M. LINDBERG Purcell Variations. Brett DEAN Between Moments. 1 BEETHOVEN King Stephan: Overture. HESPOS Papillon. FPOI. GLUCK Alceste: Overture. TANGUY Adagio for Strings. BACH/ELGAR Fantasia and Fugue in c, BWV 537. 2 STUCKEY Fanfare for Los Angeles • Christopher Russell, cond; Eunice Kim (vc); 1 Victoria Lee (ob); 2 Orange County High School of the Arts SO • MMC 2176 (60:02)

The most frustrating thing about this ear-opening release is its complete lack of liner notes. All the following information about the Orange County High School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra has been culled from the Internet. Before I continue, I must say that the level of orchestral playing not only in America but also worldwide has been on an upward trajectory for the last two generations, despite the fact that the teaching of music and art in the U.S. has been virtually dropped from most of our public schools. The Orange County High School of the Arts in downtown Santa Ana, California, is doing an admirable job of rectifying the situation. It is a public-charter school, reorganized as such in the year 2000, and covering grades 7 through 12. It puts its students through a rigorous regimen in traditional academic subjects along with finely focused programs in all of the arts, performing and otherwise. It is tuition free, making it parallel, mission wise, with Venezuela’s El Sistema , which has produced the world-acclaimed Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra. The SBYSO is astonishing, and so is this Orange County High School of the Arts orchestra under its founder and conductor Christopher Russell. Given the evidence here, Russell is an inspired and inspiring leader with a deep understanding of contemporary music that reflects his previous work with Pierre Boulez.

The Beethoven, Gluck, and Bach/Elgar pieces are given worthy performances, but it is in the contemporary stuff that both Russell and his youthful orchestra really shine and have given me many moments of sheer delight. Cleverly, they have provided world premiere recordings of Magnus Lindberg’s Purcell Variations , Brett Dean’s Between Moments , Hans-Joachim Hespos’s envelope-pushing Papillon and FPOI , Eric Tanguy’s haunting Adagio for Strings , and Steven Stucky’s powerfully terse and somewhat Stravinskyesque Fanfare for Los Angeles , none of which can be found elsewhere, and all of which are given inspired performances that go far beyond merely dutiful documentation. Put another way, this is an offering worthy of “Serious Record Collectors” who want to expand the range and depth of their respective collections.

The sound is fresh, detailed, dynamically wide ranged, and colorful. William Zagorski