RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Charles IVES (1874-1954)
Orchestral Works - volume 2
A Symphony: New England Holidays [39:04]
Central Park in the Dark [8:07]
Three Places in New England [19:43]
The Unanswered Question [5:02]
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis
rec. March/April 2015, Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University and Hammer
Hall (Three Places), Melbourne
CHANDOS CHSA5163 SACD [72:27]
The more Charles Ives I hear, the more I adore him. He is
the quintessential American composer, an autodidact and successful insurance
broker. Every text about him mentions that last fact, but there’s a
good reason for that, because the resultant financial independence explains
his extraordinary freedom from institutions and convention and everything
else that might be creativity-stifling about the classical music industry.
I should point out that I might never have got my ears around Ives, if not
for several live performances. Hearing this music in proper, three-dimensional
spaces, in the ultimate high — real — fidelity that only
a live performance can provide, is tantamount to an acoustic explanation of
his music and how the cacophonous mess that recordings often convey is really
an intricate-yet-easy-to-understand texture of different layers, a quilt of
musics that move in different directions or at different tempos or stem from
different times or all that and more at once. Fiendishly difficult to coordinate,
it is more difficult still to do it justice on record. Little wonder then,
that his most popular pieces on record are largely those where the fewest
instruments are used. Like his Concord Piano Sonata, for example; although
Charles Ives manages even in a piano sonata to need an extra, optional flute
and a viola.
Those afraid of the infamous Ivesian complexity: Hearing an Ives piece and
not knowing the wealth of hymns, tunes, marching and military songs would
be like hearing the Goldberg Variations but not knowing either song
on which the 30th Variation, the Quodlibet, is based. Or watching
Mozart in the Jungle but not recognizing half the classical musician
cameos … which is to say: still perfectly enjoyable, just a little less
complex, funny, or emotionally meaningful than it would maximally be. The
point: We should never not listen to Ives because of that. Perhaps concerts
could be programmed with that in mind or maybe there could be an Ives-companion
website one day, that lists and links and plays all those old tunes and where
and how and why Ives used them. In an interview
about Ives, Kent Nagano, remembers first encountering Ives: “At
the beginning I remember just laughing [and Nagano laughs, recalling that].
I guess I heard … I think it was, well, some particularly dissonant
and – in terms of time – completely uncoordinated pieces. And
I had never heard anything like that in my life and it made me laugh. [But]
I stayed in contact with his music and … once I began to hear the music
more often, it just stimulated more and more curiosity.” In other words:
There is no worry about being perplexed at first, it’s a natural process.
The idea is to stay the course and eventually Ives will yield a lot of enjoyment.
Which brings me, after straying, back to the disc at hand.
This disc, nominally the second volume in the Melbourne Orchestra’s
cycle of Charles Ives orchestral works, contains three of his major goodies
(Central Park in the Dark, Three Places in New England and
The Unanswered Question) and one of his less performed, perhaps under-appreciated
works in the most phenomenal performance I have heard: A Symphony: New
England Holidays. The combination makes this a perfect starting place
for this series. Fitting with the above on approachability, conductor Sir
Andrew Davis coyly writes in the superb liner-notes about his conducting and
recording experiences that “sometimes, even in Ives, difficulties may
not be as extreme as they first appear!”
There are many recordings of the Unanswered Question and many very
good ones; this is right among them, with exquisite strings and woodwinds
in the background, gorgeous Trumpet-questions, and up-front excited, shrill
and suitably in-your-face flute-chatter that do the un-answering. What a wonderful
way to close one of the best Ives-discs yet. The same goes for the other two
more famous works, which are here presented in demonstration sound. Indeed,
the SACD sound — alas only stereo for me… although Ives will have
been a major reason for upgrading to surround sound, if I ever do —
is not just superb but also immensely helpful and indeed integral to the enjoyment
of this music. Ives simply needs to be heard in excellent sound on an excellent
stereo system and played loud, to capture the whole dynamic bandwidth of his
music. Listening to Ives on an old car stereo would strike me, at least, as
pointless.
It’s the quasi-Symphony, with which the recording opens, that becomes
the main attraction. Essentially Ives’ Fifth Symphony — chronologically
it comes between the Third and Fourth — and also his “Four Seasons”,
and according to Ives it doesn’t necessarily form a cohesive symphonic
whole. The movements, corresponding with the seasons, are: Washington’s
Birthday (Winter), Decoration Day [which is now Memorial Day] (Spring), The
Fourth of July (Summer), and Thanksgiving and Forefathers’ Day (Fall).
It’s an amazing and baffling and all-senses-bombarding experience, with
details audible as never before, even if it meant unorthodox recording methods
to get those Jew’s Harps heard in “Washington’s Birthday”.
It’s an all-encompassing experience, this Ives disc, and frankly the
best disc of orchestral Ives I’ve yet heard. I can’t wait for
more from the same team.
Jens F Laurson
Previous reviews: Dan
Morgan ~
Dominy Clements
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