Three English Serenades
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Edward Elgar
Label: ASV
Magazine Review Date: 10/1989
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ZCDCA655
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Serenade to Music |
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer
Andrea Matthews, Soprano Carlotta Wilsen, Soprano Frederick Urrey, Tenor Grayson Hirst, Tenor Herbert Eckoff, Bass Karen Brunssen, Contralto (Female alto) Karen Williams, Soprano Kenneth Klein, Conductor Marcus Haddock, Tenor Mary Shearer, Soprano Melissa Thorburn, Contralto (Female alto) New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony Orchestra Nickolas Karousatos, Bass Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer Ronald Naldi, Tenor Stephen Owen, Bass Thomas Stallone, Bass Trudy Weaver, Contralto (Female alto) Virginia Dupuy, Contralto (Female alto) |
| Serenade |
Edward Elgar, Composer
Edward Elgar, Composer Kenneth Klein, Conductor New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Edward Elgar
Label: ASV
Magazine Review Date: 10/1989
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: DCA655
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Serenade to Music |
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer
Andrea Matthews, Soprano Carlotta Wilsen, Soprano Frederick Urrey, Tenor Grayson Hirst, Tenor Herbert Eckoff, Bass Karen Brunssen, Contralto (Female alto) Karen Williams, Soprano Kenneth Klein, Conductor Marcus Haddock, Tenor Mary Shearer, Soprano Melissa Thorburn, Contralto (Female alto) New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony Orchestra Nickolas Karousatos, Bass Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer Ronald Naldi, Tenor Stephen Owen, Bass Thomas Stallone, Bass Trudy Weaver, Contralto (Female alto) Virginia Dupuy, Contralto (Female alto) |
| Serenade |
Edward Elgar, Composer
Edward Elgar, Composer Kenneth Klein, Conductor New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Edward Elgar
Label: ASV
Magazine Review Date: 10/1989
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 52
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDDCA655
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Serenade to Music |
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer
Andrea Matthews, Soprano Carlotta Wilsen, Soprano Frederick Urrey, Tenor Grayson Hirst, Tenor Herbert Eckoff, Bass Karen Brunssen, Contralto (Female alto) Karen Williams, Soprano Kenneth Klein, Conductor Marcus Haddock, Tenor Mary Shearer, Soprano Melissa Thorburn, Contralto (Female alto) New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony Orchestra Nickolas Karousatos, Bass Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer Ronald Naldi, Tenor Stephen Owen, Bass Thomas Stallone, Bass Trudy Weaver, Contralto (Female alto) Virginia Dupuy, Contralto (Female alto) |
| Serenade |
Edward Elgar, Composer
Edward Elgar, Composer Kenneth Klein, Conductor New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony Orchestra |
Author:
This recording of three English Serenades is made by American artists, would that English musicians might record comparable American works with such understanding and sympathy! The problem with Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music is that it is indelibly associated with the 16 solo singers for whom it was composed, as a tribute to Sir Henry Wood on his golden jubilee in 1938, and whose voices are given phrases that suited them so perfectly. There is no other work like it in that respect. But if there didn't happen to be that recording made a few days after the performance (nla), only a handful of ageing listeners would now appreciate the music's original inspiration. Luckily, it is also a beautiful and timeless composition no matter whose voices sing in it and it sounds best when 16 solo voices are used rather than in any other version which the composer thoughtfully provided (heaven preserve us from the orchestral version).
Boult recorded it for EMI with 16 of the best young British singers of the 1970s, but the result has always sounded slightly self-conscious, as if the shadows of the original soloists were visible in the studio. These American singers have no such inhibitions. To them, it is just a superb score and the initials against each part are irrelevant or only of vague historical interest. The result is a performance that catches the spirit of the work its nocturnal magic and rapture, and the recording enables the subtly worked orchestral accompaniment to be heard in all its detail.
Grayson Hirst, the tenor who sings the Parry Jones part, is also the soloist in Britten's Serenade. He comes nearest among the British performances listed above to Mackie (also EMI) in his virility and conscious distancing from the inimitable insights of Pears (Decca), while his voice has little of Rolfe Johnson's honeyed tone and poetic delivery (Chandos). But it is a big interpretation responsive to the music's romanticism and dramatic imagery. The Derformance of the Blake ''Elegy'' is especially fine and sensitive. Kuyper's horn-playing is extremely distinguished, his contribution to the Lyke-Wake ''Dirge'' heightening the atmosphere of terror which tenor and conductor evoke so potently. The strings of the New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony Orchestra are rather closely recorded and sometimes sound too heavy, perhaps as a result of Kenneth Klein's too deliberate tempos. Some of the airy freedom of Elgar's Serenade for strings is missed because of this tendency on the conductor's part, but all three works receive illuminating performances. It is a pity that room was not found for the texts of the Vaughan Williams and Britten in the booklet.'
Boult recorded it for EMI with 16 of the best young British singers of the 1970s, but the result has always sounded slightly self-conscious, as if the shadows of the original soloists were visible in the studio. These American singers have no such inhibitions. To them, it is just a superb score and the initials against each part are irrelevant or only of vague historical interest. The result is a performance that catches the spirit of the work its nocturnal magic and rapture, and the recording enables the subtly worked orchestral accompaniment to be heard in all its detail.
Grayson Hirst, the tenor who sings the Parry Jones part, is also the soloist in Britten's Serenade
Three English Serenades
Three English Serenades
Three English Serenades
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