Charles Ives was a master of miniatures, and this programme brings together a miscellanea of numerous shorter pieces that includes seven world premieres. Embracing ragtime before it became a craze at the end of the 19th century, Ives’s Four Ragtime Dances juxtapose the sacred and profane as part of his lifelong quest to find unity in all humanity. Chromâtimelôdtune is one of Ives’s most startling creations, appearing here alongside experiments, marches, arrangements and enticingly incomplete fragments that form a musical selection of remarkable variety.

Released to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Charles Ives’s birth, this programme joins the Naxos series of his complete orchestral works, rounding up shorter but well-known pieces such as The Gong on the Hook and Ladder and taking the opportunity to investigate a fascinating miscellany of miniatures that include world premieres of incomplete works and fragments, and some of Ives’s imaginatively creative orchestrations made while he was a student in Yale. This is a must-have release for any collector of Charles Ives’s work.

The Naxos edition of Charles Ives’s orchestral works includes such recordings as the Second Symphony (8559076), which was a Gramophone Critic’s Choice, and with critical reactions such as ‘the results couldn’t possibly be more enjoyable’ from David Hurwitz in ClassicsToday.com. James Sinclair has also recorded the Three Orchestral Sets (8559353), which was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and regarded as having ‘well recorded, idiomatic performances all round’ and being ‘a real Ives discovery’.