Wow. Just plain wow. Out of left field comes one of the best classical CDs of the year — an all-Percy Grainger program.

Grainger was one of music’s greatest eccentrics, and one of the most versatile musicians of the twentieth century’s first half. He was a remarkable pianist, an accomplished saxophonist (and champion of the instrument), and an early innovator in mechanical and electronic music (composing “unplayable” piano roll music over two decades before Conlon Nancarrow). These days, he is best remembered in the US for his prodigious output of original works and arrangement of music for winds; he was arguably more influential than even John Philip Sousa or Arthur Pryor in the instrumentation of the modern concert band.

San Francisco-based Reference Recordings has just released Lincolnshire Posy, a selection of Grainger’s music for concert band played by the Dallas Wind Symphony under the direction of Jerry Junkin.

The entire program is sensational — from the downbeat of The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare to the reverberating final slams of Shepherd’s Hey. Junkin’s remarkable control of balances brings “to the fore,” as Grainger himself was fond of saying, a revelatory panoply of wind colors and timbres — particularly instruments in the lower register and delicate percussion sounds. As one would expect from Reference, the sound is uncallily vivid, from the Richter-scale sub-bass to the high winds and percussion, with the simple miking casting a deep soundstage.

But the strongest impression left by this disc is the spectacular playing of the Dallas Wind Symphony — the best overall playing I have yet heard from such an ensemble on recorded media of any kind. This disc is proof positive that the DWS is one of America’s elite cultural institutions, up there with the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Don’t believe me? Then get a copy of this disc and judge for yourself. If you’re not saying to yourself “Wow, just plain wow,” then you need to clean your ears out.

Lincolnshire Posy: Music for Band by Percy Grainger

Percy Grainger: The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare; Lincolnshire Posy; The Merry King; Children’s March; Colonial Song; Mock Morris; The Gum-Suckers March; Molly on the Shore; Spoon River; After-Word; Lads of Wamphray; Irish Tune from County Derry; Shepherd’s Hey
Dallas Wind Symphony / Arts District Chorale / Brian Allison, piano
Jerry Junkin, conductor

Robert Carnochan & J. Tamblyn Henderson, producers
Keith Johnson, engineer
Sean Royce Martin, recordist / Paul Stubblebine, editing and mastering

Artistic impact: 11
Sound quality: 11

Reference Recordings RR-117 (CD)