This selection of 17
Charles Ives' songs are not done too badly here, nor are they the best on record. The faster-tempo songs such as Ann Street, Memories, and 1, 2, 3 are a bit limpid and underpowered in
Graham's reading, and it sounds like pianist
Pierre-Laurent Aimard gets his fingers stuck in the keys here and there. But the softer, slower pieces such as A Farewell to Land and The Things Our Fathers Loved are pretty good. Older singers such as
Helen Boatwright and the late
Jan de Gaetani have set the bar very high for sopranos in this literature; theirs is a tough act to follow. Yet if you are not familiar with the
Ives songs, this is a pretty good selection with which to start.
But the main focus of this package is
Pierre-Laurent Aimard's reading of
Ives' Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-60.
Aimard's recording is clearly the one of choice for those who have heard the Concord and can't figure out what makes it the "Great American Piano Sonata."
Aimard delivers a dreamy, crystalline performance of the Concord with most of its explosive passages subsumed to the requirements of the work as a whole; a very "French" and eminently listenable reading of the Concord; one also appreciates the employment here of
Ives' seldom-used added instrumental parts to the work. While a bit more pond scum and murkiness is preferable in his Concord, but don't let that discourage the listener from enjoying this recording, especially if the listener is new to the sometimes rather difficult music of
Ives.