Customer Reviews

Ives: Holidays Symphony

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Take the insight of Michael Tilson Thomas, who's been conducting Ives throughout his career (his old Boston Symphony "Three Places" is still one of the best around), add one of the finest orchestras in the world and its celebrated brass section (Ives said he conceived all his music as if through "sort of a brass band with wings"), and finish with some genuinely inspired playing, and you've got a recording for the ages. It was a broadcast of the Chicago live performance, heard by chance on the radio, that gave me the idea to write my biography of Ives. Meanwhile the Holidays Symphony is one of Ives's greatest and most communicative works, and the "Decoration Day" movement one of the summits of his music. When Stravinsky was asked to define a masterpiece, he answered with "Decoration Day."

The "Holidays Symphony" of Charles Ives, comprised of four movements to symbolize the passing of the four seasons by connecting them to important American holidays, was originally intended to be four standalone works, each of which could be performed separately in conjunction with its respective holiday.

Only later did Ives combine them as a four-movement "symphony." So, on this Thanksgiving Day of 2003, I chose to "deconstruct" them, just so that I might concentrate - for the occasion - on "Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day."

This movement should, in my opinion, be numbered among the finest Ives compositions of all. It is brilliantly written and scored, with many original instrumental touches, particularly for percussion, where Ives calls upon low church bells, tubular bells and celesta, as well as an offstage ensemble of 4 horns, trombone and contrabassoon, all to marvelous effect. The ending, where the chorus enters singing to the words of the hymn tune "Duke Street," is simply breathtaking in its spirituality; truly transcendent and sublime.

But there are aspects to this movement that I've not seen anyone else mention, aspects that are startling in a prescient way, and therefore worth some mention. There is a quiet interlude, at about midpoint, scored for a reduced chamber ensemble of woodwinds, cornet, strings and celesta, that is "proto-Copland" in its sound texture, typical Coplandesque "Americana" yet written decades before "Appalachian Spring," which this section anticipates in a most remarkable way, with nearly identical chamber orchestra textures and, even, thematic ideas. The interlude then is followed by a penultimate section, prior to the choral entry, that has textures - and harmonies for that matter - similar to what William Schuman would, like Copland, write decades later. This brief section provides a perfect transition to the choral entry. And this is precisely where words fail me, because what Ives achieves here simply turns me to jelly. Only at the end of "From Hanover Square North" (from his Orchestral Set No. 2) and in the final movement of his masterpiece, the Symphony No. 4, was Ives able to match this "Holiday" in transcendent beauty.

The other three holidays/seasons ("Washington's Birthday"/Winter, "Decoration Day"/Spring and "The Fourth of July"/Summer) are all of a piece with this Thanksgiving one. Tilson Thomas has this music in his blood, having been an Ivesian from a very young age as conductors go. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, famed for its brass choir, earns kudos for ALL of its choirs in this performance, easily the best available and one not likely to be topped any time soon. And of course it doesn't hurt to have the Margaret Hillis-directed CSO Chorus for the conclusion of "Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day" (the one movement that I just HAD to listen to, not that I excluded the rest of the work, or the disc for that matter).

The album is nicely rounded out with Ives's two contemplations: "A Contemplation of a Serious Matter" and "A Contemplation of Nothing Serious," more commonly known as "The Unanswered Question" and "Central Park in the Dark." Better yet, "The Unanswered Question" appears in two versions: the original as written in 1906, and a revised version, written some 20-odd years later, in which the trumpet and woodwind phrases are somewhat altered to add to the enigmatic nature of the work. In both versions, the Chicago strings play with an atmospheric perfection rarely heard. The ragtime piano in the foreground of "Central Park in the Dark" is hard to top, also. But for this particular "contemplation" I do have a preference for James Sinclair's (British) Northern Sinfonia Orchestra performance (on Naxos #8559087), for which I had written, "Much of Ives's music is all about space and distance, and the bar-room piano heard very faintly in the background truly gives this sense of space, as well as a sense of evening mist in the park."

The renowned Ives biographer Jan Swafford writes on this page, "My vote for the finest Ives orchestral recording ever made." I'm not of a mind to argue with Swafford, Ives expert that he is, especially on this particular day, and equally especially by virtue of the phenomenal performances that Tilson Thomas elicits from his Chicago orchestral and choral forces throughout.

Cue it up, folks. It's "what's for Thanksgiving."

Bob Zeidler

Tilson Thomas delivers the goods here. My first experience with the Holidays Symphony was Bernstein's recording, very dear in my memory. Tilson Thomas' is just as evocative, and digital to boot. My favorite is Thanksgiving and/or Forefather's Day - a very emotional, cathartic movement, very rewarding. The Unaswered Question is musically a simpler construction. A good recording for a High School music appreciation class, yet it isn't just program music. Play it for your young Junior High student and solicit a response... they might suprise you. Well performed.

With Michael Tilson Thomas and the magnificent Chicago Symphony Orchestra in top form, this collection includes some of the best, most colorful works by this American master. Of the four holidays, "The Fourth of July" is irresistible - about seven minutes of extreme orchestral complexity, flaring up just like the rockets themselves and then expiring in exhaustion. Ives packs more into this score than some composers do in an hour, with colliding rhythms, blaring fortissimos and "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" sailing above everything else. It is as exhilarating a ride as any composer has ever given us. "Decoration Day" eventually arrives at a somber moment at the cemetery with a touching trumpet solo playing "Taps," then ends with a joyously raucous march back to town. The moody "Washington's Birthday" and the stirring "Thanksgiving" complete the set, and by the end you may be thinking there has never been a composer who has captured the vivid, clashing emotions of the holidays with such accuracy.

Similarly melding the gentle with the explosive is the extraordinarily evocative "Central Park in the Dark," written in 1906. This densely written gem finds time to include the ragtime classic, "Hello, my Baby," among other tunes that make their surprise appearance during the chaotic climax.

Perhaps the most unusual feature of this disc is the inclusion of both versions of "The Unanswered Question," a gentle evocation of some of the sublime mysteries of the universe. The differences between the two versions are small, but
significant - and I won't spoil the thrill of discovery by revealing them here. Suffice to say that the piece is haunting in its quest to define the indefinable, and will likely linger in your mind long afterward.

Michael Tilson Thomas is one of the most exciting and knowledgeable interpreters of this music anywhere, and the Chicago orchestra shows why many people consider it one of the best ensembles in the world. This is perhaps not a recording for a quiet morning, but it is absolutely a candidate for "Top Ten Discs of 20th-Century American Music." A hugely exciting disc.

Since becoming my favorite "classical" composer some many years ago now, Ives' incredibly unique and uncompromising music has an unexplainable quality that works magic over repeated listens. With the Holidays, this is a case in point.

Not only do I consider Ives Holidays to be sitting at the pinnacle of Ives orchestral oeuvre (along with Robert Browning, Orchestral Sets Nos. 1 and 2, and the mighty Fourth), but you will not find a better or more convincing performance on disc as of late 2007. To my ears, the only competition is Sinclair's excellent "Washington's Birthday" on Naxos (coupled with a tremendous Third Symphony), but sadly that is only one of the four movements. The Two Contemplations also found here are excellent, with one of the finest and most mysterious "Unanswered Question" on any recording to date.

Just a few words in my own not-so-humble opinion regarding this music...

All too often, music such as this by Ives gets thrown around as highly "experimental". Nothing could be further from the truth. To label this extraordinary music as experimental is belittling Ives' creative vision and heartfelt aesthetics. This music was not written as a "test" to see whether it passes or fails, but rather music that is simply visionary and unprecedented at the time at which it was written, and even by today's standards. Careful and repeated listens will reveal hidden themes, sometimes so subliminal that they escape even the most attentive of listeners. Also, Ives' unbelievably creative use of polyrhythms and interrelationships of multiple polyphonic lines and melodies shows this composer in complete mastery of his idiom. Some "scholars" today say that this was all thrown together in some haphhazard manner to see what would happen - that to me is completely unfair and unjustified. Use your OWN ears to make your own judgment here, folks.

As for sound, this recording is quite excellent (a 1986 recording), but to compare it to the best of 2007 digital recordings will begin to show its age slightly. Nonetheless, more than worthy.

In sum, if you are serious about Ives and want to hear one of the FINEST recordings ever made of his music, get this disc. Nothing is glossed over here and MTT and the Chicago Symphony need not apologize in their realization of Ives' craggy and sometimes downright rough-and-tumble music. If the incredibly transcendent ending of Thanksgiving and Forefather's Day doesn't convince you, then maybe 'ole Charlie isn't for you afterall...

Michael Tilson Thomas and James Sinclair should be considered when looking for any Ives recording, as they are arguably two of the finest conductors of Ives on the planet.

This recording is essential and amazing.

Michael Tilson Thomas knows how to conduct Ives. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus are outstanding on this recording i.e. like someone acting very well but not overacting. Sony's recording is spacious and pleasant. As a long time listener of Ives, I appreciate his avante-guarde meanderings of sometimes folk songs or hymns. This symphony is a good place to start for novices and yet has enough dissonance for the experienced Ives listener.

When this recording was first released, in 1988, it was considered the most impressive Ives record in the catalogue. The CSO sounds stunning and Michael Tilson Thomas shows, as if there was any doubt, that he is an Ives' interpreter in the very top rank. I think, but Ives' historians may correct me, that this was the first time all four pieces were played together as the "Holidays Symphony". The recording has excellent versions of The Unanswered Question (both in its original 1906 version and the revised version from the 1930s) and the delightful Central Park in the Dark. If you were exiled to a desert island and could only pick one recording of this disgracefully under-played composer, this could well be it.

This is a "must" album. Altho' I personallly object to some of the finer editorial work in the "original" version of "UnQ" (very esoteric stuff--ask me) I'd stilll recommend this album as a "must have." -- D.G. Porter, Editorial Coordinator, The Charles Ives Society

Most people are perplexed by the more innovative works of Charles Ives. Once you open yourself to the possibilities of combinations of dissimilar music, the world is a very interesting place. You may even find that you can't get enough Ives. If you find yourself in this situation, don't panic. Make your own Ives-like music. Just get a few different CDs, play them on the CD players throughout your home, and enjoy.

I bought this disc hoping that it might turn me on to Ives. It was highly recommended by the Penguin Guide, so it should be a safe bet, right? Well, this disc may be an outstanding recording of Ives, but I have learned something very important through listening to this disc...I don't like Ives.

Sorry.