This England

This England is a classical music album by the Oregon Symphony under the artistic direction of Carlos Kalmar, released by Dutch record label PentaTone Classics in November 2012. The album was recorded at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon, at five performances in February and May 2012. It contains works by three English 20th-century composers: Edward Elgar's Cockaigne (In London Town), Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5, and "Four Sea Interludes" and "Passacaglia" from Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes. The recording was the orchestra's second under Kalmar's leadership, following Music for a Time of War (2011), which also included works by Britten and Vaughan Williams. This England received positive critical reception but failed to chart. Background and composition This England, released by Dutch record label PentaTone Classics on November 13, 2012, contains compositions by three English 20th-century composers: Cockaigne (In London Town) by Edward Elgar, Symphony No. 5 by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and "Four Sea Interludes" and "Passacaglia" from the opera Peter Grimes (1945) by Benjamin Britten. The album contains ten tracks, with works divided into separate tracks for each movement and interlude. The works were recorded live at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon, at five performances in February and May 2012. Symphony No. 5 and Cockaigne were performed February 18 and 19 as part of the program "Kahane Plays Mozart"; the works by Britten were performed May 12–14 as part of the program "Arnaldo Cohen Plays Tchaikovsky". In his review of the February 18th live performance, The Oregonian James McQuillen noted disturbances from the audience, including coughing and the ringing of one attendant's cell phone. McQuillen suggested the disturbances could be removed from the audio by engineers if the February 19th recording was not preferable. The album was the second recorded during Kalmar's tenure, following Music for a Time of War (2011), which also included works by Britten and Vaughan Williams and which received Grammy Award nominations for Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Album, Classical. The recording was the second of four albums expected to be produced by the Symphony and PentaTone by the end of the 2014–2015 season, all under Kalmar's artistic leadership. Like Music for a Time of War, This England was recorded in hybrid multichannel (surround sound) Super Audio CD format.