Wolfe: Anthracite Fields / Bang on a Can All-Stars, Trinity Wall St. Choir

Haunting, poignant and relentlessly physical, Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields is a lovingly detailed oratorio about turn-of-the-20th-century Pennsylvania coal miners, and a fitting recipient of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. NPR Music’s Tom Huizenga describes the piece as “...almost a public history project and a music project at the same time,” which hints at the work’s universal appeal. Featuring the always adventurous Bang on a Can All-Stars and the renowned Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Anthracite Fields merges multiple styles with classical themes—from the deep, ambient sweep of the opening movement “Foundation” (with the All-Stars’ Mark Stewart wrenching waves of keening sound from his electric guitar) to the athletic work-song mood of “Breaker Boys” and the elegiac, contemplative drift of “Flowers.” In the socio-politically engaged “Speech,” Stewart takes the lead with boisterous rock vocals, while “Appliances” spells out the economic weight of coal power with ruthlessly me