Charles Ives: Piano, Chamber & Vocal Works is Naxos American Classics' reissue of a stimulating and magnificently well-played album originally appearing on the Musical Heritage Society label, recorded in 1986 and 1987. Joel Sachs and Cheryl Seltzer are pianists who play as a duo, and separately, within the Continuum ensemble. In the selection of six
Ives songs presented here they make an intelligent choice: that four hands (or at least three) are better than two when it comes to some of
Ives' blackest piano music, whether scored on two staves or not. The Housatonic at Stockbridge is one of
Ives' loveliest songs, and it is nice to hear it performed without the singer having to hang onto a note or phrase to allow the accompanist to finish rolling out a big chord that has more notes than most pianists have fingers.
Two of
Ives' rarest and most difficult songs are performed here; On the Antipodes, recorded, not well, as a choral piece back in the '60s by the
Gregg Smith Singers and Aeschylus and Sophocles, and seemingly not recorded before or since. A remarkable strength possessed by Continuum is its modularity. If
Ives suggests in some stray patch that a string quartet playing a single chord can be added to the last two bars of a song written for voice and piano, Continuum will say "let's do it" rather than "this is too much trouble just for one chord." The chamber pieces are a real delight -- you'll not find better recordings of In Re Con Moto et al or Hallowe'en than this one. In Hallowe'en, Continuum takes special care to observe
Ives' dynamic indications, and it makes all the difference in the world. The chamber version of The Gong on the Hook and Ladder, originally published in 1936 under the erroneous title of "Calcium Light," is like Aeschylus and Sophocles unique to this collection.
The recital concludes with fine performances of
Ives' Five Take-Offs and Three-Quarter Tone Pieces. If you love the music of
Charles Ives, it is an imperative to obtain Continuum's Charles Ives: Piano, Chamber & Vocal Works.