Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts Ives (4-CD)

“If anyone has a hotline to the cortex of Ives’ imagination, it’s Michael Tilson Thomas. The program he’s devised here isn’t so much a journey, more a stream of consciousness through the hinterlands of Ives Americana . . . It’s about the spirit within us all — great and small.” — The Gramophone Classical Music Guide

Michael Tilson Thomas, an authoritatively idiomatic interpreter, leads the music of Charles Ives in this collection from Sony Classical. Over 4 discs, hear his major choral and orchestral works in iconic recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony.

Gramophone called the disc containing Three Places in New England "as fine a collection of [Ives's] songs and short orchestral pieces as I've found on one release." On the recording of the Fourth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: "not only are all the elements in place — no easy feat in itself — but the performance revels in the piece's American roots, with marches and ragtime passages tossed off with as much apparent simplicity as the piece's modernist language."

Ives Symphony No. 1 in D Minor
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
1989, Medinah Temple, Chicago

Ives Symphony No. 4
Mary Sauer piano
Richard Webster organ
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis director
1989, Medinah Temple, Chicago

Ives Symphony No. 2
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Ives Symphony No. 3 (The Camp Meeting)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Ives Orchestral Set No. 2
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Ives A Symphony: New England Holidays
Fred Spector violin
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis director
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
1986, Medinah Temple, Chicago

Ives The Unanswered Question (Revised Version)
Adolph Herseth trumpet
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
1986, Medinah Temple, Chicago

Ives Central Park in the Dark
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
1986, Medinah Temple, Chicago

Ives The Unanswered Question (Original Version for Chamber Orchestra)
Adolph Herseth trumpet
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
1986, Medinah Temple, Chicago

Ives “From the Steeples and the Mountains”
San Francisco Symphony

Ives “The Things our Fathers Loved”
Thomas Hampson baritone
Michael Tilson Thomas piano

Ives “The Pond” (Remembrance)
Thomas Hampson baritone
San Francisco Symphony

Ives 114 Songs: No. 102, “Memories”
Thomas Hampson baritone
Michael Tilson Thomas piano

Ives “Charlie Rutlage”
Thomas Hampson baritone
San Francisco Symphony

Ives The Circus Band
San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
Vance George director
San Francisco Girls Chorus

Ives Three Places in New England
San Francisco Symphony

Ives “In Flanders Fields”
Thomas Hampson baritone
San Francisco Symphony

Ives They Are There!
San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
Vance George director

Ives “Tom Sails Away”
Thomas Hampson baritone
Michael Tilson Thomas piano

Ives Symphony No. 4: III. Fugue
San Francisco Symphony

Ives Psalm 100
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
Vance George director

Ives Serenity
Thomas Hampson baritone
San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
Vance George director

Ives General William Booth Enters into Heaven
San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
Vance George director

Ives The Unanswered Question
Glenn Fischtal trumpet
San Francisco Symphony

Discs: 4
Record Label: Sony
Release Date: December 4, 2020