This is a break from the standard pattern for the American Classics
line. Unlike the Copland, Gershwin, Bernstein and Barber issues
this one scoops up rarities. It is not a ‘Best of’ compilation
although what is here is far from inferior. The source is the
contents of one CD and one LP.
The songs for piano
and voice are a magnificent restoration to the Ives discography.
Marni Nixon has an unaffected and non-operatic sound which well
fits the range of Ives’ songs. John McCabe is in complete sympathy
with the idiom as you would expect. These songs go from the
musingly thoughtful Englishry of West London to the primitive
tin tabernacle of At the River. Nixon is also well in
touch with the childlike tone of The Greatest Man but
also springs forward for the knowing atonal hysteria of The
Cage, Farewell to Land, Soliloquy, Ann
Street, From 'The Swimmers' and the quirky collisions
of General William Booth Enters into Heaven. Charles
Rutlage is done in cowpuncher ingenuous character with a
touch of sampler-sentimental. Even then there is some stunning
atonality at the end. Side Show has an Irish McCormack
lilt. What an extraordinary artist we hear in Marni Nixon. There
really should be an Edition of her recordings. For now grab
this disc if you enjoy the work of true originals in sound.
Speaking of which
we then hear Set No. 1 which is in six movements veering
between Weill, Schoenberg, Satie and Webern. Both Sea and
Mists are gentle poetic inspirations. Compare these with
the acid harshness of the volcanic discordant piano of On
the Antipodes (piano and baritone) – an ultima thule
of conflict, moving from panzer assault to sentimental fluff
and back to blitzkrieg in a scintillating instant. Tone Roads
No. 1 is raspily dissonant and propulsive but the last movement,
with its wandering tonality, trumpet cantabile and murmuring
piano line, is simply magical. From the Steeples and Mountains
sounds at first like a soft exercise in bells and nostalgia
but raw Old Testament fanfares disrupt and scorch the music.
Tone Roads No.3 starts like From the Steeples
with a bell tolling and continues with the discordant chatter
of the woodwind. These are almost shocking in their originality.
The Rainbow and the rocking Pond take us back
to the poetry of Mists and the Sea - not without
atonality but light as down and impressionistic as the short
atonal pieces by Fartein Valen. The Bells of Yale includes
a humming chorus and Henry Herford who sings the school song;
disconcerting yet heartfelt stuff. Be perplexed but let yourself
enjoy this. The Gong on the Hook and Ladder is a gaunt
dissonant parade of cadavers - at least that's the way it sounds
to me. More peaceful yet just as dissonant and with an imperious
trumpet solo and a chaos of bells is All The Way Around and
Back. Over the Pavements anticipates the more acrid
harmonies of Weill with a wind ensemble and a jazzy piano skipping
and capering. Set No. 2 is in two movements, the first
of which is a Largo - The Indians with fanfares and thoughtful
figures seemingly anticipating or possibly borrowing from Stravinsky's
Le Sacre. The second is Gyp the Blood which sounds
like some ghastly tub-thumping rally - music in which excoriating
satire is as evident as in a Grosz caricature. Aeschylus
and Sophocles is dissonant but not raucous. An ensemble
of pointillist strings moves steadily with a piano threading
its way through and is then joined by Herford who cuts an heroic
figure through the hurly-burly. The listener is then left in
a dank peaceful place to meditate on the stuff of philosophical
desolation. The final Set for Theater or Chamber Orchestra
is in three movements. The last of these is another mood
impression In the light which sways in gently shifting
textures and harmonies. The strings breathe a gentle air while
the horns colour the clouds. So ends this sequence of short
epigrammatic and often discordant yet magically suggestive pieces.
Hearing this fascinating and succinctly expressed music makes
me even more keen that EMI should track down those Ruggles tapes
from CBS-Sony-BMG and issue them in this series.
This disc is evidence
of a true original in sound and the originality is unclouded
and yet more enthralling in these smaller formats.
The disc also breaks
with the series tradition by printing all the sung and referenced
words.
This is to me a surprise
winner and one in which Ives emerges as a master of dissonance
and a magician of mood, evocation and suggestion.
Rob Barnett
Marni Nixon
(soprano); John McCabe (piano) (songs); Henry Herford (baritone);
Ensemble Modern/Ingo Metzmacher 
