Ives improvises

Charles Ives: Ives plays Ives. The Complete Recordings of Charles Ives at the Piano (1933-1943). 42 tracks representing 17 different works, including: Four Transcriptions from ‘Emerson’; Studies Nos. 2, 9, 11, 20, and 23; ‘The Allcotts’ (complete) and portions of ‘Emerson’ and ‘Hawthorne’ from Sonata No. 2 (“Concord, mass.”); Largo (rejected movement 2 from Symphony No. 1); Three Improvisations; They are there!; March No. 6 for Piano ‘Here’s to good old Yale’. Charles Ives, piano and voice. Producers: James Sinclair and Joseph R. Dalton. Digital transfers of original recordings: Richard Warren Jr. Editing and mastering: Robert Wolff with James Sinclair, David G. Porter, and Joseph R. Dalton. Assistant engineer: Mike Cyr. Digital mastering of reissue: Paul Zinman, SoundByte Productions, NYC. Package design: Bob Defrin. One compact disc, total playing time 78 minutes. Recorded at Columbia Graphophone Co., London; probably NYC; Melotone Recording Co., NYC; Mary Howard Studio, NYC. June 12, 1933; Mid-1930s; May 11, 1938; April 24, 1943, respectively. New World Records 80642-2/DIDX # 090815

Often when I listen to Charles Ives’ music, the words with which George Szell once described Glenn Gould come to mind: “that nut’s a genius!”. Hearing Ives the performer for the first time on this disc of his complete piano recordings evoked a similar response. After his first recording experience, Ives wrote "A man may play to himself and his music starts to live – then he tries to put it under a machine, and it’s dead!" (Memos, pp.80-81); however, it is not often that one comes across performances that are quite as ‘alive’ as these – Ives’ interpretative approach is highly Romantic and improvisatory, and there are also frequent recorded comments to his wife or the technician along with singing, curses and groans of annoyance at mistakes, and exclamations when he plays a piece to completion (“Oh! That’s the note! My finger slipped on…

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