“Music for a Time of War” – The Oregon Symphony under Carlos Kalmar play Ives, Adams, Britten, and Vaughan Williams on a Pentatone Release Highly Recommended! by Michael Miller
Music for a Time of War
The Oregon Symphony
Sanford Sylvan, Baritone
Carlos Kalmar, Music Director, Conducting
Pentatone Classics
PTC 5186 393
Charles Ives (1874-1954) – The Unanswered Question (1906, rev. c. 1930-1935)
Jeffrey Work, Trumpet
John Adams (b. 1947) – The Wound-Dresser (1989)
Sanford Sylvan, Baritone
Jun Iwasaki, Violin
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) – Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20 (1940)
Lacrymosa (Andante ben misurato)
Dies Irae (Allegro con fuoco)
Requiem Aeternam (Andante molto tranquillo)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) – Symphony No. 4 in F minor (1931-1934)
Allegro
Andante moderato
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Finale con epilogo fugato: Allegro molto – con anima
The Review has quite a backlog of recordings piled up, and we hope to make our way through as many as we can. I especially wanted to make note of this full concert recording by the Oregon Symphony, not only because our own Steven Kruger wrote the perceptive and witty program notes, but because of its exceptional musical quality and its truly extraordinary recording. A multichannel recording from Pentatone Classics, which released the Berlin concert performance of Der fliegende Holländer under Marek Janowski reviewed a few months ago, it amazed me with its timbral and spatial naturalness. It most definitely belongs in the reference collection of any audiophile, whether they are inclined to multichannel playback or not. I listened to it in stereo on headphones, using an SACD-compatible player.
