Previous recordings of the songs have usually involved a single singer. A small number of songs have found their way onto many of these discs. Of those on the present discs, “General William Booth enters into Heaven”, “The Greatest Man”, “The Circus Band” and “Ann Street” are amongst this group. What is remarkable is the number of what are to me at least wholly unfamiliar. It may at first seem arbitrary for Naxos to have put the songs into alphabetical order, and indeed it does lead to some strange companions, but the alternatives of arranging them by author, theme or date would run a much greater risk of monotony. On the whole I have no doubt that Naxos have chosen the better option. It means that we hear early songs strongly rooted in American domestic and social music of the late nineteenth century alongside songs completed towards the end of his active composing life; the latter are of a drastically different character. This may be disconcerting at times but constantly draws attention to the Ives’ range as a composer. 

Although all were recorded at Yale University, Naxos have divided the songs between a large group of singers and pianists, mainly young Americans. They have even made use of an organ and a string quartet in three instances. Overall the listener can have no doubt of the seriousness with which the project has been undertaken. Each disc has a brief but helpful introduction to each song as well as much longer biographies and photographs of the performers. 

All of this is immensely praiseworthy… for the many novelties which they include, and for the way in which they demonstrate the range and quality of Ives’ songs.

I've been an Ives song enthusiast since childhood, having collected just about every commercial recording that's been available from the early 1970s onward…Well, an Ives song fanatic such as I could not resist continuing to collect the series, just on the chance that things might improve, and having now heard the second and third releases, I have to say that both of them impressed me more than first [8.559269]. …So I think it may just be that the particular mix of singers and songs produced by an alphabetical sequence resulted in more interesting results in the second, and especially the third, disc. …In general, the men have been doing better than the women as this series has unfolded, and by the quirk of alphabetical order, the third release is heavy with male singers and light on female singers.  All the pianists seem to be up to the challenges, as far as I can tell.  So, for those who love Ives's songs, I guess this series becomes a "mandatory" acquisition, despite the occasional disappointing performance or odd sequence.  …the Naxos series will have some additional songs that were not available back then, as the Ives Archives at Yale have continued to yield up their treasures from the unpublished manuscripts.

Returning from Volume 1, tenor Matthew Plenk takes on three songs in this program (the track listing says four, however the singer of "Evidence" sounds suspiciously like countertenor Ian Howell from Vol. 1), all of them--"Disclosure", "Eyes so Dark", and "Friendship"--affectingly sung. Likewise bass David Pittsinger, terrific in Volume 1, keeps our full attention, not only for the tour de force "General William Booth Enters into Heaven" (1914), but also, through the sheer rich-toned beauty of his voice and unforced expression, for two notably less worthy entries, "Flag Song" (1900) and "God Bless and Keep Thee" (1898).

Another highlight is baritone Robert Gardner's only appearance, a lovely, heartfelt rendition of the nostalgic "Down East" (1919), where he perfectly captures the mood of the song's two parts, the dreamlike, chromatic opening and the following, gradual transition to the hymn Bethany ("Nearer My God to Thee"). Also worth singling out are soprano Sara Jakubiak's (another returning singer from Vol. 1) moving rendition of "The Ending Year" (1902) and baritone Michael Cavalieri's similarly engaging "Grantchester" (1920) and wonderfully lively, characterful "The Greatest Man" (1921).

That said, unlike on Volume 1 (type Q11808 in Search Reviews), the performances here are uneven, the singing and interpretive authority not as consistently accomplished or convincing. Especially in the German-texted songs, which generally aren't among Ives' better efforts, the singers seem unable to find a happy connection between words and melody--Cavalieri, who's so good in the above-mentioned songs, is the biggest offender here (in "Du alte Mutter" from 1902). In "La Fede" (1920), mezzo Leah Wool's vibrato just overwhelms the text and very short (54 seconds) melody. In the final song, "Gruss", soprano Sumi Kittelberger lacks that extra measure of control and involvement that would make the song's melody and sentiment linger warmly rather than awkwardly.

Again, this is overall an impressive group of singers (14 this time) and accompanists (especially Eric Trudel and Douglas Dickson), and as before the random mix of songs from all periods of Ives' career makes for an enjoyable, entertaining 68 minutes of continuous listening, well captured in the complementary acoustic of Yale University's Sprague Hall. My only true disappointment here (and on the earlier volume) is that full texts are not provided--even at Naxos' website only some of the song texts are available.