Three of these performances are world premiere recordings. So for the curious collector this CD is self-recommending. The only familiar piece is the Vaughan Williams, which exists in 3 forms I know of, with versions for brass band and full orchestra to supplement the one for military band heard here. Junkin's band plays the piece with vivacity as well as skill, all this particular work needs, with its friendly countryside airs, to make an favourable impression.

The Susato is a lively renaissance banquet from a composer heretofore unfamiliar to this listener. The Danserye, from 1551, is a pleasing collection of dances, presented in more rigid form than would have been the practice in the common use of the time, where the first priority determining style & form would have always been the whim of the composer's patron. It is recorded that Susato himself played, in addition to trumpet, flute and recorder, the sackbut and crumhorn, which last instrument I confess I have never heard of. In the listing of musicians included in the CD there is no acknowledgement of any use of original instruments, but one of the movements, den hoboecken dans, has a most enthusiastic contribution (tuba?) from what sounds like a visiting troupe of hippopottami.

As for the title track, the composer Michael Daugherty sets the stage: 'In Bells for Stokowski I imagine Stokowski in Philadelphia visiting the Liberty Bell at sunrise, and listening to all the bells of the city resonate.' The work which results offers a tribute to both the famed conductor and his genius Bach, whose spirit is evoked by more than mere quotation here, amidst a myriad of percussive and symphonic organ effects. And, of course, given Stokowski's pioneering efforts in the field, we expect and are not surprised to find a multitude of stereophonic effects.

The piece that interests me most here is the Del Tredici In Wartime. And for more than musical reasons. The composer, of course, is famous for a virtually career long obsession with Lewis Carroll. One of his works adapted from the Carroll canon won the Pulitzer over 2 decades ago [Final Alice, premiered by the Chicago Symphony - Ed]. Del Tredici composed In Wartime between November 2002 and March 2003, in the words of our composer, 'as momentous a four-month period in US history as I have experienced.' From Del Tredici's short but angst-ridden notes we certainly get the impression of a man transfixed by the Iraq war buildup and invasion. Curiously, however, the CD notes do not record the composer's reaction to those events, excepting his anxiety. One is left to guess from its musical substance that either Del Tredici experienced a certain ambivalence about the war itself, or that the editor felt it best, in the understandably sensitive political aftermath of the invasion, to omit that which would trample the tender Texan sensibilities with which the present recording would have to live, in both political and musical milieu.

Whatever, In Wartime might well serve as score to one of those existential Hollywood war films of the '50s or '60s. In fact, I hear the ghosts of Hugo Friedhofer and Alex North, both in the style and form of this work. Especially in the ironic inclusion of Abide With Me, heard both in fragments and in full, unadorned dress, overwhelmed by the most chaotic of orchestral effects superimposed in quodlibet fashion. Was Del Tredici trying to import subliminally the text of the great hymn, perhaps to subtly supply another level of irony beneath the already melancholy melody of this most irony-drenched of hymns? I don't know, nowadays, whether even the melody Abide With Me has much emotional resonance outside the Bible belt. And even in the deep south I doubt Del Tredici could assume a knowledge of Henry Francis Lyte's verses. Among those formerly familiar phrases, we might cite a few relevant to the present situation: Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away ... I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless ... earth's vain shadows flee ... When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me. Perhaps it is for the best, or shall we at least say expedient, that Del Tredici left the ironic comment to the instruments and didn't use full choir.

As for the sound of this CD, I can only say that on my proudly mid-fi set up most of the music came up full and clear, with the heft necessary to Susato and Vaughan Williams.