"All in all, this vividly recorded, inexpensive disc should make a compelling introduction to Adams’ music. "

"... Alsop’s interpretations and her Bournemouth orchestra’s playing are every bit the equal of those on the continuing Nonesuch series of recordings. Nathan Gunn is a sensitive and moving exponent of Walt Whitman’s Civil War memories in The Wound Dresser , and its plangent, slow-moving orchestral tapestry is beautifully woven by Alsop."

"The Wound-Dresser, a much darker (and slower) setting of Walt Whitman, is excellently sung by Nathan Gunn, with fine solo trumpet-playing from the orchestra." 

"... She [Alsop] coaxes superb playing out of the Bournemouth strings in Shaker Loops."

"... A disc to prize for Adams’ growing cohorts of admirers, and an ideal introduction for the curious." 

"WHEN several major American orchestras found themselves simultaneously looking for music directors some years back, the name of the American conductor Marin Alsop was noticeably missing from the shortlists. Though Ms. Alsop had long been hailed as a dynamic conductor with an adventurous spirit and a palpable connection to the music of her time, and though she had achieved excellent results as the head of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, you suspected that the tradition-bound major orchestras were simply not ready to take the step of appointing a woman as music director.

But overseas, the respected Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was. In 2002 Ms. Alsop became its music director: the first woman to head any major British orchestra. Today, things could not be going better in Bournemouth. The orchestra sounds great, the players are energized, and the recordings they have been making for Naxos are exciting, including this impressive program.

The breathless performance of "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" vibrantly conveys the quality of John Adams’s music that the conductor Simon Rattle has likened to "a light aircraft, flying rather fast and close to the ground." The accounts of the wistful "Berceuse Élégiaque" and the ecstatic "Shaker Loops," a de facto four-movement symphony, are incisive and bracing.

Best of all, perhaps, is Ms. Alsop’s intense yet magisterial performance of "The Wound-Dresser," a sensitive setting of Walt Whitman’s poetic remembrance of serving as a nurse during the Civil War. The soloist is the fine American baritone Nathan Gunn, whose warm and virile voice provides comfort as you contemplate Whitman’s heartbreaking words.

This album makes me eager to hear Ms. Alsop’s recordings of the complete Brahms symphonies, due from Naxos this year. It’s about time she is given a chance to show what she can do in repertory staples."