Symphony No. 4 (1910-16). Charles Ives /blog quotes/

• Charles Shere "There are four movements, composed between 1910 and 1916 (but Ives dates are almost always very slippery), each of so idiosyncratic a character as to require rather different performing forces and, more important, different psychological approaches."
• Devin Hurd "The quarter-tone smears in the second movement of Symphony No. 4 holds particular interest for me even as the breathtakingly ambitious scope (multiple conductors, multiple tempos, poly-harmonic textures, etc.) of this Symphony makes it one of the most awe inspiring works in the repertoire."
• Gerry Fisher "Charles Ives' Symphony #4, with its bizarre sonics and insistent originality is just the thing to get the blood circulating in housebound heads."
• David Gans "There were four reels in the stash, one of which was a copy of Charles Ives' Fourth Symphony (transcribed from an LP). The others were Grateful Dead music."
• Jon Jacob "I found myself shaking my fist at the radio."

Comments

[Daniel Wolf]

I've long held that Ives' Second is for americans approximately what Beethoven's Ninth is for German speakers. Every time I hear the chorus begin to sing "Watchman", I just lose it.