Ives: Concord Symphony, Copland: Organ Symphony [Hybrid SACD]

What IS wonderful about this is how it brings out everything in this piece, from the extreme beauty that Ives could evoke, to profound disillusionment at points. The orchestration may be nothing like Ives, but the fact is that Ives' orchestration is IVES' orchestration, unique to that composer's voice, and impossible to replicate at will. The playing is impeccable, and it is really a matter of opinion whether you consider this or Dennis Russell Davies' version definitive. It is a little faster paced in spots, and a little more clean, but the Davies version is interpreted differently. As for the Copland Organ Symphony, there is no doubt about it. This is amazing music, and everybody who has any interest in American music deserves to hear it.

Of the two recordings of the Concord Sonata (Piano Sonata 2 orchestrated) this is now the preferred performance and recording. It is also coupled with Copland's rarely heard Organ Symphony. Yes, the orchestration does soften the dissonance of Ives' creation somewhat, but in defense it certainly allows one to hear the music from a new perspective.

I have a particular affinity for this work - the piano sonata version - being especially interested in the writers that Ives puts into music, and having some 15 recordings of the work. Performers of the sonata can approach it in many ways, choosing to highlight the tempestuousness of certain parts of the work (notably in the Emerson movement), focusing on the rhythmical aspects of the composition, or choosing tempi that are either very fast or much slower. (The recordings I have range from a speedy 38 minutes to a leisurely 62 minutes, with an average in the 45-50 minute range, or about the same tempo as this current recording.)

When unleashed for orchestra, the Concord Sonata (or Symphony) takes on a new life. These are more accurately two completely different works rather one being simply a transcription of the other. Michael Tilson Thomas has developed a "sound" with his San Francisco Symphony orchestra, a group of musicians he has been working with regularly for more than 15 years, and with whom he has performed many 20th century works. There is a certain naturalness in this recording, as though the orchestra is in its milieu, and a balance among the instruments that sounds nearly ideal. When the orchestra lets loose in the middle of the Hawthorne section - with blaring horns, punctuated by soft strings, then back to a cacophony of horns, then a marching band imploding - I just want to turn the volume up and be overwhelmed by the waves of sound.

The sound quality of this disc is excellent. The orchestra is spacious, and the full palette of instruments can be heard well no matter what the volume; as this work has a very wide range of volume, this is essential. The full, lush strings in the Alcotts section fill the soundscape, and the definition of the winds and strings in the beginning of the Thoreau section is clean and precise. There is one tiny problem, though, at the end of the work; applause. There is really no need to have applause at the end of a live recording of any classical work, if that applause can be edited out (which it can here). It stands merely as a reminder that the recording is live - one which, by the way, is unnecessary - and it is almost insulting to reach the end of a work, feel the enjoyment of completion, and then be interrupted by such noise. If I'm in a concert hall, I expect it; on my stereo, I resent it. Why any sound engineer, or anyone else involved in a recording like this, would want to have 5 seconds of applause, is beyond me.

While the headliner on this disc is the Concord Symphony, this current recording does include another work, and no mean one at that: Aaron Copland's Organ Symphony. An early work, premiered in 1925 when Copland was merely 23 years old, this was Copland's first major composition. (Copland later rescored this as his Symphony No. 1.) The three movements are all very different. In the first, light strings play a subtle melody, as the organ plays almost a continuo, but so quietly you can almost miss it. The second movement has a snappy tempo, and is almost dance-like at first, with the orchestra taking center stage, swelling to monumental scale. The organ is, for the most part, in the background, being just another instrument in the orchestra, and not a solo instrument until the very end of this movement where it has a bit of presence. The final movement, Lento, begins with dense strings, and the organ finally becomes prominent, in full expression. Slow, loud chords are enough to shake the room you're in, and I can imagine that, in the Davies Hall, where this was performed, the effect must have been impressive. As the movement goes on, the orchestra becomes imposing and powerful, ending with a powerful punch. While melodically this is a simplistic work, the sound quality, as for the Ives, is excellent.

The Copland is a young composer's work, and, compared to the refinement of Ives' Concord Sonata (and the orchestration herein), is much less interesting. But the coupling of these two works presents two great American composers writing around the same time, and rather than just having the Concord Symphony on this disc, the addition is welcome. Compared to the Davies recording of the Concord Symphony, I'd give a few extra points to this current recording, if only for the sound quality which features better definition. But both are excellent. If you don't know this work, and appreciate Ives, this current disc - with the addition of the Copland - is essential.