Charles Ives - Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4; Central Park in the Dark (Andrew Litton)

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These are excellent performances in every respect: magnificently played, beautifully recorded, and conducted with unfailing intelligence. The First Symphony is a better piece than is often thought--immature, in its way, but also irreverent, and full of Ives' typical honesty and sincerity. This performance doesn't take the first-movement exposition repeat as does James Sinclair on Naxos, but it is a bit livelier overall and uses the latest edition (with the riotous percussion that brings the finale to a typically irreverent conclusion). The bottom line is that the music doesn't really sound like anyone else, and in Andrew Litton's hands the music in the outer movements, with its odd dissonances and freedom of modulation, clearly foretells the composer to come.

This performance of the Fourth Symphony is spectacular. I haven't heard the SACD (yet), but it's hard to imagine a more vivid engineering job. You can actually hear the steady percussive tread that wends its way through the finale at just about every point, no matter how dense the surrounding tangle of sonority. In the insane second movement, without ever underplaying the big eruptions, Litton lets us hear an unusual amount of the thematic material where you usually are least apt to find it: in the string parts. To a remarkable degree, although the jumbles still sound like jumbles (as they should), you can pick out individual strands from the welter of noise and follow them as the music progresses. It's the kind of approach that will have you coming back for more, and it keeps the music sounding always different and new. The chorus in the first movement and finale sings (or hums) excellently and is atmospherically balanced, while Litton finds both heartfelt simplicity and a surprising amount of passion in the third-movement fugue.

Central Park in the Dark makes a fine and unexpected bonus after the two big works. I am delighted not to encounter yet another recording of The Unanswered Question, a piece that for all its deserved fame offers no reason to own multiple versions of it. The only serious competition to Litton in the Ives Symphonies, taken as a cycle under one conductor, comes from Michael Tilson Thomas on Sony, who has less alluring sonics and the old edition of the First Symphony. For all intents and purposes, Litton stands in a class of his own. [10/24/2006]

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

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Andrew Litton (born May 16, 1959, New York City) is an American conductor. Litton is a graduate of The Fieldston School, and holds both undergraduate and Masters degrees in music from Juilliard. He served as music director and principal conductor of Bournemouth Symphony (1988-1994), Dallas Symphony (1994-2006), Bergen Philharmonic (2003-2015), Colorado Symphony (since 2013) and New York City Ballet (2015-2016). Under Litton, the Dallas Symphony became the first major orchestra to broadcast a live concert via the Internet.

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