Charles IVES (1874-1954)
Selected American Hymns [5:31]
Symphony No. 3 ‘The Camp Meeting’ [23:41]
Selected American Hymns [8:22]
Symphony No. 4 [31:19]
Peter Dugan (piano)
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas, Christian Reif
rec. live, 10-18 November 2017, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
No sung texts provided
SFS MEDIA SACD 8219360076-2 [68.53]
On its SFS Media label, the San Francisco Symphony and music director Michael Tilson Thomas turn their attention back to American music with a pair of symphonies by Charles Ives and a selection of eleven traditional American hymns. The inclusion of hymns is not surprising, as the hymn was part of the lives of many New England residents and Ives would often employ hymn tunes as wellsprings of inspiration in his works. It’s hard to fault these live performances; they are of consistently high quality and the hymn singing is simply glorious.
The score of Ives’ Third Symphony, entitled ‘The Camp Meeting’, had a lengthy gestation beginning around 1901 with completion in 1909-11. It seems that all three movements were based on Ives’ own organ works employing several traditional hymn quotations. For around thirty-five years, the score lay unperformed until its premiere under Lou Harrison in 1946 in New York City. The work is in three movements: ‘Old Folks Gatherin’’ (Andante maestoso), ‘Children’s Day’ (Allegro) and ‘Communion’ (Largo). This performance is of an often-startling beauty and has a distinct freshness and the feeling of open spaces. Tilson Thomas provides both an agreeable and uplifting quality to ‘Old Folks Gatherin’’, a carefree mood imbues ‘Children’s Day’ and in ‘Communion’ there’s an engaging warmth and a sense of the great outdoors.
At the Musikfest Berlin in 2012, I attended an ‘American Evening’ played by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Ingo Metzmacher at Philharmonie. The American programme comprised of works by Gershwin, Antheil, and Bernstein and featured Ives’ Fourth Symphony with Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano) and the Ernst Senff Chor. Based on earlier material, Ives wrote his Fourth Symphony around 1910-18 with revisions in 1921-24. Composer Bernard Herrmann wrote, ‘the symphony is one of the greatest symphonies ever penned. It is the great American symphony that our critics and conductors have cried out for, and yet the symphony has remained unperformed.’ Like the Third Symphony the Fourth lay unperformed in its entirety for many years until Leopold Stokowski conducted its complete premiere in 1965 at the Carnegie Hall, New York City, nearly fifty years after its completion. Typically, Ives was reusing much earlier material and quotes from many traditional hymns. This complex work is in four movements and requires an orchestra with a substantial percussion battery, piano and a large mixed choir. Two conductors are needed for the individual ensembles playing music of varying pace and meter. In the opening movement ‘Prelude’, the mixed chorus sing part of John Bowring’s hymn ‘Watchman, Tell Us of the Night’. It’s not long before one realises this is a special performance of real authority from Tilson Thomas, assisted by second conductor Christian Reif. Commencing with a sense of foreboding, Tilson Thomas is very much at home here, as the writing quickly develops a rather introspective mood. Movement two, ‘Comedy’, commences with an angry piano part played by Peter Dugan, containing much music of a nervous character that develops into a patchwork quilt of colourful activity that evokes a carnival or maybe even a circus. The players certainly revel in Ives’ uproarious writing. Entitled ‘Fugue’, the third movement features glorious playing from the San Francisco strings that imbues a heart-warming sense of reflection with a quasi-religious quality that feels like an expression of faith. In the fourth movement the writing ebbs and flows in intensity and weight, and at times communicates an unsettling quality that jangles the nerves. At point 7.09 the wordless chorus intone the music to the hymn ‘Nearer, my God, to Thee’ before gradually dying away.
This hybrid SACD was recorded in PCM 192 kHz/24-bit high resolution audio from live concerts at the Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. Played on my standard unit, it has excellent sound quality, being clear with good presence, and the various forces are very well balanced. There is little extraneous noise to speak of and the sound engineers have left out any applause. The playing time at under just seventy minutes would have allowed another work to be accommodated say either Central Park in the Dark and The Unanswered Question thus increasing the album’s desirability. A shortcoming is the lack of any sung hymn texts. Regarding the sung verse of the hymn ‘Watchman, Tell Us of the Night’ in the Fourth Symphony, curiously only five of the lines are given in the essay, and three ae omitted. Nevertheless, the various essays by James M. Keller and Peter Grunberg are both readable and informative.
In the 1970s I got to know Ives’ four numbered symphonies on a Columbia box set on vinyl conducted by Eugene Ormandy (No. 1), Leonard Bernstein (No’s 2, 3) and Leopold Stokowski (No. 4) together with a separate vinyl record of the ‘Holidays’ Symphony under Bernstein, also on Sony. Tilson Thomas, a protégé of Bernstein, knows these Ives works extremely well having recorded these four symphonies and the ‘Holidays’ Symphony back in 1985-89 with the Concertgebouw and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Sony (review). Of the other recordings I know there is also an acclaimed set of the symphonies on Decca conducted by Zubin Mehta, Christoph von Dohnanyi and Neville Marriner.
Under the direction of chorus master Ragnar Bohlin, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus excels, providing simply glorious renditions of the hymns notable for exceptional clarity and unison. One feels that Tilson Thomas and his San Francisco Symphony are completely at home with Ives’ soundworld. This new album of the Third and Fourth Symphonies is top drawer and joins, maybe even tops, the above company and with the advantage of excellent sound; it’s certainly the one I’ll be reaching for first.
Michael Cookson
Contents
Selected American Hymns:
Carl G. GLASER
1. O for a Thousand Tongues [1:05]
Charles C. CONVERSE
2. What a Friend [0:50]
Lowell MASON
3. There is a Fountain [1:04]
TRADITIONAL
4. Happy Land [0:45]
William B. BRADBURY
5. Just as I Am [1:47]
Charles IVES (1874-1954)
6-8. Symphony No. 3 ‘The Camp Meeting’ [23:41]
Selected American Hymns:
Joseph Philbrick WEBSTER
9. Sweet By-and-By [1:46]
John R. SWENEY
10. Beulah Land [1:40]
Charles Heinrich Christoph ZEUNER
11. Ye Christian Heralds [0:43]
Simon Butler MARSH
12. Jesus, Lover of My Soul [1:10]
Lowell MASON
13. From Greenland's Icy Mountains [0.43]
14. Nearer, My God, to Thee [2:20]
Charles IVES
15-18. Symphony No. 4 [31:19]
There was some confusion over the correct catalogue number as two are given on the CD:
Correct Cat No: 821936 0076-2
Incorrect Cat No: 821936 0074-2
