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Bought the new Naxos Ives disc (Symphony No.3, etc.). Someone here mentioned a couple of months ago that the label has made a decision not to go forward with the Schermerhorn-Nashville 'connection' on this cycle, and that James Sinclair was considered a better choice for being an expert on the composer.
However, great experts do not always make great conductors, and the Ives disc (much to my surprise recorded in England with the Northern Sinfonia) is, to me, a case in point. It offers uniformly likable, but also uniform interpretations of the Camp Meeting Symphony, Washington's Birthday, The Unanswered Question (revised version), Central Park in the Dark, the 'Country Band' March and the Overture and March '1776' - all of which add up to a scant 49 minutes (and not 51, as claimed on the cover). Why is it that Naxos discs are getting shorter and shorter?
In Sinclair's Camp Meeting rendition I sorely miss the sparseness and asceticism that Dennis Russell Davies, in his version with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra on Pro Arte, conveyed so beautifully. It all sounds so wholesome in Sinlcair's reading. Of the 7 version I got, I would only rate the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's bland account lower than this one.
Not that the playing leaves anything to be desired - throughout, the Northern Sinfonia play nicely. Almost too nicely.
Here, Central Park in the Dark lacks the atmosphere of Michael Tilson Thomas' version. On the whole, there is a certain facelessness about this endeavor, and I really think Schermerhorn would have done better.
Let the Ives experts stick to reconstruction and score-cleaning, not conducting.
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