Ives's complex scores, diverse forces and unrelated rhythms must constitute a recording engineer's nightmare and this RCA recording of his last symphony, dating from 1974 and thought remarkable in its day, has benefited considerably from the remastering skills of Ralph Couzens. Chandos have been turning out some notably fine stuff recently and although one cannot here expect the lucidity of modern recording practice, it says much for the original skills of Bob Auger as engineer and Max Wilcox (producer) that so much detail was captured, now to be revealed. Particularly impressive is the entry of the organ in the third movement.
This was a Kingsway Hall recording and it well illustrates most of the advantages of that venue with only the merest traces of its well-known liabilities. Max Harrison thought the LP's playing time of 32'44'' ungenerous, for a CD it is positively mean!'