- Audio CD (5 May 2008)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: CD
- Label: EMI
- ASIN: B0016MJ3NQ
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 41,379 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is unusual for EMI - not a "best of" compilation but more a collection of little known miniatures and songs.
Not long back I purchased an album of some of Ives' best known songs along with some better known orchestral works led by Michael Tilson Thomas. These revealed the consistency of his creative processes and the close link between his songs and larger forms. This was a very revealing album.
This EMI collection provides several songs and many miniature instrumental / orchestral pieces. This only confirms the impression from the other album and shows what a formidable imagination and inventiveness lay behind all his work, small or large scale. The instrumental works appear to be first impressions and sketches but always very bold ones. The Tone Roads are startlingly radical and even his works from college days are similarly original - eg Calcium Light Nights. Every work has is own mood or scene and Ives, however radical or conservative he chooses to be, captures its essence succintly. These are the works of a highly accomplished composer and not some lone happy but radical amateur.
I had reservations about the songs because some I'd heard elsewhere sung by a baritone. Their pioneer spirit seemed best suited to such a voice but Marne Nixon's soprano voice carries off the spirit perfectly - The Cowboy son "Charlie Rutlage" is a great case in point. If her singing voice sounds vaguely familiar then think Natalie Wood in "West Side Story" or Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady", Deborah Kerr in "The King and I". Yes, almost unknown but a very famous singing Hollywood voice over.
This is a terrific album for Ives enthusiasts though I accept, like for many others, his music may not be for all tastes. I think it's marvellous and one to tap into quite often rather than listen through the whole album in one sitting. So if you like Ives get this.
Not long back I purchased an album of some of Ives' best known songs along with some better known orchestral works led by Michael Tilson Thomas. These revealed the consistency of his creative processes and the close link between his songs and larger forms. This was a very revealing album.
This EMI collection provides several songs and many miniature instrumental / orchestral pieces. This only confirms the impression from the other album and shows what a formidable imagination and inventiveness lay behind all his work, small or large scale. The instrumental works appear to be first impressions and sketches but always very bold ones. The Tone Roads are startlingly radical and even his works from college days are similarly original - eg Calcium Light Nights. Every work has is own mood or scene and Ives, however radical or conservative he chooses to be, captures its essence succintly. These are the works of a highly accomplished composer and not some lone happy but radical amateur.
I had reservations about the songs because some I'd heard elsewhere sung by a baritone. Their pioneer spirit seemed best suited to such a voice but Marne Nixon's soprano voice carries off the spirit perfectly - The Cowboy son "Charlie Rutlage" is a great case in point. If her singing voice sounds vaguely familiar then think Natalie Wood in "West Side Story" or Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady", Deborah Kerr in "The King and I". Yes, almost unknown but a very famous singing Hollywood voice over.
This is a terrific album for Ives enthusiasts though I accept, like for many others, his music may not be for all tastes. I think it's marvellous and one to tap into quite often rather than listen through the whole album in one sitting. So if you like Ives get this.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
A long-awaited re-release!
19 Jun 2008
Format:Audio CD
This is a long-awaited re-release of most of the 1992 "Portrait of Charles Ives" CD, coupled with the Ives songs recorded by Marni Nixon (a GREAT album!) from the old Nonesuch LP. It does not include any of my CD notes for the original CD (the booklet was pretty large) -- more on that below. It also doesn't include the Herford/EM recording of the orchestral setting of "General Booth" or Ives's last song "Sunrise," but at 79½ minntes there was no more room (a pity, since being able to compare the Herford and Nixon recordings on one CD would have been fun). Perhaps these will show up on a later release.
The original "Portrait" album won 2nd place in the 1993 Grand Prix du Disque. This CD includes my own Ives Society critical editions of pieces from Sets 1, 2 & 3 (with the only recording of my editing of "Calcium Light Night"). I've seen used copies of the "Portrait" CD advertized for over $193 (ridiculous!), so now you can get most of that CD at a realistic price. And it's the only re-release of Marni Nixon's recording. A great complement to the "When the Moon" CD with Music Projects/London.
The tracks here have been re-ordered from the "Portrait" CD, mostly to keep groupings such as "Set No. 1" together. The original ordering followed to a certain degree the Ensemble's 1989 concert program order. This new ordering may be more useful in the long run.
Now regarding the new CD notes: These are adequate but what one could only call "the usual." The oddballs come in the section with song texts. The words to "The Greatest Man" are not included due to copyright restrictions (which could have been negotiated one would think), and texts to "A Farewell to Land" and "General Booth" are given IN FULL, including portions that Ives did not use (this is especially baroque for "Farewell," since Ives only set a small part of the poem).
Amusingly, the text given for "Bells of Yale" is mixed up in the chorus, not being given in full for the first time through, and the notes perpetuate an error from the "Portrait" CD by omitting the word "hear" from the line, "We'll hear forever in our hearts." (This text was the one part of the original CD notes that I did not have access to in a direct form, so I directed EMI to use the copy in EM's 1989 concert program booklet, which omitted the word.)
Someone at EMI may have read my review of "Portrait" citing the high price of used copies, for there's a chide in the notes about copying CD tracks, the usual about how it robs from the poor starving musicians, etc. Well, I now encourage people to buy this CD and feed those starving musicians, but if someone wants the two tracks form "Portrait" not included here (Herford's "Booth" and "Sunrise"), then just copy those tracks from the original, at least until EMI re-releases them! (Keep in mnd that when you pay $75 or $193 for that used copy, none of that goes to the poor musicians!)
The original "Portrait" album won 2nd place in the 1993 Grand Prix du Disque. This CD includes my own Ives Society critical editions of pieces from Sets 1, 2 & 3 (with the only recording of my editing of "Calcium Light Night"). I've seen used copies of the "Portrait" CD advertized for over $193 (ridiculous!), so now you can get most of that CD at a realistic price. And it's the only re-release of Marni Nixon's recording. A great complement to the "When the Moon" CD with Music Projects/London.
The tracks here have been re-ordered from the "Portrait" CD, mostly to keep groupings such as "Set No. 1" together. The original ordering followed to a certain degree the Ensemble's 1989 concert program order. This new ordering may be more useful in the long run.
Now regarding the new CD notes: These are adequate but what one could only call "the usual." The oddballs come in the section with song texts. The words to "The Greatest Man" are not included due to copyright restrictions (which could have been negotiated one would think), and texts to "A Farewell to Land" and "General Booth" are given IN FULL, including portions that Ives did not use (this is especially baroque for "Farewell," since Ives only set a small part of the poem).
Amusingly, the text given for "Bells of Yale" is mixed up in the chorus, not being given in full for the first time through, and the notes perpetuate an error from the "Portrait" CD by omitting the word "hear" from the line, "We'll hear forever in our hearts." (This text was the one part of the original CD notes that I did not have access to in a direct form, so I directed EMI to use the copy in EM's 1989 concert program booklet, which omitted the word.)
Someone at EMI may have read my review of "Portrait" citing the high price of used copies, for there's a chide in the notes about copying CD tracks, the usual about how it robs from the poor starving musicians, etc. Well, I now encourage people to buy this CD and feed those starving musicians, but if someone wants the two tracks form "Portrait" not included here (Herford's "Booth" and "Sunrise"), then just copy those tracks from the original, at least until EMI re-releases them! (Keep in mnd that when you pay $75 or $193 for that used copy, none of that goes to the poor musicians!)
Ives, Marni Nixon great duet!
18 May 2011
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Marni Nixon's a great versatile song stylist, from West Side Story to Charles Ives, and with Ives she is glorious. Playful, reverential, lyrical, bombastic in turns, she is always a delight. Ives deserves more public performance in churches and concert halls, and Marni Nixon deserves more attention for her variety and crystalline singing. I love her, thank her for such much she has done for song. Ron Rehfeldt, Chicago
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