Charles Ives - Holidays Symphony; Three Places in New England (Eugene Ormandy)

Information

Composer: Charles Ives

1. A New England Holiday Symphony: I. Washington's Birthday
2. A New England Holiday Symphony: II. Decoration Day
3. A New England Holiday Symphony: III. The Fourth of July
4. A New England Holiday Symphony: IV. Thanksgiving and Forefather's Day
5. Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1): I. The "St. Gaudens" in Boston Common (Col. Robert Gould Shaw and his Colored Regiment)
6. Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1): II. Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut
7. Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1): III. The Housatonic at Stockbridge

Temple University Concert Choir
Philadelphia Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy, conductor

Date: 1974
Label: RCA

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Review

Reference Recording: Ormandy Celebrates Ives’ Holidays

Eugene Ormandy was a surprisingly dedicated Ives conductor, at least on disc, and a very good one too. This version of Three Places in New England was, if memory serves, the first of Ives' original scoring for full orchestra, and it's quite fine. As to be expected, the Philly players sound terrific, and Ormandy seems to be enjoying himself (he was never noted for his sense of humor). The performance of the Holidays Symphony also stands with the very best; for many years this was the only way to get all four tone poems on disc, with Thanksgiving and Forefather's Day being a particular novelty. The sound is gratifyingly clear and clean for an RCA/Philadelphia production, save for some slight congestion at the entry of the chorus in Thanksgiving. Part of the Japanese RCA Ormandy edition, and now available on demand from Arkivmusic.com, this disc represented a major contribution to the Ives discography when it first came out back in the 1970s, and its qualities haven't diminished at all in the decades since.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

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Charles Ives (October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown.and regarded as an "American original", though his music was largely ignored during his life. He combined the American popular and church-music traditions of his youth with European art music, and was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones, foreshadowing many musical innovations of the 20th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ives

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Eugene Ormandy (November 18, 1899 – March 12, 1985) was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist who became internationally famous as the music director and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The maestro's 44-year-long association with the Philadelphia is one of the longest enjoyed by any conductor with a single orchestra. Under his baton, the Philadelphia had three gold records and won two Grammy Awards. Ormandy's many recordings spanned the acoustic to the electrical to the digital age. From 1936 until his death, Ormandy made hundreds of recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra, spanning almost every classical music genre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Ormandy

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