Despite composing in a radically experimental style even before Schoenberg, Berg and Webern had formulated their ideas on atonality, Ives saw himself as the ‘continuing spirit’ in the tradition of Beethoven. His Second Symphony, written between 1902 and 1910, but not premiered until 1951, is one of the most ‘American’ and accessible of symphonies, drawing on patriotic marches, Stephen Foster tunes, a college song and revival hymns for much of its thematic material. By contrast, the Robert Browning Overture is as challenging a work as some of the poems of the writer that it celebrates.
