MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTS IVES

Sony ClassicalAEs new release features yet another authoritatively idiomatic interpreter, Michael Tilson Thomas, conducting three great orchestras in the major orchestral and choral works of his compatriot Charles Ives on 4 albums. The recordings featuring the Chicago Symphony and Amsterdam Concertgebouw orchestras date from 1981 to 1989; those with the San Francisco Symphony from 1999. Gramophone called the disc containing Three Places in New England with the San Francisco Symphony oas fine a collection of [IvesAEs] songs and short orchestral pieces as IAEve found on one releaseo. Also from Gramophone: oA stellar performance of the Fourth [Symphony with the Chicago orchestra]. Not only are all the elements in place u no easy feat in itself u but the performance revels in the pieceAEs American roots, with marches and ragtime passages tossed off with as much apparent simplicity as the pieceAEs modernist languageo and oTilson Thomas moves through his seasonal year [the oNew England Holidayso] with fine flourish that balances the musical fireworks of aeThe Fourth of JulyAE and the sombre moments of aeDecoration DayAE. [He] is blessed with ChicagoAEs legendary brass section a and the CSO Chorus under [Margaret] Hillis u about as unapologetically American in their musicality as a conductor could find.o And the Penguin Guide called this last disc oamong the most impressive Ives records in the catalogueo.'