Ives: Symphonies No. 1-4 - Orchestral Sets No. 1-2
Academy of St. Martin In the Fields, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Sir Neville Marriner & Zubin Mehta
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| Total: 22 Songs |
Customer Reviews
Excellent Deal
Charles Ives is definitely one of the most important American composers, and this album is a terrific way to sample his work over a large time period. Amazingly, it contains all 4 Symphonies complete, plus two more orchestral sets - overall 2.6 hours of music for little more than the average iTunes album. The orchestras and conductors are all first-rate.
Good, but a warning!
The music and performances are of course great, and this album is certainly a great deal! But I was nervous when I saw the label, Decca. I have bought a number of albums from Decca on iTunes. Now, when each track or movement is a standalone section of music, Decca is just fine. If you are looking for Ashkenazy playing Chopin or Rachmaninov on a Decca recording, then great, go for it. But I also bought Decca's Prokofiev's Cinderella and Shostakovich's Complete Symphonies, which have in places music that does not stop between movements. In these places, the music will fade out quickly but jarringly, and fade back in in the next track, as if you very quickly turned the volume down to 0 and then back up again to normal. For these particular works, Symphonies 1, 3, and 4 here, it is not a problem at all. But the 2nd symphony is; however it is so slight, as it's usually a soft sustained note held by few instruments, and it seems as if it is supposed to have a brief pause, so in this album it is fine. I haven't listened to the orchestral sets yet. But if you can afford a few extra bucks, you're better off getting the same album on CD (I can't imagine they did this fade thing on the CDs). I'm mostly putting this here as a warning to anyone considering certain Decca albums for digital download (I'm pretty sure it's NOT iTunes' fault), and don't let it stop you from enjoying these great symphonies!
