Review: James Sinclair and the Orchestra New England perform Charles Ives

I recently met James Sinclair when he attended an Ives concert put on by one of my professors. Mr. Sinclair is perhaps the world's foremost Ives scholar and has conducted several fine recordings of the composer's music. Thus was I inspired to write this review of one of his records.

The group on this album is a chamber orchestra, but that should not deter you. In fact, the smaller ensemble seems very appropriate on pieces such as the "Country Band March", in which Ives pays tribute to the enthusiastic amateurism of small-town marching bands. The piece cycles through a number of popular songs, with the occasional over-excited instrumentalist tossing in a favorite tune of his own. It builds to a climax in which the speed and energy of the music outpace the abilities of the ensemble and the whole thing seems on the verge of collapse as it roars toward the finish line. A lone saxophone is caught off-guard by the sudden finale and lets out a few solitary notes before falling into embarrassed silence. This must be a challenging piece to conduct, for the ensemble has to imitate the undisciplined, rambunctious energy of an amateur marching band while faithfully performing a carefully notated score. The ONE pulls it off though, balancing both the comic and abstract elements of the music.

The pieces that follow are mostly sketches of various aspects of Ives' years at Yale. Most entertaining is "Yale-Princeton Football Game", in which the trumpet imitates the zig-zagging 55-yard run by the Yale quarterback while the piccolo trills the referee's whistle. Ives' "Four Ragtime Dances", according to the liner notes, were begun in the late 1890's, when "the national ragtime craze swept the campus". As a college student in 2007, I am highly entertained by the idea of a 'ragtime craze' sweeping the campus.

Ives himself had mixed feelings about his chamber orchestra arrangement of "Three Places in New England", calling the piano a "poor substitute" for the bassoons of the original version. Yet the New Englanders are able to bring a convincingly intimate quality to the piece. This works well during the first movement, "The Saint-Gaudens in Boston Common", inspired by a bas-relief honoring the first black regiment in the Union army. Sinclair creates a very convincing portrait of the rag-tag infantry that contrasts the creeping dread of imminent battle with the elation and hope of the soldiers in the 54th. The second movement, "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut", again calls on the performers to do their best marching band impression, and in these passages the ONE shines as well.

The final movement, "The Housatonic at Stockbridge", is based on Ives' fond memory of a riverside walk with Mrs. Ives, the summer of their marriage. A mist hung over the water and hymns from a distant church could just be heard. This is one of Ives' most beautiful compositions. The subtle dissonance of the strings and piano make the whole thing seem like a distant, foggy memory. Yet while listening, I can't help but miss the hushed intensity that a full orchestra brings to the score. That aside, this is a very good survey of Ives that will not disappoint.