A Portrait of Charles Ives

• Main performer: Ensemble Modern
• Booklet languages: English, German, French
• Libretto languages: English, German
• Time: 63:53
• Release Date: 1992

Review

Charles Ives, working as an insurance executive by day and a composer by night for all the years of his artistic career, produced relatively few large-scale works in long forms: two piano sonatas, four violin sonatas, four symphonies, a cantata, and an overture. Most of his music is in short forms, such as songs and brief piano or orchestral chamber music works, and even some major works are really collections of individual movements written at different times. One of Europe's leading dedicated new music groups, Ensemble Modern, here presents a fine selection of 26 of these short pieces, including five of the songs, the instrumental versions of several other songs, and two of the composer's "Sets."

The whole production is a model of its type. The playing is outstanding. Where the primary interest of a piece is the sonic experimentation (for instance, in All the Way Around and Back, and the two extant Tone Roads), the Ensemble plays with precision and clarity. Where there is an emotional content to the music (Like a Sick Eagle, The Ruined River, or The Pond (Remembrance)) it is there. Baritone Henry Herford (already having completed a fine set of all Ives' songs on another label) contributes five songs, this time in their chamber versions. These include the great song General William Booth Enters Into Heaven.

The notes are exceptionally complete and helpful; they include statements as to which version of a piece is used and, where appropriate, who edited it. Insurance man Ives would probably have gotten a kick out of the fact that the program was recorded in the hall of a Frankfurt, Germany, bank. The recording dates from 1991 and was splendidly taped by producer Gerd Berg and engineers Michael Stille and Hartwig Paulsen. ~ Joseph Stevenson, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Charles Ives	Set No. 1, for theater orchestra (6), S. 10 (K. 1C31) (No.1: the See'r)	0:50
Charles Ives	Set No. 1, for theater orchestra (6), S. 10 (K. 1C31) (No.2: A Lecture by President Arthur Twining Hadley)	1:03
Charles Ives	Set No. 1, for theater orchestra (6), S. 10 (K. 1C31) (No.4: Like a Sick Eagle)	1:32
Charles Ives	Set No. 1, for theater orchestra (6), S. 10 (K. 1C31) (No.6: Incantation)	1:30
Charles Ives	General William Booth Enters into Heaven, for chorus, optional solo voice, chamber orchestra & percussion, S. 181 (K. 5B9)	5:12
Charles Ives	Tone Roads No. 1, for chamber orchestra, S. 49i (K. 1C34/1)	2:45
Charles Ives	From the Steeples and the Mountains, for 1 or 2 trumpet(s), trombone, 4 sets of bells & 2 pianos, S. 65 (K. 1C12)	3:34
Charles Ives	Tone Roads No. 3, for chamber orchestra, S. 49iii (K. 1C34/3)	3:23
Charles Ives	Adagio sostenuto: At Sea (I), for theater orchestra (Set No. 3/1), S. 12i (K. 1C35)	1:07
Charles Ives	Mists (II), song for voice & piano, S.301 (K. 6B47a)	1:42
Charles Ives	On the Antipodes, song for voice & 2 pianos, S. 319 (K. 6B71)	2:35
Charles Ives	The Rainbow, for orchestra, S. 45 (K. 1C33)	1:54
Charles Ives	Remembrance, for voice & piano, S. 332 (K. 6B62a)	1:43
Charles Ives	The Bells of Yale (I), partsong for baritone, male chorus & cello, S. 192/1 (K. 5D11)	2:52
Charles Ives	Set No. 1, for theater orchestra (6), S. 10 (K. 1C31) (No.5: Calcium Light Night)	2:29
Charles Ives	The Gong on the Hook & Ladder or Firemen's Parade on Main Street for strings, piano & optional bell, S. 70 (K. 1C30)	1:52
Charles Ives	Scherzo: All the Way Around and Back, for chamber ensemble, S. 81 (K. 2B12)	1:07
Charles Ives	Scherzo: Over the Pavements, for piccolo, clarinet, bassoon (or baritone sax), 3 trombones, piano & percussion, S. 82 (K. 1C24)	4:43
Charles Ives	Set No. 1, for theater orchestra (6), S. 10 (K. 1C31) (No.3: Ruined River)	1:10
Charles Ives	Set No. 2, for theater orchestra (3), S. 11 (K. 1C32) (No.1: the Indians)	1:38
Charles Ives	Set No. 2, for theater orchestra (3), S. 11 (K. 1C32) (No.2: "Gyp the Blood" of Hearst-Which is Worst?)	1:18
Charles Ives	Aeschylus and Sophocles, song for voice, piano & string quartet, S. 206 (K. 6B70)	3:14
Charles Ives	A Set of Pieces (3), for theatre orchestra, S. 20 (K. 1C28)	8:31
Charles Ives	Sunrise, song for voice, piano & violin, S. 365 (K. 6B77)	5:58

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