Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Donald Johanos and Charles Ives
Over the weekend I was thinking I ought to pull together all my vinyl LPs of music by composer Charles Ives (1874-1954), see what I had, & figure out what other never-released-on-CD Ives albums are out there I could put on a wish list for my modest collection. Surfing around, I discovered conductor Donald Johanos died last May at age 79. Johanos is hardly a well-known name to classical music fans. He never became a top tier maestro - which requires ceaseless self-promotion & political skills even greater than one's musical skills. He was music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra during the Sixties. He made a couple of notable, beautifully produced records with that group for the Vox budget label, including Charles Ives' Holidays Symphony; four movements with the titles,"George Washington's Birthday," "Decoration Day," The Fourth of July," & "Thanksgiving and/or Forefather's Day." They were composed between 1904 & 1913, & Ives didn't care if they were performed individually or as a faux symphony, which didn't matter because for the next 40 years nobody wanted to play or record them anyway. Now we know Holidays Symphony is a great orchestral work of the 20th Century.
I was working in a large record store in the late Sixties, my record budget was small, but one of my jobs at the store was taking care of the budget classical bins & shelves. The 1967 Johanos version of Holidays was about 1/3 the price of Leonard Bernstein's with the New York Philharmonic. It might been the very first orchestral music I heard by Ives. It was the only recording of the work I owned until a few months ago, when I finally got a CD by Michael Tilson Thomas with the Chicago Symphony, considered the definitive recording (so far). As I learned more about Ives over the years, & as Ives scholarship resulted in improved, less cluttered versions of his scores (Ives' original manuscripts were a mess), my appreciation of the Johanos recording grew. In addition to fine analog stereo sonics, the Johanos - Dallas Synphony interpretation sounded natural, at ease, as if they'd gone beyond the novelty of Ives, & the image promoted of him in the Sixties as a difficult, crackpot provincial genius (an attitude Bernstein - a born snob despite his proprietary affection for Ives' music - hadn't quite overcome). Now all good American conductors are comfortable with Charles Ives, & professional orchestras all around the world can perform his music. Except for a few of his more conventional works, musicians when Ives was actively composing considered his music literally impossible to play well, if at all. That certainly was an odd objection to Ives' solo piano music, because he could play it. I'm sure Ives imagined a time when his music would be performed by regional orchestras, & even semi-professional ensembles. The Johanos recording was rereleased on budget CD. But I picked up a cleaner vinyl copy for a buck at a record fair a couple of years ago.
In mono Realaudio, from an old record, here's Donald Johanos conducting Dallas Symphony Orchestra & Southern Methodist University Choir: "Thanksgiving" by Charles Ives. Think November in New England in the late 19th Century. (With thanks to Hatch, the following DJ, for the great seque).
I was working in a large record store in the late Sixties, my record budget was small, but one of my jobs at the store was taking care of the budget classical bins & shelves. The 1967 Johanos version of Holidays was about 1/3 the price of Leonard Bernstein's with the New York Philharmonic. It might been the very first orchestral music I heard by Ives. It was the only recording of the work I owned until a few months ago, when I finally got a CD by Michael Tilson Thomas with the Chicago Symphony, considered the definitive recording (so far). As I learned more about Ives over the years, & as Ives scholarship resulted in improved, less cluttered versions of his scores (Ives' original manuscripts were a mess), my appreciation of the Johanos recording grew. In addition to fine analog stereo sonics, the Johanos - Dallas Synphony interpretation sounded natural, at ease, as if they'd gone beyond the novelty of Ives, & the image promoted of him in the Sixties as a difficult, crackpot provincial genius (an attitude Bernstein - a born snob despite his proprietary affection for Ives' music - hadn't quite overcome). Now all good American conductors are comfortable with Charles Ives, & professional orchestras all around the world can perform his music. Except for a few of his more conventional works, musicians when Ives was actively composing considered his music literally impossible to play well, if at all. That certainly was an odd objection to Ives' solo piano music, because he could play it. I'm sure Ives imagined a time when his music would be performed by regional orchestras, & even semi-professional ensembles. The Johanos recording was rereleased on budget CD. But I picked up a cleaner vinyl copy for a buck at a record fair a couple of years ago.
In mono Realaudio, from an old record, here's Donald Johanos conducting Dallas Symphony Orchestra & Southern Methodist University Choir: "Thanksgiving" by Charles Ives. Think November in New England in the late 19th Century. (With thanks to Hatch, the following DJ, for the great seque).
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I've been "re-discovering" Ives the past couple weeks in the process of transferring my old vinyl to cd, which included that old Turnabout album with artwork which could have been lifted from a third grade history textbook.
But what a incredible sounding album. The "Holidays" Symphony (esp. the "Thanksgiving" movement) is a breathtaking revelation (!), prophesying the styles of Roy Harris, Aaron Copland, William Schuman, etc. decades before their time. Though I haven't heard all the versions out there, I'm personally finding Johanos' recording to very enjoyable and satisfying. Thank you.
D.J.M.
But what a incredible sounding album. The "Holidays" Symphony (esp. the "Thanksgiving" movement) is a breathtaking revelation (!), prophesying the styles of Roy Harris, Aaron Copland, William Schuman, etc. decades before their time. Though I haven't heard all the versions out there, I'm personally finding Johanos' recording to very enjoyable and satisfying. Thank you.
D.J.M.
# posted by 
: 3:26 AM
: 3:26 AM
Delighted you appreciate the recording. Ives leaps right over those fine American composers, who sometimes sound like they were guided by a manifesto, while at the same time recreating the soundscape of his own youth.
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