Charles IVES (1874-1954)
A Symphony: New England Holidays (1909-19) [39:04]
Central Park in the Dark (1906-09) [8:07]
Orchestral Set No. 1: Three Places in New England (1912-17)
[19:43]
The Unanswered Question (1906-09) [5:02]
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis
rec. 30 March-2 April 2015, Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University,
Melbourne, and 8, 8, 11, 13 April 2015, Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne,
Victoria, Australia (Three Places in New England).
CHANDOS CHSA5163 SACD [72:27]
The critics were divided as to the merits of
Volume 1 in this series. However, I relish its grown-up approach to
Charles Ives, delivering his scores with the same kind of artistic
seriousness as a conductor might with the symphonies of Bruckner and
revealing the elements of Americana the composer desired without turning
them into a mad-cap circus.
New England Holidays is a case in point, with much of the music
being deeply atmospheric and expressive, and those emergent popular
marching-band moments as much a feature of the musical material as they
might have been if used by Alban Berg. Sir Andrew Davis seems invested in
this point of view, and while those competing tunes come through clearly you
are more likely to feel the hairs on the back of your neck rise at their
effect than to raise any kind of a laugh. The seeming chaos at the end of
the third movement The Fourth of July is more a presage of
Schnittke's musical madness and the US's current paranoia than something
festive. This is followed by grim relentlessness in the opening to
Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day. The magnificently cheesy
close to this work is release of a kind, but in a performance of this nature
it still has more power to affect and shock than you would have
expected.
Central Park in the Dark and The Unanswered Question
were conceived as companion pieces, and they are both justifiably popular as
musical statements that seem to lean over the parapet of our imaginations
and leer into our darker, more chilling innermost worlds. Central Park
in the Dark's ever-shifting moodiness and loopy climax is done well
here, though there are arguably some balance issues between winds and
strings. The Unanswered Question is similarly well performed,
though why the flutes are recorded quite so close-up is a mystery. Part of
the magic of this piece is the way the 'solo' voices integrate into and
emerge from the impassive chorale of the Druids. Here we are beaten over the
head by every contribution of the ever-demanding flutes, pumped-up like
steroid-hyped beefcakes in a gym. Alas, this is a missed opportunity.
Like many of Ives's scores, Orchestral Set No. 1: Three Places in New
England has had a chequered history, the result here being a
reconstruction by Yale scholar James B. Sinclair, who is responsible for
numerous performing editions of works that might otherwise have lingered in
obscurity. Potent darker atmosphere is a given in this recording in line
with the qualities of the rest of the CD, but there are also bags of lively
energy in Putnam's Camp. While I'll admit that the swagger here is
more inter-war central European than US Patriot I'm still knocked out by the
playing in this performance. The SACD sound quality is a real boon, and with
detail preserved even at passages of peak volume you can count me as a happy
customer.
Dan Morgan's review of this release points towards numerous alternatives
of varying classic status for these works, so I won't go over the same
ground here. The only work on this recording which for me is ruined by
unsympathetic recording balance is The Unanswered Question, and I
would perhaps point towards Leonard Bernstein's admittedly slightly noisy
recording on Sony Classical with the New York Philharmonic for a more
authentic experience. Avoid the Seattle Symphony Media recording under
Ludovic Morlot
(review) and others which - in my opinion - ruin the work by
using the version with B-flat rather than C as the last note of the trumpet
part.
Dominy Clements
Previous review:
Dan Morgan
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