This generous coupling presents Charles Ives’ rarely recorded Symphony No. 1 played with much bravura by Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mehta clearly has the measure of this echt-19th century symphony (with its nervy undertones), and injects the score with a good amount of vitality. He avoids the Brucknerian heaviness of Michael Tilson Thomas and the Chicago Symphony on Sony Classical. Unfortunately, he does not avoid a six-minute cut that disembowels the finale’s development section, making the movement sound slight and facile. Mehta presents the Symphony No. 2 complete, but sounds too refined next to Bernstein’s raucous New York Philharmonic on Sony (and Deutsche Grammophon). While Mehta seems be trying to “normalize” the music, the NYPO brass plays up Ives’ naughty hijinks, and the finale’s “raspberry” chord is wonderfully rude. Happily, Mehta returns to form for the appended Variations on America, and the Decca recording is one of the best from the Los Angeles sessions.
