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Friday, November 11, 2016

Charles Ives - Universe Symphony; Orchestral Set No. 2; The Unanswered Question (Gerhard Samuel)


Information

Composer: Charles Ives
  1. Universe Symphony (completed by Larry Austin)
  2. Orchestral Set No. 2: I. An Elegy to our Forefather
  3. Orchestral Set No. 2: II. The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Mee
  4. Orchestral Set No. 2: III. From Hanover Square North, at the End of a Tragic Day
  5. The Unanswered Question (I & II)

Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Percussion Ensemble (1)
Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Chamber Choir (1)
Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra
Gerhard Samuel, conductor

Date: 1993 (2-5), 1994 (1)
Label: Centaur


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Review

Essentially Ives' "Fifth" Symphony, the Universe Symphony is the composer's last, most ambitious and sadly incomplete work. Sketches for it were begun in 1911 (maybe as early as 1908), continued until 1915, abandoned, resumed in 1927/28 and added to sporadically until three weeks before his death in 1954. It's almost certain that more material was prepared for the work; material that is now lost. It's hugely complex. Yet this recording makes it equally compelling, and accessible.

In the Yale archives of his papers, Ives writes: "The Universe Symphony is an attempt in tones, every form – position – known or unknown (to man [sic]) as the eternities are unmeasured, as the source of universal substances are unknown, the earth, the waters, the stars, the ether, yet these elements as man can touch them with hand and microscope, & labeled as chemicals & atoms as the eternal motions, life of all things & man, their destiny. … They are not single and exclusive strands, but incessant myriads for ages, ever & always changing, growing, but for ages ever & always a permanence of their humanity, of the earth for a man's lifetime, of life & death & future life-the only known is the unknown, the only hope of humanity is the unseen spirit – that can't be done but what reaching out to do (as we feel like trying it) is to cast eternal history the physical universe of all humanity to cast them in a 'Universe of Tones'". Ambitious. Yet immediately one begins to listen to this superior account on Centaur (beware – the opening minutes are, as you might expect, all but inaudible – but intentionally, and very effectively, so), any misgivings that a vague, impressionistic daub or wash of ill-digested open-ended unmusical collage was all that could be achieved evaporate instantly.

This is typical, vintage, comforting Ives: the Universe Symphony has all the rigor, discipline, earthy (no pun intended) direction that otherwise characterizes the composer. Almost two dozen independent musical lines are woven into what nevertheless remains a piece of great complexity; each line has its own metrical development. In Gerhard Samuel's performance this – surely correctly – suggests the impersonality, the inevitability and almost infinitely long and indestructible thrust of nature. It's nature first; and humans' observations thereof a distant second (if at all). Although Ives somehow suggests that there's nothing aimless about the universe. It's powered by movement and life.

Ives hoped the work would be played by several orchestras apart from one another physically, geographically even: in separate valleys, mountaintops and hills etc. Strangely, this seems scarcely necessary. In contrast to the gargantuan orchestral scales and conceptions of Mahler or Wagner, Strauss or Scriabin even, Ives Universe Symphony does not try to evoke or paint, describe or even emulate the immensity of the universe. Its very musical tightness, speed, careful momentum, instrumentation, tonalities, scattered rhythms, surprises, uncompromising (and typically Ivesean) splashes and dirges of dissonance themselves all suggest the complexity, hugeness and force of the universe.

Almost as noteworthy is Ives' open request (again in the Yale manuscripts) that others work on and with his ideas in the event that he not complete the Universe Symphony himself. This legitimizes Austin's project further. Not that the latter lacks the pedigree, drive, experience and originality in his own right – Austin's own list of compositions and publications is impressive. But respecting Ives in this realization is important. In matters of scoring, texture: woodwinds brass and percussion predominate, though do not dominate.

Key to understanding Ives' intent is to appreciate that the universe exists not as a mass of rocks; but as an entity with an integral life pulse. Hence the emphasis on percussion. Austin originally worked with a system of click tracks on computer. But neither pulse nor rhythm swamps the listener. Rather, the typical Ivesean mass textures do. They also suggest life, impetus, pulse. This is perhaps the most striking aspect of the work.

Samuel's conception is clear, clean and considered. The sections into which the sketches are divided indicate that the work was originally intended to be divided. Such segments make obvious sense. Yet they never fragment our sense of the work's wholeness, its homogeneity. This is quite an achievement. It was as important for Samuel and his forces as it was for Austin to understand Ives' idiom completely. This they do. It's plain particularly when they move on to the more familiar Second Orchestral Set and Unanswered Question. Listening to these after the CD's main work (which lasts under 40 minutes in this recording) reveals just how much empathy and sonic sensitivity it takes to perform this often misunderstood composer. These musicians have all the necessary preparation, insight and technique.

The acoustic for all three recordings was not an over-responsive one… the Corbett Auditorium at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Rightly, it throws our attention back onto the essence of the music. The booklet that comes with the CD is full and informative. It contains most of the background which one needs in order to get to grips with this remarkable feat of Ives. It may take more than one listening to move from the onslaught that Ives can represent to the unfamiliar listener and appreciate the sense of immensity and universality for which Ives was aiming (realizations are realizations: Ives finished work would have been welcome). But well worth it. Recommended.

-- Mark Sealey © 2012, Classinal Net


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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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Gerhard Samuel (April 20, 1924, Bonn, Germany - March 24, 2008, Seattle, USA) is a classical conductor and composer. Samuel's family immigrated to the United States in February 1939. He received training with Paul Hindemith at Yale and Serge Koussevitzky at Tanglewood, and studied composition with Howard Hanson at the Eastman School of Music. Samuel rose to prominence in the late 1940s as associated conductor under Antal Doráti and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. In 1959 he became Music Director of the Oakland symphony and San Francisco Ballet. In 1971 he became associate conductor of Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. In 1976 he was appointed to the faculty of the University of Cincinnati, College - Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio. Samuel retires to Seatle in 1996

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