Serenata of London play without a conductor, but with a leader (Barry Wilde). At least this policy ensures experience (as well as native skill) all round: there is no player in any London recording orchestra who is inexperienced, but conductors who are in that innocent position are not unknown. On this occasion, anyway, experience tells: nobody puts a foot or a finger wrong, no doubt helped greatly by the familiarity of all the music (the first performance of a new, unplayable piece might well be different!).
Many listeners will share with the players familiarity with the highly enjoyable music: the smooth, affable Elgar, really not far from three easy-going allegretto movements in succession; and the more varied, and usually more lively Holberg Suite, though Grieg does seem to reach his ending too suddenly, too off-handedly: Eric Coates would never have done that.
In the Mozart serenades, of course, everything goes right with the music, both with its writing in the first place and, on this occasion, with its handling; though I do wish I could believe that Mozart really meant, or preferred, multiple strings for Eine kleine Nachtmusik. In the case of the D major Serenade there is of course little doubt of his intentions: four parts (two violins, viola, and bass) are specifically written for soloists; a further quartet of parts (this time with cello, without bass) is probably (not quite certainly, though the additional presence of timps suggests it) meant for multiple players, and certainly sounds very well so played. Well, it does if you have the right players, as Serenata certainly have!
In any event, the disc as a whole is one which should give much pleasure. The recorded quality of tone and balance is good, and the notes on the music make at least one eminently sensible suggestion: could not the simple answer to the problem of why Mozart wrote the Nachtmusik for no ascertainable purpose be just that he felt like doing so, and had a spare day and a half?'