Of the decisions one makes in how to approach Ives' songs, one surely has to do with how much rawness one goes for as opposed to what degree one sublimates that edge and opts for a more genteel attack. Sebastian Gottschick has arranged 24 songs for soprano (Jeannine Hirzel), baritone (Omar Ebrahim) and the ensemble für neue music zürich chamber ensemble (flute, clarinet, horn, percussion, piano, violin, cello, double bass) and has ended up more to the latter side of things, I think it's fair to say. Sometimes this works out just fine, other times the listener pines for a good dose of Yankee rudeness.

While there's always a frisson of sardonicism at play — from the very first piece, "Memories", with the haute culture soprano twittering, "We're sitting in the opera house, the opera house, the opera house — there's also an archness in effect that, depending on one's tolerance for this sort of thing, wears out its welcome after a while. Ebrahim, in songs like "The Circus Band", seems to be striving to emulate the same kind of mock bravado heard in recordings of Ives own singing, a tall order if you're not willing to fling yourself into it with absolute abandon. The music, of course, is tremendous, fascinating and utterly unique — the irregular rhythmic juxtapositions, the interpolations of popular and patriotic song — it's all there.

Still, it's the unusual compositions that really stand out. "Grantchester" is slow, misty and gorgeous, Gottschick having made the fine choice of vibraphone to eerily tinge the music, beautifully complementing the sinuous strings. The smoky, mysterious accompaniment to "The Housatonic at Stockbridge" enters similar terrain, but the soprano draws away too much attention; the similarly dreamy "Serenity" fares better. The tongue in cheek "lyrics" to "Intermezzo: No. 96", consisting of a list of performance suggestions, is wryly funny and delivered in the appropriate deadpan manner. Enough of these more unusual and lovely pieces have been chosen so that, even if the bulk of the songs impress one as a bit too "clean" (and many listeners may not have this problem), the collection is well worth hearing.