it's build a people's world nation Hooray
Ev'ry honest country free to live its own native life.
They will stand for the right,
but if it comes to might,
They are there, they are there, they are there.
Then the people, not just politicians
will rule their own lands and lives.
Then you'll hear the whole universe
shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
Tenting on a new camp ground.
Tenting on a new camp ground

[Concord]

Ivan Hewett has posted an introduction to Ives's music over at his blog at The Telegraph. Here is the first paragraph:

"Stand up and use your ears like a man!" That was Charles Ives's furious response to some hecklers at a performance of music by another great American radical, Henry Cowell. Ives was very hot on manliness — there's a well-known photo of him in the garb of an American footballer, taken in his Harvard days. One detects an undercurrent of anxiety that his chosen profession was a touch "sissy", which was reasonable enough given that classical music in the US was almost entirely run by blue-rinsed ladies of a certain age.

How many errors can you spot?

[TheGSMoeller]

Ivan Hewett has posted an introduction to Ives's music over at his blog at The Telegraph. Here is the first paragraph:

"Stand up and use your ears like a man!" That was Charles Ives's furious response to some hecklers at a performance of music by another great American radical, Henry Cowell. Ives was very hot on manliness — there's a well-known photo of him in the garb of an American footballer, taken in his Harvard days. One detects an undercurrent of anxiety that his chosen profession was a touch "sissy", which was reasonable enough given that classical music in the US was almost entirely run by blue-rinsed ladies of a certain age.

How many errors can you spot?

His profession was Insurance. He went to Yale.