Customer Reviews

A Serenade to Music - Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music ("How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!") for 16 soloists (or soloists & chorus) & orchestra / Elgar: Serenade for strings in E Minor, Op.20 / Britten: Serenade, for tenor, horn, & strings, Op. 31

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This CD is worth looking for as it is a very high quality sensitive reading by Kenneth Klein and The New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony. The Vaughan Williams SERENADE TO MUSIC is correctly performed by a 'chorus' of sixteen soloists and the chamber orchestra giving it the intimate immediately accessible context Vaughn Williams preferred to the large-scale performances we too often hear.

Sir Edward Elgar's lushly romantic 'SERENADE in E minor for strings' is given a sterling performance - unhurried, elegant and with fine playing by the orchestra.

Sir Benjamin Britten's SERENADE FOR TENOR, HORN AND STRINGS is one of the best on records. While L. William Kuyper may not be the horn player Brain is, he gives a secure and collaborative performance. Tenor Grayson Hirst (who also sings in the Vaughan Williams) reminds us of the luxury with which he graced many concert stages in the past. His diction, quality of interpretation, and beauty of his clearly focused warm tenor voice make this among the finest of recordings of this penetratingly beautiful song cycle.

The presentation of these three works was produced by the fine mind of John McClure. The overalL effect of this recording is quintessential English - except the forces in these cherished performances are all Americans! Recommended. Grady Harp, February 2005