Video Review: Charles Ives' America--A Beautiful Portrait of Major Musical Voice

[@HassoBenSoba]

Horowitz is a brilliant guy; very insightful and compelling. His Toscanini and Mamoulian/Porgy & Bess books are excellent examples of the quality of his research and literary talents. I'll definitely buy this video. Thanks. LR

[@bbailey7818]

His MISunderstanding Toscanini is actually poorly researched and cherry picked as to facts to support a predetermined thesis and conclusion. I remember a lecture of his during the course of which he compared the Lohengrin Prelude under Furtwangler and Toscanini and, for the latter, chose his least representative performance ( done live under hot TV lights). However, at the end he asked for a show of hands as to which the audience preferred. The Toscanini got many more hands even so.

[@HassoBenSoba]

@@bbailey7818 My praise for Horowitz does NOT exclude the likelihood of his selecting and "shaping his materials to support his overall goals and conclusions; most ANY writer does that. There were numerous aspects of his book that I disagreed with and felt were not exactly "fair" to the Maestro, but which nonetheless presented a new side to his art. But to accuse Horowitz of "poorly" researching is a bit churlish, don't you think?

[@wdashwor]

As a student in college many years ago, I ran across the Cowells biography of Ives and the old Tilson-Thomas recording of Three Places-and felt instantly a great affinity with and love for the man and his music. He became-and remains-a huge influence on me. In latter years, I have often avoided treatments of Ives, as they too often seemed to smack of political correctness and views of Ives from people who, I felt, really didn’t understand him and who had an extra-musical agenda. So I’m glad to hear that this film is more balanced and sensitive and respectful. Thanks for the review! And it’s wonderful to hear of your personal connections with Ives.

[@jppitman1]

Thankfully Ives is programmed on occasion. DC`s National Symphony under Slatkin performed Ives’ 4th Symphony in the early 2000`s. Mr. Slatkin was giving a historical picture of the piece and included performed examples of patriotic tunes, popular tunes, and hymn tunes hoping to give any in the audience unfamiliar with Ives a context within which to listen. One member of the audience got up and began to leave the concert hall, to which Slatkin told him, “You should really stick around to see how all of this comes out.” And just this past April the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop performed his 2nd. Having knowledge of its ending theme, beforehand I`d tucked two little American flags into my coat pocket. As “Columbia, Oh Gem of the Ocean” appeared, I waved the little flags back and forth to the beat and people behind me thought that was the greatest thing. As we left, another man walked down towards us and asked if I was the one who waved the flags. I said yes, to which he said that Ives himself would have expected just that. He loved it, too. As a side note, in her historical context speech at the beginning Ms. Alsop ended by saying, “Oh, and the last note? That’s not us. That’s Ives!”

[@miltonjohnston1683]

Many many thanks! The Ives movie was super! Also the others were wondrous. Glad you found these.

[@peterbogdanoff]

As others have mentioned, this movie is currently freely available on KZbin because of Ives' 150th year, but won't be available forever.

[@jonathangoodman2636]

I share your deep appreciation for Ives. I strive to make my singer colleagues and students aware of the need to keep his songs alive. It would be interesting to have a well-done film on Stephen Foster, who gets the woke shaft all too easily these days (it's complicated), but who deserves to have a fair survey done.

[@toastonmitchell2636]

I've never heard of Ives but I have visited that bronze monument in Boston several times... I'm going to have to listen to that one right now! The story of the first black regiment is fascinating. There's a book about it called One Gallant Rush, which is definitely worth the read!

[@juliendupre8704]

I just checked, the video is available freely on youtube (on Naxos's channel) ! The others from the series are not though.

[@ConfessionsofAConvert]

Love your Ives reviews. Your personal connection to New Haven and that whole environment gives you a great perspective. I don't think Ives was as radical in the way that people often want him to be. Just like any great composer he borrowed from what sounds good, that's just good composition, not social radicalism. I'll have to watch Horowitz on this. Hopefully we get a review of that big Ives RCA/Columbia box, I'm still on the fence about buying it.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I'll be reviewing it, but you should buy it.

[@bbailey7818]

If I were ordered to surrender all of my scores but one, I might well choose to save Ives 114 Songs ( though Barber's might tempt me!) The recordings I'd keep above all are Gerald Finley and Julius Drake's on Hyperion. (A greatest recordings evahhh candidate?)