‘This is a highly successful follow-up to Gerald Finley and Julius Drake's first Ives recital from 2005. Here there is the same sort of mix, from familiar songs such as The Circus Band and Watchman! to an early requiem for the family cat and the intriguing title song, Romanzo, di Central Park, with its obbligato violin part atmospherically played by Magnus Johnston. Finley is his usual charismatic self, at home as much in the hymnody as the parody, and he is careful not to over-sentimentalise the more homely numbers while injecting pathos into the war songs. Drake projects Ives's often complex accompaniments with clarity and style’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Gerald Finley has everything and more in his darkly full-bodied voice to match the often formidable technical and expressive requirements of Ives's songbook—reinforced by Drake's elastic, expressive piano … this is a must-buy album’ (The Times)

‘Finley is a wonderfully assured interpreter … perfectly registering their switchback changes of mood and presenting their occasional lapses into sentimentality with total conviction. More than any other performers on disc, Finley and Drake establish these songs, with all their quirks and flights of fantasy, among the most important of the 20th century in any language’ (The Guardian)

‘I forgot what it felt like to be proud to be an American until I heard Andrew Litton's hair-tearingly wonderful new live recordings of the Charles Ives Symphonies Nos 1-4 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (Hyperion). These thrillingly played, deeply moving accounts of the numbered symphonies (there's also a Holidays Symphony MTT has conducted in Davies, and an unfinished Universe Symphony recently released in a new completion), most of them recorded one year ago, set the post-9/11 standard for these still-ground-breaking works by the composer who remains our nation's greatest symphonist. Although Ives' visionary Fourth Symphony provides the peak experience, Litton doesn't play favorites with the works. He lavishes the same microscopic attention to detail and industrial-strength grasp of their extravagantly complex forms on every measure of all four, without for a beat losing sight of their unfathomable humanity’ (Bay Area Reporter, USA)

‘Symphony No 1 is a work of youthful vigor … Litton opens the symphony in flowing style, he finds optimism in it, vitality, the freshness of a spring day … the finale is a corking movement, full of exuberance, energy, and invention. Wonderful! Litton and his splendid orchestra do it justice, not least the marching band episode toward the close … Symphony No 4 is an amazing piece that is here given a very assured performance’ (Fanfare, USA)

«Ces performances captées sur le vif, formidablement souples et vivantes, imposent Ives en classique du XXe siècle; statut que l'Amérique lui reconnait depuis longtemps mais que le reste du monde accepte moins—à quelques exceptions près» (Diapason, France)

‘I have no doubt that Andrew Litton's cycle will serve as the reference for many years to come. A major achievement, no doubt about it … these are excellent performances in every respect: magnificently played, beautifully recorded, and conducted with unfailing intelligence. For all intents and purposes, Litton stands in a class of his own’ (Classics Today)

‘There is an unbuttoned passion, superb clarity of execution—particularly the brass—and, above all, a communication of spirit, probably down to Litton’s passion for the music, that just sweeps you along’ (MusicWeb International)

‘Overall these two CDs are a winning representation of the four Ives symphonies with the Dallas Symphony consistently impressive throughout’ (Gramophone)

‘Litton's new set is the one to have’ (International Record Review)

‘The performance of the Fourth is rightly the pinnacle of Andrew Litton's superb Ives cycle … Litton has the work's measure perfectly, balancing the visionary with the prosaic, and teasing out the most complex textures of a huge orchestra and a chorus with an exemplary clarity that is flawlessly captured by the recording’ (The Guardian)

‘There are various 'one off' recordings of Ives’s symphonies, but Andrew Litton and Hyperion are to be commended for presenting these works splendidly played and excellently recorded in state-of-the-art sound … Litton is his own man and his reading is a very strong and convincing one’ (Classical Source)