GOLDENTHAL: “Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio.”...

GOLDENTHAL: “Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio.” Pacific Symphony; Pacific Chorale; Pacific Chorale Children’s Chorus; Ngan-Khoi Vietnamese Children’s Chorus; Carl St.Clair, conductor; Ann Panagulias, soprano; James Maddalena, baritone; Yo-Yo Ma, cello. Sony Classical SK 68368.

This work, commissioned by the Pacific Symphony to “reflect on the human experience of the Vietnam War,” pushed a lot of buttons at the premiere in April, 1995, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, where the recording was made several days later. It still will.

For some people, the emotional turmoil raised by any discussion of the war makes criticism unseemly and impossible.

For others, there is one inevitable conclusion: With musical and intellectual ideas approaching the vanishing point, “Fire Water Paper” lumbers on for 65 pretentious, derivative minutes.

Certainly St.Clair and his forces give their all. The choruses sound full-throated and committed. Panagulias and Maddalena negotiate the composer’s awkward, angular lines skillfully. The children are particularly appealing. (Cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s contribution was recorded several months later and spliced in to overdub Pacific principal cellist Timothy Landauer’s playing at the recording session.)

Composer Elliot Goldenthal assembled his own texts, ranging from Vietnamese classical and traditional works to protest poems and passages from the Bible and the Latin Mass. Unfortunately, he assembled other composers’ styles as well.

Echoes of Mahler, Shostakovich, Britten, Orff, Bernstein and others arise from sonic landscapes that seem better suited for movie scores than for a stand-alone work. This is not surprising, because before this piece most of Goldenthal’s work has been for movies, most recently for “Interview With the Vampire” and “Batman Forever.”

Even so, Boston Symphony Music Director Seiji Ozawa has become a champion of the work, and the release date of the CD was delayed to coincide with Ozawa’s performances of the piece this month in Boston, New York and Washington.

For the recording, Sony used “20-bit technology,” reaching for “high definition sound.” The sound is brighter, richer and fuller than it was in the hall. The words of the chorale and the children’s choruses are clearer than they were live. Panagulias’ soprano has never sounded so big. Clearly engineers have been at work. Think of it as a demonstration disc.