The documentation with this issue does not say where and when these recordings were made, but this is a more modern version of Britten's Serenade than the Eterna made by Peter Schreier with Gunter Oppitz as the horn player and the Leipzig Radio Orchestra under Herbert Kegel. There we heard a musical use of a lovely voice, but Schreier's English was pretty disastrous and we had an 'invisible verrm' killing the rose in the ''Elegy'' and a giant called 'Polyfame' in the ''Pastoral''. Alas, there is little better to report of the present account: I am astonished that no one has told this fine artist that the first word he sings, the English definite article, should not be pronounced 'thee', that 'haze' is not the right way to say 'has' and that 'end' will simply not do for 'and'—and all this is in the first three lines of the first song!
I could go on ('putt them on' in the ''Dirge'' and 'vate the Aymen' in the final ''Sonnet'' are other choice examples), and mustn't—but I'm afraid this 'Allo, Allo' English pronunciation puts the reading right out of court, and what a pity that is, since Schreier is one of the best lyric tenors presently around, and the performance is heartfelt and musically intelligent. The ''Hymn'', though, is hardly fleet enough and the closish recording is nothing special either. There are several good alternatives for this work, the most obvious performance—and not only for sheer authenticity of style—still being that by Sir Peter Pears on Decca, for whom it was written, with Barry Tuckwell as the excellent horn player and the composer conducting the LSO.
The other music on this disc is done vividly and fairly skilfully, if in a rather too resonant acoustic. But the Frank Bridge Variations as played here do not really dig deep enough into the anguish of the invention nor burn with the right gem-like flame, and the spiky ''March'' is too slow to goose-step. Although it may seem attractive to have these three Britten works together on one CD, I fear that it cannot be recommended unless you must at all costs have everything that Schreier has committed to disc.'