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Sony Masterworks

Ives: Symphony No 1, Three Places In New England / Ormandy

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Details

Composer
IVES, CHARLES
Artist
Ormandy, Stokowski
Format
CD
Label
Sony Masterworks
Released
Jan 29, 2002
Catalog #
SBK89851
UPC
696998985124

About

Eugene Ormandy's peerless Ives First Symphony, a singular classic in which the conductor employs all the resources of his fabulous orchestra, comes newly packaged in Sony's latest re-launch of its highly successful budget-priced Essential Classics series. The famous Philadelphia strings make a wonderfully sumptuous sound (particularly as they flesh out the Adagio molto's beauteous melodies), the winds' pointed and colorful playing enlivens the scherzo, while the brass section's signature timbre rings regally at the close of the first and last movements. Ormandy brings to this music the same level of concentration and care he would a Tchaikovsky symphony, conducting with an authority unmatched on other, later recordings.


Zubin Mehta conducts with similar enthusiasm, but his Los Angeles recording is spoiled by disfiguring cuts in the finale, and despite heftily sonorous playing from the Chicago Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas' earnest reading sounds surprisingly stiff after Ormandy's free-flowing, almost impetuous rendition. Ormandy further earns his Ives stripes (and proves the lie to the claim that he was a bland interpreter) with his intense and atmospheric reading of Three Places in New England. Rounding out the program is a bracing performance of the Robert Browning Overture by a very animated Leopold Stokowski, stunningly played by the American Symphony. The remastered sound for the Philadelphia sessions is pleasingly warm and full for its period (late 1950s), while the Stokowski recording is less open and a bit hard-edged. [3/6/2002]
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

Tracklist 8 tracks

  1. 1 I. Allegro 11:42
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    11:42
    Composer
    Charles Ives
    Ensemble
    Philadelphia Orchestra
    Conductor
    Eugene Ormandy
  2. 2 II. Adagio molto [sostenuto] 07:33
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Adagio molto [sostenuto]
    Duration
    07:33
    Composer
    Charles Ives
    Ensemble
    Philadelphia Orchestra
    Conductor
    Eugene Ormandy
  3. 3 III. Scherzo: Vivace 04:35
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Scherzo: Vivace
    Duration
    04:35
    Composer
    Charles Ives
    Ensemble
    Philadelphia Orchestra
    Conductor
    Eugene Ormandy
  4. 4 IV. Allegro molto 12:47
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Allegro molto
    Duration
    12:47
    Composer
    Charles Ives
    Ensemble
    Philadelphia Orchestra
    Conductor
    Eugene Ormandy
  5. 5 I. The St. Gaudens in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment) 08:11
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. The St. Gaudens in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment)
    Duration
    08:11
    Composer
    Charles Ives
    Ensemble
    Philadelphia Orchestra
    Conductor
    Eugene Ormandy
  6. 6 II. Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut 05:37
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut
    Duration
    05:37
    Composer
    Charles Ives
    Ensemble
    Philadelphia Orchestra
    Conductor
    Eugene Ormandy
  7. 7 III. The Housatonic at Stockbridge 04:00
    Track
    7
    Title
    III. The Housatonic at Stockbridge
    Duration
    04:00
    Composer
    Charles Ives
    Ensemble
    Philadelphia Orchestra
    Conductor
    Eugene Ormandy
  8. 8 Robert Browning Overture 22:58
    Track
    8
    Title
    Robert Browning Overture
    Duration
    22:58
    Composer
    Charles Ives
    Ensemble
    American Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Leopold Stokowski