Search - Charles Ives, Andrew Litton, Dallas Symphony Orchestra :: Symphonies Nos 1 & 4 Central Park in the Dark

There are probably no more drastic examples of stylistic differences within one composer's symphonic output than those inherent in Charles Ives's 1st and 4th. The 1st is a piece of pure late Romanticism; it reminds the listener of both Dvorak and Tchaikovsky, but with some odd harmonic surprises. It has fine tunes and witty turns of orchestration; the second movement features a cor anglais and the scherzo is a quick, graceful canon; the finale is great energetic fun. The 4th Symphony is very difficult (it symbolizes the Pilgrim's quest for the spirit). It requires a second conductor to lead a bevy of strings and harp, presumably placed offstage or in a balcony. The magical opening prelude introduces a choir singing a hymn; the second movement, marked "Comedy," is a tangle of dissonances and musical ideas in which march music, the sound of trains and hymns overlap; the third movement, a lovely fugue, is a respite from the craziness of the 3rd; and the finale mixes sounds that seem distant and very near, with a chorus wordlessly singing "Nearer my God to Thee." It is a grand, spiritual sound. A bonus on the CD is the composer's "Central Park in the Dark," which is evocative of the strange whooshing of trees and the eeriness of a vast piece of nature in the midst of a metropolis. Ives is for the curious, and these great performances convince and fascinate. --Robert Levine