Leonard Link reports Naxos will issue a series of recordings with all of the songs of Charles Ives. I have days where I think this collection of songs represents the greatest achievement of American classical music. At a mininum, I'll take the songs to the proverbial desert island.
Leonard does chide Naxos for ordering the songs by title rather than in a more satisfying manner. This will mean ripping to MP3 and constructing playlists, I suppose.
Also, it appears the texts generally won't be available. Fully appreciating the music without them is difficult. I solved that problem in the past by buying the music to 114 songs; couldn't afford the $250 for the 129 songs though.
By the way, it looks like lala has free streaming for about 15 recordings of Ives songs including Dora Ohrenstein singing The Collection.
Alas, the problem of liner notes and translations is a big one. I downloaded and paid for Neruda Songs, which I adore. There is no translation with it.
I remember discovering Charles Ives' songs in the music library when I was in college. They had the original editions, and I knew even then they were special. Like Janacek, he was a master at setting a mood in just a few measures.
Posted by: Dave Irwin | June 30, 2008 at 09:07 PM