Ives: Symphony No 2; Carter: Instances; Gershwin: An American in Paris

Ludovic Morlot shows catholicity of taste in this disc of American music. The 1902 Second Symphony of Charles Ives (unperformed until 1951) is both homely and wild, and deals readily with the sacred and the profane, the popular and the arty. What listeners of its time might have made of its subversion – the unexpected intrusion of Camptown Races, say – is anybody's guess. Elliott Carter's last orchestral work, Instances, written in 2012 at the age of 103, is characteristically focused, high modernism. Gershwin's An American in Paris is jaunty, outgoing, populist. Morlot's avoidance of vulgarity in the Gershwin is particularly appealing, and he handles the varied demands of Ives and Carter with real sensitivity. url.ie/u3lq