Ives: An American Journey [Live]

Thomas Hampson (Artist), Charles Ives (Composer), Michael Tilson Thomas (Conductor), San Francisco Symphony and Chorus (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: San Francisco Symphony and Chorus
• Conductor: Michael Tilson Thomas
• Composer: Charles Ives
• Audio CD (February 5, 2002)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: RCA Victor / BMG
• ASIN: B00005UED6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #136,530 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #54 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Composers > Ives, Charles
  • #98 in Music > Classical > Forms & Genres > Theatrical, Incidental & Program Music > Marches

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our View of the Ivesian Universe Expands, March 25, 2002

By 

Benway (Placentia, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ives: An American Journey (Audio CD)

Michael Tilson Thomas makes a welcome move to RCA in his newest serving of Charles Ives. Hitherto, his best known Ives recording have all been on Sony. While excellent all in performance the sound quality was substandard (as is Sony's wont). In this we have some exquisite and fairly obscure Ives pieces. The rousing "General William Booth Enters into Heavan" is alone worth the price. Ives is manly known to listeners as a composer of disonant orchestral works. This only gives us a limited perspective of an artist who was as diverse in sentiment as he was in invention. The small and delightful songs on this disc will expand our awareness of one who is probably our greatest composer.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb sampling of a national treasure, April 17, 2002

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ives: An American Journey (Audio CD)

Charles Ives' music was so ahead of his time when it was written that he became known to the public as an eccentric whose music was only of academic importance, hardly listenable, rarely worth programming. But it has taken the likes of Michael Tilson Thomas to place Ives in the roster of American Genius Composers where he so justly belongs. This new recording (live recording in Davies Hall in San Francisco) has a brilliant sound that adds to the magnificence of the larger Ives orchestral works (this must surely be the finest sounding "Three Places in New England" and "The Unanswered Question" available). But the joy of this particular collection of Ives' output is the inclusion of the whimsy and raucous songs both with piano (Thomas) and orchestral accompaniment. Thomas Hampson is the grateful choice for the songs and he sings with an abandon apropos of the texts. The San Franciso Symphony and Chorus are in top form as is Thomas. This recording is such a joy that it pleads the case for capturing live recording over studio dry redubs. A tribute to all involved - especially Ives!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb evening of Ives, the best in decades, December 18, 2005

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ives: An American Journey (Audio CD)

Tilson Thomas's PR team should put out a ocntract on me; I rarely express enthusiasm for him. So let me bow especially low to this superlative 1999 concert of Ives as viewed from his most melodic, least revolutionary perspective. This is Ives as recording angel of ice cream socials and Fourth of July parades.

In the Seventies MTT made good but not exceptioanl recordings of Ives's major orchestral works. Here he concentrates on songs and orchestral bits and pieces, except for the extended Three Places in New England, which is x-rayed with exceptionally detailed sonics. Thomas Hampson secures his position as the best singer of American songs with highly dramatized, unbuttoned singing--his Charlie Rutlage, a Texas-accented elegy for a fallen cowpoke, and the familiar General William Booth Enters Into Heaven are instant classics. Chorus and orchestra enter in the spirit of bumptious good cheer, and overall a good time was had by all, even though the crowd was sent home sobered up by the supernaturally melancholy Unanswered Question, which never fails to send a shiver through the listener.