Michael Tilson Thomas - Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts Ives (2020)

Sony Classicals new release features yet another authoritatively idiomatic interpreter, Michael Tilson Thomas, conducting three great orchestras in the major orchestral and choral works of his compatriot Charles Ives on 4 albums. The recordings featuring the Chicago Symphony and Amsterdam Concertgebouw orchestras date from 1981 to 1989; those with the San Francisco Symphony from 1999. Gramophone called the disc containing Three Places in New England with the San Francisco Symphony as fine a collection of [Ivess] songs and short orchestral pieces as Ive found on one release. Also from Gramophone: A stellar performance of the Fourth [Symphony with the Chicago orchestra]. Not only are all the elements in place no easy feat in itself but the performance revels in the pieces American roots, with marches and ragtime passages tossed off with as much apparent simplicity as the pieces modernist language and Tilson Thomas moves through his seasonal year [the New England Holidays] with fine flourish that balances the musical fireworks of The Fourth of July and the sombre moments of Decoration Day. [He] is blessed with Chicagos legendary brass section and the CSO Chorus under [Margaret] Hillis about as unapologetically American in their musicality as a conductor could find. And the Penguin Guide called this last disc among the most impressive Ives records in the catalogue.