LA Phil Store

Charles Ives - Complete Symphonies offers fresh insights into the music of a radical thinker, creator of what Leonard Bernstein called “his own private musical revolution.” The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s performances of these works at Walt Disney Concert Hall, conducted by Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, received rave reviews.

With their restless energy, myriad colors and textures, irresistible references to popular American melodies and impulsive changes of mood, these symphonies reveal the heart of “a man full of ideas [who] was trying to create something unique,” according to Dudamel. “When you see calm and contemplation, maybe in a moment it’s complete chaos. At the end, what Ives was doing was opening the door to the texture and the personality of music created in the United States. His symphonies are a great gift to the world.”

This vibrant collection includes:

Symphony No. 1, written between 1898 and 1908 but not performed complete until 1953.

Sypmhony No. 2, written as a five-movement work c.1907-09 with later revisions, underlining Ives’ maverick status with its ultra-progressive combination of European classical and American popular influences.

Symphony No. 3, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composition (1947) written between 1908 and 1911, noted for its nostalgic reflections on the hymns, marches and campfire tunes of the composer’s New England childhood.

Symphony No. 4, written c.1912-18 with later revisions and premiered in 1965, more than a decade after the composer’s death - a benchmark of musical invention, ingenuity and ambition.

Featured Artists:
Los Angeles Philharmonic Gustavo Dudamel, Music & Artistic Director Los Angeles Master Chorale Marta Gardolinska, Additional Conductor