Search - Charles Ives, Spoken Word, Leonard Bernstein :: Ives: Symphony No. 2 & Symphony No. 3/Bernstein Discusses Charles Ives

Bernstein conducts Ives

Hiram Gomez Pardo | 10/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just as Bernstein had done for the music of Gustav Mahler, he helped to popularize the music of an American original, Charles Ives (1874-1954). He found Ives a genius, too, as he said in a companion recording included with Columbia's first LP reissue of the historic recording of Ives' amazing second symphony.



Bernstein actually conducted the world premiere of the second symphony on February 25, 1951, and both Charles Ives and his wife, Harmony, were persuaded to the listen to the New York Philharmonic's radio broadcast. At the crazy "reveille" ending, the Carnegie Hall audience gave the work a thunderous ovation, which caused Harmony to remark to her husband, "Why, they actually like it!"



Four years earier, composer-conductor Lou Harrison, a friend of the generally reclusive Ives, conducted a New York orchestra in the world premiere of the third symphony. This is a more conventional work, which still has its share of twists, and one of the more interesting "what if's" comes from the fact that Gustav Mahler had seen the score and promised to conduct the New York Philharmonic in the world premiere; unfortunately, Mahler died that spring and his successors had no interest in performing a symphony by an "unknown" American composer. Yet in 1947, when Harrison finally conducted its first performance, the work was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Typically, Ives refused the award, saying prizes were for boys.



The second symphony has long been associated with Leonard Bernstein and not just because he introduced it. Bernstein recorded the work in Brooklyn's St. George Hotel on October 6, 1958, and championed it. He recognized the genius at work. He marveled at how Ives so effectively incorporated American patriotic songs, hymns, and college songs, as well as subtle quotes from the music of Ives' musical heroes, J.S. Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. The orchestration is lush, too, and deeply moving. There are odd twists, to be sure, and bits of humor, especially at the very end of the symphony.



When I first heard Bernstein's recording of the second symphony, I knew this was a very special work. Bernstein included it in a CBS "Young People's Concert" telecast. He helped us to appreciate this wonderful work and this recording is a lasting testimony not only to the work's brilliance but Bernstein's ability to interpret it with great love and affection.



The third symphony is a deeply spiritual work, abounding in the New England hymns that Ives so loved and admired. Ives had a particular fondness for Lowell Mason, one of the first great American composers. Bernstein's recording is highly enjoyable and very moving."

Educational

Peter Prainito | Lombard, IL USA | 07/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have always loved Leonard Bernstein's musical lectures. This fine recording of Ives: Symphonies, No. 2 & 3 not only offers very idiomatic performances by the great late Bernstein, but includes his superb lecture on Charles Ives. As with other Sony recordings that include Bernstein's insightful commentaries, this CD is worth the price of purchase just to hear his educational profile of Charles Ives, a true "American Original" who marched to a different beat. I only hope that Sony eventually releases all of Bernstein's musical lectures on CD. The Beethoven 5th symphony needs to be re-released with his wonderful lecture on the making of the 5th symphony. The Sony "Royal Collection" (out of print) of Beethoven's 5th symphony included his lecture in several languages, but from what I've been reading it was a fiasco (not the lecture, but Sony's production of it).Highly recommended."

The most introspective American composer!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 08/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Perhaps this statement it may sound exaggerated, but in sharp contrast with his another remarkable composer as Aaron Copland, Ives remained as the loyal observer, who scrutinizes with admirable honesty and artistic commitment the non revealed aspects of the reality. Beneath the trivial vision, he composes music as Van Gogh painted, with a remarkable sixth sense depicted the recondite boundaries of the human condition, the changing nature and besides the undeniable interaction between man and nature.



I must confess my admiration by Ives since my first years. Since I was a teenager, his Question without answer, his Symphonies are permeated somehow for similar visions you can find in Carl Nielsen, (though Carl's vision goes overseas); this dark lyricism and somber poetry is still a landmark in the American music.



Another directorial triumph of Leonard Bernstein!"