Los Angeles Philharmonic / STRAVINSKY, Assorted Works (2019)

“Elegy for J.F.K., written immediately after the assassination, was barely a chip off the workbench, less than two minutes of tough serial contemplations for mezzo-soprano and three clarinets stationed high up in the organ loft. O’Connor made poignant work of W. H. Auden’s words; “Remembering his death, /How we choose to live/ Will decide its meaning.”

“In “Requiem Canticles,” Stravinsky’s exquisitely bare-boned last major work, which opened this ritual, Salonen made every note matter and had the advantage of luxury casting. The mesmerizing baritone Davóne Tines and richly expressive mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor (also heard in the two-minute “Elegy for JFK”).”