Ives: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4, The Unanswered Question & Central Park in the Dark

After commissioning John Luther Adams' Pulitzer Prize-winning “Become Ocean,” conductor Ludovic Morlot and his Seattle players had a right to be ambitious. Ives’ final (completed) symphony is just the right lodestar for musicians so inclined. In the first movement, they get the balance between odd percussion, eerie strings, and swirling chorus just right. The chaotic, wild-like-nothing-you’ve-heard second movement comes through with an admirable clarity, too, while also delivering the noise. Solid interpretations of two shorter Ives works and the composer’s good-humored (but still delightfully odd) Symphony No. 3 complete the vibrant program.