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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Charles Ives: A Songbook
Jeannine Herzel (mezzo) & Omar Ebrahim (baritone) Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich, Sebastian Gottschick "Sebastian Gottschick’s adaptations of Ives’ songs and short instrumental pieces in this sense not only pay homage to the composer but develop his work further. The multifaceted ensemble and the instrumentation Gottschick chose allow him to be highly differentiated in his approach to the specific Ives sound that oscillates between crude realism and symbolist fragmentation: he either deliberately avoids this sound (for instance by using a vibraphone in Grantchester) or he pushes it to the point of prismatic refraction. Apart from this, Gottschick’s selection proceeds in a continuous, multi-perspective order that can be interpreted as a drama en miniature, a model of an ordinary day from the snatches of dreams in the morning to the falling night, and finally also as the epitome of the diversity of life itself. Behind all that the power and intangible nature of memories, Ives’ lifelong theme, becomes visible and audible." Wolfgang Rathert “Creative decisions have been taken about where to place Ives's songs in relation to each other, this new concept designed to illuminate our understanding of the time and place that begat them...both singers are...sympathetic and technically bulletproof” Gramophone Magazine, May 2013 | 
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| |  | Charles Ives - Twelve Songs
In Summer 2007, invited by Kent Nagano to the Munich Opera Festival, singer Theo Bleckmann met the group Kneebody to create a new song cycle from works by Charles Ives.Twelve compositions for voice and piano/ensemble/orchestra, written by this significant American composer at the start of the 20th century, were to be reworked. Ives characteristically combines the folk voice of America with classical forms and traditions from Europe. Everyday American music, quotes from marches, hymns and dances are brought into play, but he doesn't write music to please: instead, he uses contrasting elements and sonic irritations to create an image of America that sketches the inner character of this New World society after the War of Independence. Extensive re-workings by Theo Bleckmann and Kneebody put Ives' music in a context alongside elements of jazz, electronics and improvisation. The singer Theo Bleckmann is part of a close circle of Winter & Winter artists who have collaborated since 2004 on Der Kastanienball; since then have come Las Vegas Rhapsody, Berlin, and now Twelve Songs by Charles Ives: a homage to an exceptional composer. “Ives's songs, given the jazz treatment for the first time, thrive in this idiom. I didn't know what to expect, but it works. The vocal approach is sympathetic; the harmony is respected, at least as a starting-point; and the humour of some of these songs is exploited.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2009 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Ives - Songs Volume 5
Janna Baty, Lielle Berman, Patrick Carfizzi, Jennifer Casey Cabot, Michael Cavalieri, Robert Gardner, Ian Howell, Sara Jakubiak, Sumi Kittelberger, Ryan MacPherson, Tamara Mumford, Mary Phillips, David Pittsinger, Matthew Plenk, Kenneth Tarver, Leah Wool, Enrico Sartori, Douglas Dickson, Laura Garritson, J.J. Penna & Eric Trudel Charles Ives wrote almost two hundred songs. Although his reputation rests on orchestral, chamber and piano music, it is Ives's songs that represent the heart of his creative thinking. The expressive variety encountered is accordingly vast: indeed, the gradual evolution of Ives’s songwriting is analogous to the wider evolution of American music during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This new edition includes all the songs that Ives completed. The alphabetic approach ensures that each volume (of which this disc is the fourth of six) contains a representative cross-section “These songs, with all their quirks and flights of fantasy, [are] among the most important of the 20th century in any language.” The Guardian | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Ives - Romanzo di Central Park
“Gerald Finley has everything and more in his darkly full-bodied voice to match the often formidable technical and expressive requirements of Ives’s songbook—reinforced by Drake’s elastic, expressive piano … this is a must-buy album” The Times “This is a highly successful follow-up to Gerald Finley and Julius Drake’s first Ives recital from 2005. Here there is the same sort of mix, from familiar songs such as The Circus Band and Watchman! To an early requiem for the family cat and the intriguing title song, Romanzo (di
Central Park), with its obbligato violin part atmospherically played by Magnus Johnston. Finley is his usual charismatic self, at home as much in the hymnody as the parody, and he is careful not to over-sentimentalise the more homely numbers while injecting pathos into the war songs. Drake
projects Ives’s often complex accompaniments with clarity and style” The Telegraph “…outstandingly well sung and played, equally well recorded, and highly recommendable to all lovers of fine songs and fine singing.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2008 ***** “…some of the early songs in a conventional style are treated with the same seriousness that Finley would apply to Lieder. The contemplative ones are delivered with an impressive serenity and Finley has his own way of attacking the razzle-dazzle of something like "The Circus Band" or "They Are There!".” Gramophone Magazine, April 2008 “This is the second volume of Ives songs from this accomplished team; their first Ives volume (reviewed above) contained some of the blockbusters like Charlie Rutlage and General WilliamBooth but the mood of this volume is fairly sedate. In particular some of the early songs in a conventional style are treated with the same seriousness that Finley would apply to Lieder.
An unusual but effective feature here is the provision of violin obbligato both for the jingoistic wartime song They Are There! and the mawkish take-off Romanzo (di Central Park). Sentimentality is a Victorian characteristic but in Songs MyMother Taught Me, as elsewhere in Ives, the emotion is genuine so it invariably convinces.
Many of the songs are transposed down – hard work for the pianist and it makes some of the textures rather dense. The contemplative ones are delivered with an impressive serenity and Finley has his own way of attacking the razzledazzle of something like The Circus Band or TheyAre There! He's close-miked, which works best in the intimacy of the quieter songs.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010  BBC Music Magazine
Choral & Song Choice - March 2008 |
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| |  | Vocal Music by Crumb and Ives
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Gramophone Awards 2008
Penguin Guide