Search - Charles Ives, Alan Mandel :: Works for Piano

More than a bargain

Thomas F. Dillingham | Columbia, Missouri USA | 07/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I listened to this set before I looked at the review already posted here; then I went back to listen again, thinking I must have missed something. For what it's worth, I did not detect distorted recording, though there are (as often with Ives) some odd sounds coming from the piano now and then--but I think they are part of it. Mandel's performances of the big works--the two sonatas--are distinctive and powerful. I am not sure I would say he replaces John Kirkpatrick's "Concord," but he stands comfortably in that company as a fine interpreter of the work, and his Sonata #1 is possibly the best I have heard of that work. The many shorter or minor pieces are performed well, so far as I can tell. I suppose it is possible that the earlier reviewer had a defective set, or possibly my ears are just not so finely tuned. I hope, however, that the recorded sound is at least as good as it sounds to me, since I would hope that both fans and newcomers would find this a welcome addition to an Ives collection."

Just dandy!

Wayne A. | Belfast, Northern Ireland | 10/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My copy of this set sounds fine--a bit bright and edgy at times but nothing to write my congressperson about. I would've preferred a richer piano sound and modern digital recording, but hey, we can't have everything, especially in this sort of repertoire. These are swell performances of astonishing piano music. In unsympathetic hands, Ives (or nearly any "modern" composer) can sound like so much noodling--not so here. Ives himself enjoyed adventurous (and even incompetent!) interpretations of his music and was hardly fussy with his notation so it's tough to call any one recording of a work "definitive." A tip: look for hell-bent enthusiasm and/or profound mysticism more than any other qualities in Ives performances. You'll find them in this set, in old (and sonically imperfect) recordings like Bernstein's for CBS (now Sony) or the Stokowski performance of Symphony #4, and in the wonderful collection of Ives playing his own music. With Ives, the "critical edition" mentality or perfectionism of any type tend to miss the man's essential aesthetic and spiritual points."