Ives Plays Ives

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
In his lifetime, maverick composer Charles Ives entered the recording studio only four times, mostly to hear (and tinker with) his works in progress. He ended up doing 42 takes of 17 different pieces on the piano, all recorded between 1933 and 1943: everything from snippets of the unfinished Emerson Concerto to his rousing wartime anthem "They Are There!" It's a varied lot, to say the least, but now we have his complete recordings on one CD. The sound quality isn't great and you can easily hear how frustrated Ives is by the newfangled technology (recording techniques restricted his playing to five minute chunks). That said, you couldn't ask for a greater insight into the composer.

Most of these pieces derive from Ives's unfinished Emerson concerto for piano and orchestra, but the entire package is one big treasure chest. Here we have the composer at work: improvising, (occasionally) frustrated, frenzied, and--most of all--creative. His playing is as off-the-wall as you can imagine: fast, improvised, with failed notes galore, and occasionally spot-on. Highlights abound--just check out "The Alcotts" from the Concord Sonata (No. 2) to hear him at his performance peak--but the most memorable cuts feature Ives himself singing. His three versions of the wartime anthem "We Are There!" should give hope to any struggling vocalist... for a career either selling insurance or composing great music. Yes, his voice is simply awful, but the music and history contained on this disc are breathtaking. --Jason Verlinde

Ives Plays Ives, Music, Charles Ives, Charles Ives, 20th/21st Century Music for Voice and Keyboard, 20th/21st Century Sonata/Sonatina for Keyboard, 20th/21st Century Symphony, Chamber Music & Recitals, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Etude for Keyboard, Keyboard, March for Keyboard, Music for Keyboard, Symphonic, Vocal
Ives Plays Ives The Complete Recordings of Charles Ives at the Piano, 1933-1943
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    		Ives Plays Ives The Complete Recordings of Charles Ives at the Piano, 1933-1943

    Manufacturer: New World Records
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    Ives, CharlesIves, Charles | ( I ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
    EtudesEtudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Sonatas | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
    MarchesMarches | Theatrical, Incidental & Program Music | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
    Chamber MusicChamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Ives, Charles | Composers | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
    Chamber MusicChamber Music | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
    SonatasSonatas | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
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    Modern & 20th CenturyModern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
    Similar Items:
    1. Ives: Concord Sonata; Songs
    2. Charles Ives: A Life With Music
    3. The Complete Songs of Charles Ives, Vol. 1
    4. Vol. 3: 1940-51
    5. Charles Ives: Three Quarter-Tone Pieces; Five Take-offs; Hallowe'en; Sunrise

    ASIN: B000ETRM9E
    Release Date: 2006-04-01

    Tracks:

    1. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 1 (beg.) 3:58
    2. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 1 (end) 1:28
    3. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 3 2:33
    4. Improvisation on a passage in Study No. 23, Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 2, and Emerson Overtures Cadenza No. 4 (with false start) 0:44
    5. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 1 (beg.) 2:14
    6. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 1 (end) 2:24
    7. Study No. 11 (abandoned) 0:50
    8. Study No. 11 1:34
    9. Study No. 11 1:33
    10. Patch for Study No. 23 0:40
    11. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 1 (beg.) 2:57
    12. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 1 (end) 2:53
    13. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 3 3:33
    14. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 3 3:40
    15. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 3 (beg.) 1:53
    16. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 3 (end) 0:40
    17. Study No. 11 1:02
    18. Study No. 9: The Anti-Abolitionist Riots 2:04
    19. Study No. 2 (with false start) 1:31
    20. Study No. 2 (beg.) 0:49
    21. Study No. 2 (end) 1:15
    22. Study No. 23 (partial) 1:00
    23. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 1 (abandoned) 0:17
    24. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 1 (middle) 1:04
    25. Study No. 23 (partial) 1:10
    26. Three Improvisations, No. 1 0:50
    27. Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass., Hawthorne (excerpt) 0:17
    28. Symphony No. 1/rejected mvt. 2 (Largo) 1:58
    29. Unidentified (improvisation on the Sunrise Cadenza?) 0:21
    30. Study No. 20 (partial) 0:32
    31. Three Improvisations, No. 3 0:42
    32. Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass., Emerson (partial) 2:05
    33. Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass., Emerson (partial) 1:23
    34. Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass., Emerson (partial) 4:02
    35. Study No. 2 and Study No. 23 (mixed) 2:24
    36. Four Transcriptions from Emerson, No. 3 (abandoned) 0:57
    37. Study No. 9: The Anti-Abolitionist Riots 2:15
    38. They Are There!, first take (abandoned) 1:59
    39. They Are There!, second take 3:30
    40. They Are There!, third take 2:44
    41. March No. 6 for Piano, with Heres to Good Old Yale 2:09
    42. Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass., The Alcotts 5:02

    Product Description

    The invention of sound-recording devices late in the nineteenth century made possible the preservation of definitive performances played or led by some important composers of the first decades of the twentieth century. Elgar, Rachmaninoff, Richard Strauss, and Stravinsky, among others, left a significant legacy of recordings of their own works. Charles Ives, however, did not approach recording in order to leave a legacy. At least at first, he simply wanted an opportunity to listen to some of his music with advantageous detachment (and possibly to shortcut supplying to Henry Cowell and others variants of his music). With virtually no performances of his important music occurring during the first two decades of the century, Ives certainly had a backlog of curiosity about the sound of his own compositional efforts, and the need to judge them as such. By 1933 Ives had retired from his insurance business and had largely finished writing his autobiographical Memos. He had heard some performances of his instrumental works (mostly in very disappointing efforts), but none of his piano works. While on an extended European vacation, he introduced himself to recording, at the Columbia Graphophone Company in London. Over the course of a decade that included four such sessions, Ives recorded seventeen different pieces, ranging from the early March No. 6 and rejected Largo for Symphony No. 1 to the “improvisations” that indeed may have been freshly created in front of the microphone in 1938. But most of the music recorded—the Four Transcriptions from “Emerson,” the Studies Nos. 2, 9, 11, and 23, and the “Emerson” movement of Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass.—is related closely to Ives’s early, unfinished Emerson Overture for Piano and Orchestra (circa 1910–11). This reissue restores this historic recording, originally issued by CRI but unavailable for several years, to the catalogue. The booklet includes complete tracking information and extensive historical notes and documentation.
    Boston Musica Viva Plays...
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • Chamber Music from the Academy
    		 Boston Musica Viva Plays...

    Manufacturer: Delos Records
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    Berio, LucianoBerio, Luciano | ( B ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
    Ives, CharlesIves, Charles | ( I ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Ives, Charles | Composers | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
    ASIN: B0000006U3
    Release Date: 1992-12-14

    Tracks:

    1. Consortium I.
    2. In Aeternum (Concortium IV.)
    3. Largo
    4. O King
    5. Synchronisms No.3
    6. Ludus II.

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars Chamber Music from the Academy.......2001-02-17

    During the 50's through the mid-80's contemporary art music became more and more estranged from its audience, especially in the United States. Were it not for the universities, where composers managed to earn their livings not through composing, but through teaching, this music might have died altogether. Curiously, though, the almost absolute removal from the mainstream made contemporary art music even more rarified. It became a sort of aesthetic Giant Panda, unable to survive except in the most protected of environments. Fortunately the times have changed and many, if not most, academic composers have for a time at least left their refuge for a stroll around the wider world. But this disc, originally released in 1987, is an artifact from that unhappy time (with the exception of the Ives, which harks back even earlier).

    Six pieces are featured, and of them two pieces epitomize the rather hard-to-love uncompromising aesthetic stance of the times: the first work on the disc by Joseph Schwantner, Consortium I (an early work, written when he was 20) and the last work, Ludus II by Donald Harris. Both pieces are scored for a quintet of mixed instruments and are unrelenting in their approach. Characterized by flurries of activity alternating with moments of relative stillness, the angular polyphony yields little for the average listener in the way of melodic line and nothing of traditional harmonic motion. Mario Davidovsky's Synchronisms #3 for Cello and Tape, in an amazing performance by cellist Jay Humeston, is similarly difficult, but the timbral variety and interaction between the cello and the electronic sounds and the astonishing virtuosity of Humeston provide a richer aesthetic reward.

    Schwantner's In Aeternum (Consortium IV) was composed three years after his Consortium I, and demonstrates a greater maturity and accessibility. Although much of the work is still angular, polyphonic and difficult, some contrasting passages are stunning in their beauty. This effect is achieved though unusual tone colors (especially crystal glasses and water gongs) and slower, simpler harmonic structures. Schwantner's success owes much to George Crumb, but interestingly this work predates by three years Crumb's more well-known Dream Sequence (Images II), which shares similarly remarkable timbral and harmonic ideas.

    Rounding out the disc are two short pieces which allow some relief from the works mentioned above. Berio's O, King, a piece which is more well known in its orchestrated and expanded version as the third movement of his remarkable Sinfonia, is here given a rather passionless performance. Although the work includes a singer, to call it a song would be incorrect. The text of the piece is made up solely of the phonemes of Martin Luther King's name, and the singer is simply an equal to the other instrumentalists in the slow accumulation of activity and texture the piece presents. Having heard it in live performance, and having conducted it before, I know that it can be a very powerfully moving work. It seems that the Boston Musica Viva let down their guard because of its relative simplicity, and the piece suffers as a result. Charles Ives' Largo for clarinet, violin and piano is the most accessible piece on the disc, and curiously the least rewarding. Like much of Ives' music, this is more an idea of structural juxtaposition than a finely wrought work with refined details. As such it has some historical interest, and does make a significant contrast (too much so, in my opinion) with the other works on this recording; but doesn't call for repeated listening.
    PRCD 638 Great European Organs No.53 - The Organ of The Kallio Church, Helsinki, Finland / Keith John (organist) - plays works by Liszt, Brahms, Schonberg, Ives and Mozart
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • About this CD
    		 PRCD 638 Great European Organs No.53 - The Organ of The Kallio Church, Helsinki, Finland / Keith John (organist) - plays works by Liszt, Brahms, Schonberg, Ives and Mozart

    Manufacturer: Priory Records UK
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    All Works by BrahmsAll Works by Brahms | Brahms, Johannes | ( B ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
    Ives, CharlesIves, Charles | ( I ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
    All Works by LisztAll Works by Liszt | Liszt, Franz | ( L ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
    All Works by Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAll Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus | ( M ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
    All Works by SchoenbergAll Works by Schoenberg | Schoenberg, Arnold | ( S ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
    VariationsVariations | Variations | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Ives, Charles | Composers | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Keyboard | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music
    OrganOrgan | Keyboard | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
    ASIN: B000034D0Y
    Release Date: 1999-11-23

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars About this CD.......2006-05-15

    PRCD 638 Great European Organs No.53
    The Organ of The Kallio Church, Helsinki, Finland/ Keith John

    Works on this CD:
    Liszt: Variations on "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen."
    Mozart trans. Kuhnis: Pastorale Variee.
    Schoenberg: Variations on a Recitative Op. 40.
    Ives: Variations on "America."
    Brahms trans. John: Variations on the St. Anthony Chorale.

    Track listing:
    Variations on "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" Franz Liszt (1811-1886) (trans. K. John)
    1. Andante [5:39]
    2. Animato [2:57]
    3. Lento Recitativo [5:33]
    4. Choral [2:41]
    Pastorale Vari?e (K. Anh 209b)
    W.A. Mozart (1756-1791) (trans. M K?hnis)
    5. Theme [1:52]
    6. Variation 1 [1:29]
    7. Variation 2, Cadenza, Theme [3:10]
    Variations on Recitative Op. 40
    Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
    8. Recitative, Vars. 1-4 [5:05]
    9. Var. 5 [0:53]
    10. Var. 6 [1:47]
    11. Vars. 7-9 [2:06]
    12. Var. 10 Adagio molto, Cadenza [2:46]
    13. Fugue [5:58]
    Variations on "America"
    Charles Ives (1874-1954)
    14. Introduction and Theme [2:04]
    15. Var. 1 Moderato [1:04]
    16. Var. 2 Andante [1:02]
    17. Interlude, Var. 3 Allegro [1:27]
    18. Var. 4 Polonaise [0:52]
    19. Interlude, Var. 5 Finale [2:18]
    Variations on the St. Anthony Chorale
    Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) (trans. K John)
    20. Theme [2:08]
    21. Var. 1 Andante [1:17]
    22. Var. 2 Vivace [1:18]
    23. Var. 3 Con moto [1:50]
    24. Var. 4 Andante [2:13]
    25. Var. 5 Poco Presto [1:03]
    26. Var. 6 Vivace [1:26]
    27. Var. 7 Grazioso [3:35]
    28. Var. 8 Poco Presto [1:05]
    29. Finale : Passacaglia [4:18]
    Total Music Time [71:13]
    Louise Bessette Plays Messiaen & Ives
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      		Louise Bessette Plays Messiaen & Ives

      Manufacturer: Musica Viva
      ProductGroup: Music
      Binding: Audio CD

      Ives, CharlesIves, Charles | ( I ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
      All Works by MessiaenAll Works by Messiaen | Messiaen, Olivier | ( M ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Sonatas | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Ives, Charles | Composers | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
      Chamber MusicChamber Music | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
      SonatasSonatas | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
      General ModernGeneral Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
      ASIN: B000003WYO
      Release Date: 1991-01-01

      Tracks:

      1. Excerpts From: Vingt Regards Sur L'enfant-Jesus: Premiere Communion De La Vierge
      2. Excerpts From: Vingt Regards Sur L'enfant-Jesus: Regard Des Anges
      3. Excerpts From: Vingt Regards Sur L'enfant-Jesus: Regard De L'eglise D'amour Appl.
      4. Second Pno Son 'Concord, Mass., 1840-1860': 1st Movt: 'Emerson'
      5. Second Pno Son 'Concord, Mass., 1840-1860': 2nd Movt: 'Hawthorne'
      6. Second Pno Son 'Concord, Mass., 1840-1860': 3rd Movt: 'The Alcotts'
      7. Second Pno Son 'Concord, Mass., 1840-1860': 4th Movt: 'Thoreau' Appl.
      Ives Ensemble Plays Ron Ford, Richard Rijnvos, Micha Hamel, Richard Ayres, Ivo van Emmerik, Gene Carl
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        		Ives Ensemble Plays Ron Ford, Richard Rijnvos, Micha Hamel, Richard Ayres, Ivo van Emmerik, Gene Carl

        Manufacturer: Donemus Records
        ProductGroup: Music
        Binding: Audio CD

        GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
        GeneralGeneral | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
        CompilationsCompilations | Classical | Styles | Music
        ASIN: B0000049UD
        Release Date: 1997-12-16

        Tracks:

        1. Cross
        2. Gigue et double
        3. There Was Nothing Nobody Could Say
        4. Untitled
        5. Valise
        6. Claremont Concerto
        Louise Bessette Plays Messiaen & Ives
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          		Louise Bessette Plays Messiaen & Ives

          Manufacturer: Musica Viva
          ProductGroup: Music
          Binding: Audio CD

          Ives, CharlesIves, Charles | ( I ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
          All Works by MessiaenAll Works by Messiaen | Messiaen, Olivier | ( M ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
          GeneralGeneral | Sonatas | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
          GeneralGeneral | Ives, Charles | Composers | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          Chamber MusicChamber Music | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          SonatasSonatas | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          General ModernGeneral Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
          GeneralGeneral | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
          ASIN: B00005NBVZ
          Release Date: 2001-07-01
          Ives Plays Ives / Record # 4 in "Charles Ives, the 100th Anniversary"
          Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
          • Interesting, historically important CD
          • man and machine
          • Ives speaks for himself, better late than never.
          • Recordings of a Twentieth Century Master
          • Precious moments with America's greatest composer.
          		 Ives Plays Ives / Record # 4 in "Charles Ives, the 100th Anniversary"

          Manufacturer: Composers Recordings
          ProductGroup: Music
          Binding: Audio CD

          Ives, CharlesIves, Charles | ( I ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
          EtudesEtudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
          GeneralGeneral | Sonatas | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
          MarchesMarches | Theatrical, Incidental & Program Music | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
          Chamber MusicChamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          GeneralGeneral | Ives, Charles | Composers | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          Chamber MusicChamber Music | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          SonatasSonatas | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          SymphoniesSymphonies | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          General ModernGeneral Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          Vocal & SongVocal & Song | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
          GeneralGeneral | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music
          Modern & 20th CenturyModern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music
          GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
          GeneralGeneral | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
          Modern & 20th CenturyModern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
          ClassicalClassical | Box Sets | Stores | Music
          ASIN: B00000K2FD
          Release Date: 1999-09-21

          Tracks:

          1. June 12,1933: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 1 (Beg.)
          2. June 12,1933: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 1 (End)
          3. June 12,1933: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3
          4. June 12,1933: Improvisation On A Passage In Study No. 23, Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 2, And Emerson Overture's Cadenza No. 4 (With False Start)
          5. Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson' No. 1 (Beg.)
          6. Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson' No. 1 (End)
          7. Mid 1930s: Study No. 11 (Abandoned)
          8. Mid 1930s: Study No. 11
          9. Mid 1930s: Study No. 11
          10. Mid 1930s: Patch For Study No. 23
          11. Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson' No. 1 (Beg.)
          12. Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson' No. 1 (End)
          13. Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3
          14. Mid 1930s: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3
          15. May 11,1938: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3 (Beg.)
          16. May 11,1938: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3 (End)
          17. May 11,1938: Study No. 11
          18. May 11,1938: Study No. 9: The Anti-Abolitionist Riots
          19. May 11,1938: Study No. 2 with false start
          20. May 11,1938: Study No. 2 (Beg.)
          21. May 11,1938: Study No. 2 (End)
          22. May 11,1938: Study No. 23 (Partial)
          23. May 11,1938: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 1 (Abandoned)
          24. May 11,1938: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 1 (Middle)
          25. May 11,1938: Study No. 23 (Partial)
          26. May 11,1938: Three Improvisations, No. 1
          27. May 11,1938: Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Concord, Mass., 'Hawthorne' (Excerpt)
          28. May 11,1938: Symphony No. 1 - Rejected Mvt. 2 (Largo)
          29. May 11,1938: Unidentified (Improvisation On The 'Sunrise' Cadenza'?)
          30. May 11,1938: Study No. 20 (Partial)
          31. May 11,1938: Three Improvisations, No.3
          32. April 24, 1943: Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Concord, Mass., 'Emerson' (Partial)
          33. April 24, 1943: Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Concord, Mass., 'Emerson' (Partial)
          34. April 24, 1943: Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Concord, Mass., 'Emerson' (Partial)
          35. April 24, 1943: Study No. 2 + Study No. 23 (Mixed)
          36. April 24, 1943: Four Transcriptions From 'Emerson,' No. 3 (Abandoned)
          37. April 24, 1943: Study No.9: The Anti-Abolishonist Riots
          38. April 24, 1943: They Are There!, First Take (Abandoned)
          39. April 24, 1943: They Are There!, Second Take
          40. 1943/04/24 They Are There!, Third Take
          41. April 24, 1943: March No. 6 For Piano With 'Here's To Good Old Yale'
          42. April 24, 1943: Sonata No.2 for Piano: Concord, Mass., 'The Alcotts'

          Amazon.com essential recording

          In his lifetime, maverick composer Charles Ives entered the recording studio only four times, mostly to hear (and tinker with) his works in progress. He ended up doing 42 takes of 17 different pieces on the piano, all recorded between 1933 and 1943: everything from snippets of the unfinished Emerson Concerto to his rousing wartime anthem "They Are There!" It's a varied lot, to say the least, but now we have his complete recordings on one CD. The sound quality isn't great and you can easily hear how frustrated Ives is by the newfangled technology (recording techniques restricted his playing to five minute chunks). That said, you couldn't ask for a greater insight into the composer.

          Most of these pieces derive from Ives's unfinished Emerson concerto for piano and orchestra, but the entire package is one big treasure chest. Here we have the composer at work: improvising, (occasionally) frustrated, frenzied, and--most of all--creative. His playing is as off-the-wall as you can imagine: fast, improvised, with failed notes galore, and occasionally spot-on. Highlights abound--just check out "The Alcotts" from the Concord Sonata (No. 2) to hear him at his performance peak--but the most memorable cuts feature Ives himself singing. His three versions of the wartime anthem "We Are There!" should give hope to any struggling vocalist... for a career either selling insurance or composing great music. Yes, his voice is simply awful, but the music and history contained on this disc are breathtaking. --Jason Verlinde

          Customer Reviews:

          5 out of 5 stars Interesting, historically important CD.......2005-08-16

          To hear Ives play his own works is a real treasure. Of course, the recording quality is spotty at best, and the tracks recorded on the Speak-O-Phone are sometimes almost unbearable to hear.

          But other tracks have excellent sound and you can catch Ives at his creative and offbeat best.

          Those willing to bear with the sound limitations will be well rewarded when they hear the final track 42, which is particularly beautiful and because it comes indirectly from a tape transfer has better sound quality.

          5 out of 5 stars man and machine.......2002-04-09

          This is a fantastic peek at the complexities of the recording art.. Charlie was lucky to have access to recording technology, and yet it was quite frustrating for him.

          Easy to forget the 'miracle.' John Kirkpatrick once told me that his recording of the Concord required something like 43 different 'takes' (if you will); I guess I had assumed it was just one run through.

          I'm grateful for all the 'Emerson' here. It is my favorite part of Concord. I heard some of these recordings back in '73, and they really have been lovingly upgraded. Thank you for making these available to us.

          5 out of 5 stars Ives speaks for himself, better late than never........2001-12-07

          Shades of Cecil Taylor! This collection flies in the face of attempts to create "definitive" performance scores for Ives' compositions. The composer who imagined a world without symphony orchestras, where one simply thought-created the music while contemplating nature, can hardly be tied down to an engraving of notes. It wasn't only the skill to perform his compositions that Ives demanded of musicians, but the spirit to enter into them - a conceptual understanding & a will to get at them from the inside out.

          I still believe Charlie was willfully naive & had a neurotic fear of success. While he looked over his shoulder at the "Rollos" of American music, as if they mattered, he missed out on the emergence of the very generation of composers & artists who were his exact, or nearly exact, contemporaries. There was no Armory Show in Ives' world; no Alfred Stieglitz; no Ezra Pound or William Carlos Williams; no Arensberg salon. He worked himself half to death & shamelessly let younger men do the heavy lifting of his reputation. This recording shows how revelatory Ives might have been to Europeans, had he gone to bat "over there" for his own art when he was both healthy & wealthy. Ives took a great gamble with his art. Thank heavens it paid off.

          5 out of 5 stars Recordings of a Twentieth Century Master.......2001-11-06

          The preceeding descriptions of the music are good. I just wanted to add this: The playing and singing of '...They are there!' that Ives demonstrates towwards the end of the disc is some really musicially sensitive stuff. It is what Charles Ives is all about; no 'rollo,' no inhibitions, just playing and expression without self consciousness. I would very strongly recommend this recording to anyone who improvises and anyone who composes; you really should hear this. However, for anyone, hearing genius at the piano is good fun and very interesting...

          5 out of 5 stars Precious moments with America's greatest composer........2000-05-12

          The millenium's over, the ballots are in, and the winner of the Most Important Twentieth Century American Composer title is--still--Charles Ives. Ives was a great composer with his own voice, a lofty vision, and sense of humor besides. He was also a nationalist, but in the best way, overtly embracing the music which meant the most to his countrymen--hymns, popular tunes, the mainline classics--and adapting it for his own use.
          Ives' music is likely among the most complicated ever put on a page, and generations of musicians have wondered if they had broken Ives' code and were playing it the way he wanted it. Wonder no more! This CD presents rare examples of Ives playing his own stuff. The good news is that performers pretty much had it right. The bad news is that the music here is strictly for the Ives fanatic. Don't start your Ives recording collection here. Even with the most ingenious digital enhancement, the sound quality is generally poor and way too much time is spent on those damnable Emerson studies and other recondite repertoire. But the performances of "They are there," are a lot of fun, and the reading of "The Alcotts" is revelatory. So is that enough to make the CD worth getting? Darned right!!

          Music Review:

          1. J.S. Bach: Cantates BWV 2, 20 & 176
          2. J.S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio
          3. Janacek: Sinfonietta Op60; Taras Bulba, rhapsody
          4. Jason and the Argonauts [Soundtrack]
          5. John Blow - Venus & Adonis / Joshua · Finley · Blaze · Jacobs
          6. John Dowland: In Darkness Let Me Dwell
          7. Josquin: Missa L'homme armé; Ave Maria; Absalom fili mi
          8. Legacy of John Barnes Chance
          9. Liszt: Sonata for piano in Bm; Skryabin: Sonatas for piano No2
          10. London Trumpet Sound Vol. 2

          Music Review

          music review

          Music Review

          Excerpts From a Love Circus [Extra tracks]

          Vineyard Classics: Pinot Noir

          Uomo A Meta/Prima Della Rivoluzione (Soundtracks) [Soundtrack]

          Male Country Hits, Vol. 293 [Karaoke]

          Ultimate Hard House Album [Box set] [Import]

          Winter Solstice Reunion

          Very Best of [Import]

          Waka Jawaka [Original recording remastered]

          Wild Thing [Import]

          Utopia Triumphans

          Traces of Trane

          Victimas Del Vaciamiento [Import]

          Top Ten

          Brahms: Symphony in Cm No1, Op68; Symphony in D No2, Op73

          Vasos Vacios