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Centaur's Songs of Charles Ives features tenor Andrew Childs in 27 songs of the cranky Yankee reckoned as America's greatest composer of art songs. Childs has taught at Yale, which served as Ives' own alma mater, and is on the voice faculty of Missouri State University. While this by itself seems to indicate a pedigree of academic orientation over one of performance, Childs is a frequent flyer in opera productions and has appeared as a featured soloist with a number of orchestras. This is a very well-planned recital, with the 27 songs organized into three groups of nine reflecting some of Ives' thematic concepts: childhood, parenthood, and philosophical/political convictions. Childs' singing is very clear and direct and one can understand every word of the text; no texts are included, nor are any needed if you speak English. Additionally, Childs' sense of pitch is spot on. Childs' way of handling Ives' more vaguely defined directions as to the singer's role in more non-conventional songs is creative, as he is able to temporarily move into a pop voice, shout, speak, and to transcend the baggage that comes with being a trained singer when Ives asks for it. Likewise, Wei-Han Su's piano accompaniment is elegant, clear, and even transparent, which is saying a lot, given the density of some of Ives' accompaniments.
The drawback to Centaur's Songs of Charles Ives, and it is a considerable one, is that the voice is not well balanced to the accompaniment; it is rendered too quietly, and the accompaniment frequently overwhelms the soloist throughout the recording, which overall just simply isn't loud enough. About the only song where this is not the rule is "Serenity," where the boxy resonance of the voice suggests digital enlargement of the original signal; although it still doesn't sound right, at least the voice is placed above the piano. While all of Ives' extant songs have been recorded in one manner or another, it is not as though there is an overage of "good" recordings of them widely available. From a purely performance standpoint, Andrew Childs' Songs of Charles Ives ranks among the best-recorded collections of Ives' songs that have appeared since Jan de Gaetani's milestone Nonesuch LP in the 1970s, and it contains some of the very best recordings of Ives' music as sung by a tenor.
© TiVo
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Slow March (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer - Lincoln Brewster, Lyricist
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
The Greatest Man (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer - Anne Collins, Lyricist
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
The Cage (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
The Circus Band (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Memories (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
In Summer Fields (Feldeinsamkeit) (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer - Hermann Allmers, Lyricist
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Songs my mother taught me (text by A. Heyduk) (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Adoof Heyduk, Lyricist - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
The Old Mother (Du alte Mutter) (1st setting) (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Lyricist - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Remembrance (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
A Scotch Lullaby (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer - Charles Edmund, Jr. Merrill, Lyricist
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Berceuse (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Cradle Song (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Augusta L. Ives, Lyricist - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
The Children's Hour (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Lyricist - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
To Edith (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Harmony Twichell Ives, Lyricist - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Immortality (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Two Little Flowers (and dedicated to them) (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Marie (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer - Rudolf von Gottschall, Lyricist
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
The Last Reader (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Lyricist
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Down East (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
The Light that is Felt (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer - J. Whittier, Lyricist
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
There is a Lane (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Serenity (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer - John Greenleaf Whittier, Lyricist
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Tom Sails Away (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Disclosure (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Hymn (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer - John Wesley, Lyricist
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
The Rainbow, 'So May it Be!' (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - William Wordsworth, Lyricist - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
The Things our Fathers Loved (Charles Ives)
Andrew Childs, Performer - Wei-Han Su, Performer - Charles Ives, Composer
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
Album review
Centaur's Songs of Charles Ives features tenor Andrew Childs in 27 songs of the cranky Yankee reckoned as America's greatest composer of art songs. Childs has taught at Yale, which served as Ives' own alma mater, and is on the voice faculty of Missouri State University. While this by itself seems to indicate a pedigree of academic orientation over one of performance, Childs is a frequent flyer in opera productions and has appeared as a featured soloist with a number of orchestras. This is a very well-planned recital, with the 27 songs organized into three groups of nine reflecting some of Ives' thematic concepts: childhood, parenthood, and philosophical/political convictions. Childs' singing is very clear and direct and one can understand every word of the text; no texts are included, nor are any needed if you speak English. Additionally, Childs' sense of pitch is spot on. Childs' way of handling Ives' more vaguely defined directions as to the singer's role in more non-conventional songs is creative, as he is able to temporarily move into a pop voice, shout, speak, and to transcend the baggage that comes with being a trained singer when Ives asks for it. Likewise, Wei-Han Su's piano accompaniment is elegant, clear, and even transparent, which is saying a lot, given the density of some of Ives' accompaniments.
The drawback to Centaur's Songs of Charles Ives, and it is a considerable one, is that the voice is not well balanced to the accompaniment; it is rendered too quietly, and the accompaniment frequently overwhelms the soloist throughout the recording, which overall just simply isn't loud enough. About the only song where this is not the rule is "Serenity," where the boxy resonance of the voice suggests digital enlargement of the original signal; although it still doesn't sound right, at least the voice is placed above the piano. While all of Ives' extant songs have been recorded in one manner or another, it is not as though there is an overage of "good" recordings of them widely available. From a purely performance standpoint, Andrew Childs' Songs of Charles Ives ranks among the best-recorded collections of Ives' songs that have appeared since Jan de Gaetani's milestone Nonesuch LP in the 1970s, and it contains some of the very best recordings of Ives' music as sung by a tenor.
© TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 27 track(s)
- Total length: 00:56:31
- Main artists: Wei-Han Su
- Composer: Charles Ives
- Label: Centaur Records, Inc.
- Genre: Classical
2006 Centaur Records, Inc. 2006 Centaur Records, Inc.
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