CHARLES IVES : 9 Songs • GEORGE CRUMB : Apparition (Jan DeGaetani · Gilbert Kalish) (1987) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

CHARLES IVES (1874-1954)

9 Songs

GEORGE CRUMB (1929-2022)

Apparition, for soprano & amplified piano
(Text by Walt Whitman)

Mezzo-soprano Vocals – Jan DeGaetani
Piano – Gilbert Kalish
Piano [Amplified] – Gilbert Kalish

IVES : Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 (The Ambrosian Singers · New Philharmonia Orchestra · Harold Farberman) (1997) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Tracklist & Credits

IVES : Symphony No. 4 · Three Places In New England · Central Park In The Dark (Seiji Ozawa · Boston Symphony Orchestra · Michael Tilson-Thomas) (1977) Serie 20th Century Classics | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Tracklist & Credits

CHARLES IVES : String Quartets (Blair String Quartet) (2006) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 

Charles Ives, a New Englander by birth and character, began composing at the age of eleven, although after deciding that he would never make a living with his music he pursued a successful career in insurance. He was trained by his father George, a bandleader, who encouraged him to experiment with the unconventional techniques that were to become his signature, such as polytonality, microtones and spatial performance. Ives’s two string quartets are as unalike in origin as they are in content. The First Quartet uses his beloved revival and gospel hymns as musical sources, and its energy and originality provide an early example of Ives’s highly original creative powers. The highly complex Second String Quartet was born of a typical Ives rage against what he perceived as the effeminacy of standard string quartet performances. Ives himself summarised the work’s programme as: ‘four men – who converse, discuss, argue ... fight, shake hands, shut up – then walk up the mountainside to view the firmament’. Naxos

ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA – A Set of Pieces : Music by Charles Ives (1994) APE (image+.cue), lossless

Three Places In New England ("First Orchestral Set")

A Set Of Pieces
Symphony No. 3 "The Camp Meeting"
Set No. 1, for theater orchestra (6), S. 10 (K. 1C31)

Orchestra – Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Piano – Gilbert Kalish

IVES • BARBER • HARRIS • THOMSON • COWELL • CARTER • GLASS : From The Steeples And The Mountains (The London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble · Christopher Larkin) (1992) FLAC (tracks), lossless

 ‘Fascinating … the most interesting and enterprising brass collection I have yet encountered … first rate, and very realistic recording … the brass playing throughout is vividly expert and the recording is splendidly real’ (Gramophone)

‘From the very opening track the London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble demands close attention. All say something that makes you want to listen’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘A real gem of a disc. The performances are excellent … This was both an education and an entertainment’ (Classic CD)

‘Performances are ideal. The British have given us a thoroughly American disc of extraordinary beauty; for which, many thanks!’ (Fanfare, USA)
Reviews

Charles Ives–    From The Steeples And The Mountains 4:24
Samuel Barber–    Mutations From Bach (For Brass Choir And Timpani) 5:41
Roy Harris–    Chorale For Organ And Brass 12:49
Virgil Thomson    Family Portrait (For Brass Quintet)(11:29)
Henry Cowell–    Grinnell Fanfare 3:05
Henry Cowell–    Tall Tale 4:19
Henry Cowell    Hymn And Fuguing Tune No 12 (For Three Horns) (4:27)
Henry Cowell–    Rondo 4:45
Philip Glass    Brass Sextet (7:27)
Carl Ruggles–    Angels (For Muted Brass)3:06
Elliott Carter–    A Fantasy About Purcell's Fantasia Upon One Note 3:15
Charles Ives–    Processional: Let There Be Light 2:42

Ensemble – The London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble
Conductor – Christopher Larkin

CHARLES IVES : Symphonies Nos.2 & 3 (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra · Michael Tilson Thomas) (1982-1991) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

CHARLES IVES (1874-1954)

Symphony No. 2, for orchestra, S. 2 (K. 1A2)
Symphony No. 3: The Camp Meeting, for orchestra, S. 3 (K. 1A3)

Orchestra – Concertgebouw Orchestra
Conductor – Michael Tilson Thomas

IVES : Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 · Hymns (Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus · Michael Tilson Thomas) (1991) APE (image+.cue), lossless

                                   CHARLES IVES (1874-1954)

 1-4 Symphony No. 1    

 5-9 Hymns

10-13 Symphony No. 4Orchestra – Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1 to 4, 10 to 13)

Chorus – Chicago Symphony Chorus (5, 7 to 13)
Conductor –  Michael Tilson Thomas
Piano – Mary Sauer (10-13)

Organ – Richard Webster (5-9)

CHARLES IVES : Universe Symphony • Orchestral Set No. 2 • The Unanswered Question (Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra · Gerhard Samuel) (1994) APE (image+.cue), lossless

 

Several of Ives' compositions have been reconstructed from his complex sketches and notes. The brilliant pianist John Kirkpatrick (largely responsible for Ives' initial fame through his performance of the Concord Sonata in the 1930s) worked on several of the piano works, and composers Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison collated and completed the score of the Symphony No. 4 in the 1950s. Composer Larry Austin spent over twenty years to realize and complete the myriad materials for the Universe Symphony, faithfully and brilliantly performed here by the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orhestra, conducted by Gerhard Samual. Ives left a note inviting other composers to add to the work following his initial ideas. The first fifteen minutes of this almost 40-minute work is given over to the idea of a slowly growing and evolving "life pulse" music in which 20 percussionists play to a headphone "click track" that coordinates the simultaneous 12 different prime number meters. This is the first of three musical macro-layers. The others are: the Heavens, for four orchestras, each in different meters and tempos; and the Earth, with its "Rock formation" and "Earth chord" orchestrations. These orchestral layers appear in different combinations within the three sections or movements: Past -- from Chaos, formation of the Waters and Mountains; Present -- Earth and the Firmament, evolution in Nature and Humanity; Future -- Heaven, the rise of all to the spiritual. The second and third movements are the most similar to the "Ives' sound" of orchestrally dense works like the Fourth Symphony or the Robert Browning Overture, and sweepingly dramatic, with an almost indescribable emotional flow. In the climax of the work, all of the material sounds rush headlong to the heavens, into silence broken only by the sound of one solitary chime. "Blue" Gene Tyranny  

Universe Symphony 37:52  
Realization – Larry Austin
Orchestral Set No. 2 17:33
The Unanswered Question    5:56

Orchestra – Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra
Conductor – Gerhard Samueluel

KORNGOLD : Piano Trio Op. 1 ♦ IVES : Piano Trio (Pacific Art Trio) (1987) FLAC (tracks), lossless

 Tracklist & Credits

GERSHWIN • COPLAND • IVES • SCHUMAN • THOMSON : American String Quartets 1900-1950 (The Kohon Quartet) 2CD (1993) RM | The American Composers Series – VoxBox2 | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

CD1
William Schuman
Quartet No. 3 (23:47)
Howard Hanson        
Quartet In One Movement, Op. 23 17:47
Virgil Thomson
Quartet No. 2 (22:16)
George Gershwin
Lullaby For String Quartet 11:24
CD2
Roger Sessions
Quartet No. 2 (32:19)
Charles Ives
Scherzo For 2 Violins, Viola And Cello – 1:45
Peter Mennin
Quartet No. 2 (17:29)
Walter Piston
Quartet No. 5 (16:55)
Aaron Copland
Two Pieces For String Quartet (8:50)

Ensemble [String Quartet] – The Kohon Quartet
Cello – W. Ted Hoyle
Viola – Eugenie Dengel
Violin – Harold Kohon, Isadora Kohon

BERNSTEIN • SCHUMAN • IVES • RUGGERI • COPLAND • BARBER • COWELL : American Festival (Lukas Foss · Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra) (1984) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Leonard Bernstein
Overture To "Candide" – 4:27
William Schuman
Newsreel    (7:06)
Charles Ives
The Unanswered Question – 5:39
Roger Ruggeri
If... Then – 3:30
Aaron Copland
Fanfare For The Common Man - 3:52
Variations On A Shaker Melody From The Ballet Appalachian Spring –  3:30
Samuel Barber
Adagio For Strings 9:44
Henry Cowell
Saturday Night At The Firehouse – 5:03
Charles Ives
The Circus Band March - 2:05

Orchestra – Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Lukas Foss

IVES: Concord Sonata; BARBER: Piano Sonata (Marc-André Hamelin) (2004) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This 2004 Hyperion recording is actually Marc-André Hamelin's second traversal through Ives' Concord Sonata; his initial venture being among the first of his commercial recordings, made back in 1988 for New World Records. Back in the days of LPs, you were lucky to get two new "Concords" in the course of a decade; Hamelin's was at least the third new recording of the sonata in 2004. No two recordings of the "Concord" are quite the same, not even Hamelin's two, for in comparison to the New World, the Hyperion is shorter overall by about a minute, shorter in each movement except "Thoreau," which is a shade longer.

At a total time of 42:54, this is one of the faster recordings of the "Concord," and to some degree faster is better, as Ives himself played it pretty fast, judging from his own fragmentary recordings of this work. No one, however, has quite gotten the "Concord" down to the zippy 38 minutes that John Kirkpatrick delivered on his Grammy-winning, and long unavailable, 1968 recording for CBS. Some recorded performances of the "Concord" have taken in excess of 50 minutes, a bit too slow, but it gives the reader an idea of how widely a performance can range in terms of time.

But timings and other details aside, this Hamelin recording of the "Concord" is just about the best one, ever -- certainly it's the finest since Gilbert Kalish recorded the work for Nonesuch back in 1977. What works so well is that Hamelin has an excellent sense of the score's ebb and flow and an ability to project the shape of Ives' craggy, uneven phrases. Hamelin has been playing the work a long time, and the technical struggle is over, leaving Hamelin able to refine details of interpretation that are often discouraged by the sheer effort of having to get through Ives' score. The filler is a totally oddball choice, the Piano Sonata Op. 26 of Samuel Barber. But it makes sense -- Hamelin plays the Barber with the same confidence and authority to which he brings the Ives, and it is clear that these two "great American piano sonatas" can inhabit the same house, even though in life the composers would've been unable to enter the same room. This disc is likewise distinguished with excellent liner notes by Jed Distler; this Hyperion release is a winner and is enthusiastically recommended to anyone interested in either work. by Uncle Dave Lewis  
Tracklist :
Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-60, for piano (& optional viola, flute), S. 88 (K. 3A2) (42:54)
Charles Ives
1     Emerson. Slowly 15:40
2     Hawthorne. Very fast 10:18
3     The Alcotts 5:17
4     Thoreau. Starting slowly and quietly 11:45
Sonata for piano, Op. 26 (19:15)
Samuel Barber
5     Allegro energico 7:13
6     Allegro vivace e leggiero 1:59
7     Adagio mesto 5:22
8     Fuga. Allegro con spirito 4:40
Credits :
Illustration [Front Illustration: 'Shrewsbury River, New Jersey, 1859' (Detail)] – John Frederick Kensett
Piano – Marc-André Hamelin

PETER LAWSON - American Piano Sonatas

Pianist Peter Lawson cultivates a full and resonant sonority and wide dynamic range that suits the rugged registral valleys mapped by Carter and Copland in their respective sonatas. He lavishes similar care over the delicate harmonic twists throughout Griffes' Sonata and lovingly tends the spacious, transcendent lyricism Charles Ives spins when he's not bashing out good dissonances like a man. Listen, for instance, to Lawson's sustained calm and delicately placed "celesta" notes midway through Ives' Three Page Sonata, or to his twinkling dispatch of the Copland Sonata's zesty middle movement. Lawson sustains the slow movement of Roger Sessions' gnarly Second Sonata as eloquently as Robert Helps' more texturally differentiated live recording (CRI), and offers a cogent, somewhat reserved foil to Charles Rosen's more amply engineered and dramatically colored Elliott Carter Sonata (Bridge).  by Jed Distler
Traklist
1.  Sonata for Piano in E flat minor, Op. 26 by Samuel Barber 
 Length: 19 Minutes 46 Secs. 
Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1949; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1989 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 

 2.  Sonata for Piano "Three Page" by Charles Ives 
 Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1905; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1989 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 
Length: 7 Minutes 16 Secs. 

3.  Sonata for Piano no 2 by Roger Sessions 

Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1946; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1991 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 
Length: 15 Minutes 15 Secs. 

4.  Sonata for Piano no 1 by Charles Ives 

Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1901-1909; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1991 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 
Length: 39 Minutes 18 Secs. 

5.  Sonata for Piano in G major by Aaron Copland 

Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1920-1921; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1989 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 
Length: 23 Minutes 43 Secs. 

 6.  Sonata for Piano by Elliott Carter 

Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1945-1946; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1989 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 
Length: 24 Minutes 11 Secs. 

 7.  Sonata for Piano by Charles T. Griffes 

Length: 17 Minutes 25 Secs. 
Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1917-1918; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1991 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 

PETER LAWSON - American Piano Sonatas

 [1991] Virgin [2CD] FLAC /  scans