Seven works comprise this wonderful collection from Portland, Oregon-based composer William Stanaker (b. 1921) The two- part Preludes and Postludes (Books I and II), recorded with the Seattle Symphony under the guidance of Maestro Gerard Schwarz, both open and end the album.

Stalnaker’s First String Quartet may be one movement, but nearly 30 years passed in between its start and finish. The Second String Quartet, conversely, was composed within a single year following a request for a new work from members of the Moscow String Quartet. This calling reinforced a deeply-felt need for Stalnaker to memorialize in sound his late son Daniel Stalnaker (1954-91), a great source of inspiration for this three movement work.

The superbly adventurous Re Lear suite was spawned initially from a deep absorption in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, who had given extensive consideration to composing an opera on Shakespeare’s King Lear. Most unfortunately that did not happen, but his ideas about the project served as ample inspiration for Stalnaker’s Re Lear: Scenes and Songs for Clarinet and Strings and Solo Cello.

The composer’s String Symphony heard here is in fact a measure-by-measure transcription of his Second String Quartet. This transcription, recorded by the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, was his contribution to the Boston-Prague Contemporary Music Festival sponsored by MMC in late 1998 (Boston) and early 1999 (Prague).