|
Charles Ives: A Concord Symphony | 
 enlarge | Creators: Henry Brant, Dutch Traditional, Dennis Russell Davies, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Label: Innova Records
Category: Music
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $11.09
You Save: $8.89 (44%)
New (7) Used (4) from $9.48
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 65289
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 414
UPC: 726708641429
EAN: 0726708641429
ASIN: B000WCN8OQ
Release Date: November 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
| |
| Tracks:
| • | Emerson | | • | Hawthorne | | • | The Alcotts | | • | Thoreau |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews:
 i can only say wow ! September 2, 2008
Richard W. Martin (raleigh, nc USA)
i had never heard of this before it popped up on my amazon recommendations. having been an ives fan for 35 some odd years now, and having a pretty good knowledge of the concord (yes, i/m one of those who opened the score and fell out of my chair laughing, as if i could ever play this !), i had to have it.
i guess i/m not one who values purity above all else. there is a long tradition of arranging others music - i have no problem there. as a previous poster pointed out, it brings out lines that the piano version tends to meld. but the important thing to me is does it sound like ives ? to me, yes, somewhere between the 2nd and 4th symphonies. this was on first listen (10 minutes ago !). now it/s time to dig up the old piano score and follow along. best cd i/ve bought in over a year.
So what are we listening to? Anyone Know? August 19, 2008
scarecrow (Chicago, Illinois United States)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
So what are we listening to?, Anyone Know?, It's not Charles Ives,It's not his'Concord Sonata' for Piano Solo! What we are listening to is closer to Henry Brant's brilliant penchant for colour orchestral timbre,an experiment?OK. We are also listening to his(Brandt's) bravery for mounting the task, the reponsibility for this work, I cannot agree with Kyle Gann that we have a new Ives Symphony, we simply have an orchestration of the 'Concord Sonata' for Piano Solo, It is a "Piano Solo", Doesn't that mean anything to anyone, The piano solo does have a lifeworld a dignity unpretenciously, a conceptual complexity all its own?,I thought. Isn't there a tradition that we keep at a distance when we write for the piano as a solo instrument, Many seem to forget this; But here I am being an Old Fuddee-Duddee some might suspect, Perhaps ? What should we ignore then? Ignore the piano solo? How can you, such a powerful work for Piano Solo,and can you ever listen to the piano solo again?, if you didn't hear what you are suppose to hear the first time, the orcehstration really doens't help, for when you hear the experience of the orchestra, you are not hearing the piano solo anymore, is that confusing to contemplate; that is quite impossible,Not that I'm encouraging these nefarious projects, Why doesn't someone orchestrate the Boulez "Second Piano Sonata?, or the "Music of Changes" of John Cage, or a few of the "klavierstuck of Stockhausen?,all form a kind of cross-handed musical ecology, a new genre, utilizing the detritus of modern civilization, things already in the mind, as Jasper Johns said someplace; that would be equally as interesting. just to create something new and exciting is an after-post modernity way of BEING, we cannot ignore that; But the question remains. . . What are we listening to? it is not Ives, We know he had problems with his own orchestrations when more experimental endeavors wre deployed and projected, as the massive 'Fourth Symphony' and the chamber Works, We also know his strong spirit regarding free transcendental philosophy helped him create and did produce an overabundance of concepts to realize and pursue;, where the imagination can become triggered, animated variously, by a place,a bridge,a concept, a scene, a smell, a suggestion, a thought or idea, a few words string together,and he also freely adapted works changing their forms, re-transcribing songs,as Emerson movement for the "Piano Concerto" items deposited in his creativity, the arranger mentality was learned from his father George; materials are materials,but there is a point where you do something to step to another place, you cannot step into an unknown place in totality you need to be cautious and step a little throughout the lifeworld one is given, here Ives is given more lifeworlds than he really needs, the "Concord Sonata" is self-sustaining, it should be or it is nothing really,distinguish more. . .
 Brilliant orchestration, great playing, why didn't they have a real recording session? March 28, 2008
D. Sills (Savage, MD United States)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
It is impossible for me to understand why record producers continue to do this: brilliant performances of seminal works that are recorded "live" simply because they aren't the windbag works of yesteryear that tickle the ears rather than challenge them (as Ives might well have said). I'm disgusted that $$$$ are more important to them than the artistic integrity of their work. The audience noise in this recording is not terrible, but it is far more visible in the soft spots than it should be. It would certainly never have been allowed in Tchaikovsky or Schubert.
This could have been one of the great recordings of the last half of the first decade of the new century: the orchestra was worth it, the piece was worth it, the orchestration was worth it. Why they passed up on such an opportunity I simply can't imagine.
All that being said, until someone else records it in a responsible manner, this is a must-have. So $$$$ wins again, I suppose. Sigh.
A Brilliant Orchestration of Ives's Piano Masterpiece January 22, 2008
J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
There are, I'm sure, purists who will balk at the very notion of an orchestration of Charles Ives's piano masterwork, the Concord Sonata. But they really ought to give this version, a 30-year-long true labor of love by Henry Brant, a hearing in its brilliant orchestral garb. I am very familiar with the Concord Sonata, having worked on it myself at the keyboard, and yet I hear things in the orchestral version that I hadn't heard before. Partly it's a matter of instrumental timbre allowing aural delineation not possible even in the best piano performances, and partly it is because Brant has chosen to emphasize things that are (at least by me) barely noticed. And hearing a familiar work in new ways is one way to keep that work alive; think, for instance, how we began to hear baroque works differently when the historically-informed-performance crowd started performing and recording things as familiar at the Bach's B Minor Mass or Handel's Messiah.
As for the performance I can only say that Henry Brant, conductor Dennis Russell Davies and the Royal Concertgebouw have done themselves exceedingly proud. This is a masterful performance of this gargantuan and knotty work.
For those who love this work, I urge you to try it. For those who have heard the piano sonata and didn't think they liked it, I urge YOU to try it. In Kyle Gann's words about Brant's orchestration, "He's given the world a brand-new Charles Ives symphony."
Scott Morrison
No mere orchestration, but a wonderful, loving creation in its own right November 29, 2007
M. Cleveland (Albuquerque, NM USA)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
Henry Brant's 30-year labor of love creating this orchestral treatment of Charles Ives' masterwork for piano is a terrific synthesis of the distinctive voices of two great American composers. The orchestration is pure Brant with lots of emphasis on brass and winds. Far clearer in its lines and intent than Ive's own orchestral palette. Some may prefer the denser, murkier textures Ives created in the piano sonata and there are times when the orchestration creates a very different atmosphere than parallel passages in the original; however, this is not a "correction" of Ives. The Concord Symphony is, for me, a loving creation in its own right that stands on its own while remaining faithful to the original. Fantastic variety that matches Ives' creative scope. The "Housatonic" section in its Brant-provided livery is pure, Hollywood Americana in the best sense. The playing by the Davies-led Amsterdam band is virtuoso, concerto for orchestra stuff. Thrilling and sensitive. Highly recommended, maybe particularly for those who've never quite warmed to the piano sonata.
|
|
|
Used CDs | |
