Ives: An American Journey

Thomas Hampson - Ives: An American Journey

Ives: An American Journey
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CD Details

Artist: Thomas Hampson
Composer: Charles Ives
Conductor: Michael Tilson Thomas
Orchestra: San Francisco Symphony and Chorus
Edition: Music CD
Format: Live
CD Release Date: 2002-02-05
Music Label: RCA Victor / BMG
Soundtracks:
  1. From The Steeples And The Mountains
  2. The Things Our Fathers Loved
  3. The Pond (Remembrance)
  4. Memories
  5. Charlie Rutlage
  6. The Circus Band
  7. The "St. Gaudens" In Boston Common
  8. Putnam's Camp
  9. The Housatonic At Stockbridge
  10. In Flanders Fields
  11. They Are There!
  12. Tom Sails Away
  13. Fugue From Symphony No. 4
  14. Psalm 100
  15. Serenity
  16. General William Booth Enters Into Heaven
  17. The Unanswered Question

Music reviews of Ives: An American Journey

Music Review: A Superb Collection
Rating: 5 Stars

This is a fascinating overview over the range and variety of the by all means unconventional music of Charles Ives. It's perhaps no surprise that Michael Tilson Thomas should prove such an excellent advocate of it, but he does and if any reader should for some reason be unfamiliar with the music of Ives I cannot think of a better place to start than this disc (unless you really want to start with the symphonies). The selection of works mixes the familiar with the unfamiliar and digs out some treasures, and everything is given committed performances and excellent sound quality.

Among the more familiar items, Three Places in New England is perhaps particularly convincingly done, as colorful and moving as I've ever heard it (and using a chorus in the third movement, which is the only right thing to do) - but here competition is pretty steep as well (e.g. Dohnanyi); something similar can be said for the haunting The Unanswered Question. As for the other, less well-known music, it is sure to provide insights into Ives's compositional outlook (as well as enjoyment in itself). The selection here makes it very apparent, for instance, how big a role childhood nostalgia and reminiscences from his youth played as a foundation for his music - almost all the pieces here incorporate elements from or reminiscences of musical impressions from various stages of Ives's life (reworked and arranged into Ives's strikingly original idiom).

The disc opens with From the Steeples and the Mountains, a purely avantgarde soundscape from 1901, scored for brass and bells and sounding more like a 1960s experiment in sonorities than anything else, were it not for the obvious Americana at its very core. It launches the almost painfully nostalgic `The Things our Fathers Loved' for tenor and piano (where Hampson might sound, possibly, a little self-conscious), the glittering choral and orchestral `The Pond' juxtaposed with the humorous and kaleidoscopically colorful Memories and the hilariously over-the-top cowboy song `Charlie Rutlage'.

A particularly impressive item is `The Circus Band', where - for once - the performance (and not the least the recording) really manages to capture the dazzling array of details and minute color shifts and nuances. I've already mentioned `Three Places', and these are effectively contrasted with the bleaker reminiscences of war starting with an effective rendition of `In Flanders Fields'. `They are There' pulls another typical Ives trick - catchy and effective but leaving you with a feeling of something much more profound (not only because of the text, I think). `Tom sails away' might not be Ives's best song, but it proves an extremely effective contrast with the stirring Fugue from his Fourth Symphony.

Ives's original and effective psalm settings are represented here by a very fine performance of Psalm 100. The striking solo song Serenity is also a notable item, and there is perhaps a possible objection to this recording that such a deceptively unspectacular gem is in danger of floating by unnoticed given the spectacle of the surrounding music (appreciating it requires a certain change of gears on the part of the listener). `General William Booth enters into heaven' for chorus, baritone solo and orchestra belongs among the more familiar items, and it receives a strong performance here - and not the least a superb recording which truly manages to realize the dizzying power and spectacle of that piece, and the familiar `The Unanswered Question' provides an effective, open conclusion.

In short, this is a well-planned and well executed, comprehensive survey of Ives's music, always in excellent performances and generally superb sound. This is, then, a thoroughly recommended disc, perhaps even a classic.
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