It's been a while since we had a post of American music. This is a notable one - it includes the first recording of Charles Ives' best known composition, Three Places in New England. This was one of the few Ives recordings to be made in the composer's lifetime.
The orchestra, which may be the Vienna Symphony under another name, plays this difficult music quite well under the leadership of the talented Walter Hendl. His fluid approach seems to suit this music, which can sound overblown with so many things are going on at once.
 |
| Walter Hendl |
With Ives' music, it helps to have a scorecard, and there is an excellent article on this composition on Wikipedia.
The violin concerto by Robert McBride is a complete contrast. Breezy and virtuosic, it is nicely played by Maurice Wilk, who was active as a soloist, chamber player, and studio musician. This surely must be the only concerto whose three movements are subtitled in show-biz lingo a la Variety - "Sock 10-G," "Lush PixWix," and "B.O. Hypo." McBride taught at the University of Arizona and is perhaps best known for the Mexican Rhapsody that Howard Hanson recorded. He passed away only last year, as did Hendl.
The violin concerto by Robert McBride is a complete contrast. Breezy and virtuosic, it is nicely played by Maurice Wilk, who was active as a soloist, chamber player, and studio musician. This surely must be the only concerto whose three movements are subtitled in show-biz lingo a la Variety - "Sock 10-G," "Lush PixWix," and "B.O. Hypo." McBride taught at the University of Arizona and is perhaps best known for the Mexican Rhapsody that Howard Hanson recorded. He passed away only last year, as did Hendl.
A Classical Discography does identify the orchestra for the McBride as the Vienna Symphony. The sessions were in 1952.
This disk was issued in the same grant-funded American Recording Society series as the first record we featured on this blog a few months ago.
This disk was issued in the same grant-funded American Recording Society series as the first record we featured on this blog a few months ago.
LINK to Ives and McBride
13 comments:
I can't believe this posting. In 1957, while in my sophomore year of highschool, my music appreciation teacher, whom I had been pestering for modern music all semester, began the class by saying, "Today, Mr. Federman is going to be a very happy man." And he played the very recording of Ives' Three Places that you have posted. The music changed my life as irrevocably as reading Albert Camus' "The Stranger" earlier in the year. Later that year, Mercury released Howrad Hanson's famous recording in epochal stereo and Hendl's performance was never heard or thought of again. Thanks for bringing it back. I sure hope Ives heard this.
By the way, there was a recording of chamber works recorded on some obscure label featuring "The Unanswered Question" with the legendary Harry Glantz on trumpet. I think it dated from 1950 and Ives verly likely heard it. Maybe you have it. All I remember is a picture of Stonehenge kind of rock on the cover.
David,
Sorry, but I don't have the Unanswered Question recording. However, you might be interested in a new release (just saw it yesterday in doing some research for this) that includes the first recording of the third symphony (Richard Bales conducting) and the first piano sonata (William Masselos). It is on El records. Also includes this recording - I hasten to add that this is my transfer from vinyl.
By the way, in researching this item, I read that Ives stopped composing because nothing sounded right and that McBride stopped listening to music because everything sounded a half-step down to him. Strange.
Ives was an interesting character and his life story is worth checking out. Music was actually his "hobby"... in reality, he was an extremmely successful insurance man who made quite a lot of money in the business world.
Thanks for the tip on the Hendl reissue. I ordered it from Amazon yesterday, along with an orchestration of Ives' monumental Concord Sonata by the late Henry Brant. Now that should be interesting.
Your blog is a terrific and tasteful blend of genres. Did I thank you for the Jackie Paris? Keep posting. This is cultural archeology of the highest order.
@ Scoredaddy,
Right, Ives' success essentially allowed him to compose what he wanted to compose without worrying about what others thought. It's interesting (at least to me) that his near-contemporary William Carlos Williams was a very successful doctor as well as an eminent writer. An amazing pair of people. However, Williams was by no means sympathetic to capitalism.
@ David,
Thanks again for your support and kind words.
Thanks a bunch for this - really interesting and unusual. But is it possible to give release/recording years for these albums when you post them? That would add to the interest...
Sure, when I have them. In many cases, it really isn't clear when the items were recorded. This record is circa 1950, but that's true of many of the items here. I'm not even sure if the orchestra on this record is NY based or European. I would guess NY based, because that's where the soloist in the concerto was based. But who knows.
The orchestra for all the American Recording Society recordings was the Vienna Symphony. Great blog! Thanks for making this material available.
I just tried to download this and got a message from rapidshare saying they could not find the file.
Any chance of re-uploading?
Graham - Yes, if I can find the files. Might take a while.
Hola coridal saludo podrias colocar un nuevo link para este post? muchas gracias¡¡
Yes, will do. Might take a few days.
I've noticed that compared with Mediafire, Mega, at least to me seems to be very erratic, the downloads keep hanging with 'temporary error' messages and then the download restarts. Downloads from Mediafire do not seem to have this problem. I think it may be my network.
Post a Comment