Charles Ives - Universe, Incomplete

Charles Ives was without a doubt the "Big Bang" of American musical modernism, so to speak. Composers from Copland and Bernstein to John Adams have viewed him as their musical forefather. Charles Ives was experimenting with avant-garde techniques like clusters and polyrhythms at a time when Johannes Brahms was still composing his late works in Europe. Accentus has combined two sensational productions into a double DVD/Blu-ray: On one hand, there is the highly revealing and compelling film documentary "Unanswered Ives," which explores the unusual life of this composer—who, as his primary profession, was America's wealthiest and most influential insurance tycoon, and whose music was described as "brilliant" by none other than Igor Stravinsky—as well as the origins of Ives's peculiar personal musical style. It features interviews with composers such as Pulitzer Prize winner John Adams, Leonard Bernstein, influential Ives performers, and descendants of the Ives family, who share their first-hand memories of Charles Ives. On the other hand, there is a musical spectacle to be seen and heard: an attempt at a performance of Charles Ives's "Universe Symphony." The composer left this work, which was intended to recreate the cosmos in music, as a fragment of enormous proportions. A performance based on Ives's original requirements would necessitate 4,250 musicians. For a long time, the work was therefore considered impossible to perform and, essentially, "theoretical music." However, at the 2018 Ruhrtriennale, a performance was attempted, the creation and presentation of which can be followed within the framework of this award-winning project by Christoph Marthaler, Titus Engel, and Anna Viebrock, which also incorporates further pieces from Ives's oeuvre.