First Recording of Ives' Three Places

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.

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.

LINK to Ives and McBride