There are a good many issues of British music these days and very welcome they are, though inevitably there is some duplication of the most popular titles. Handley, however, has come up with at least one real novelty, Delius's Summer Evening, which I confess I did not remember ever hearing before. However, I evidently did, for I find a review by TH in April 1963! That record was conducted by Beecham and I wrote of it ''Summer Evening is that slightly mysterious piece . . . which is apparently one of three early works, dating from around 1890 and none of them published. I imagine that Beecham got hold of the manuscript and possibly refurbished it, how much one doesn't know. There is nothing mysterious about the music itself and indeed, the repetition of its main motive, charming as it is, may well seem overdone to those who are not hypnotized by the ravishing sounds the composer makes!'' (this Beecham recording is still available but only on tape—HMV TCC-POR184601-9). Handley and the LPO, who by now have a special affinity with this excellent conductor, play it most beautifully, as they do everything on this LP.
The Vaughan Williams side also has something that is a bit off the beaten track, the purely orchestral version of the Serenade to music. I question slightly whether Chandos are justified in recording what is, after all, an ersatz version. Should one commit such a version to record? The result is certainly still beautiful and it is true that RVW did not represent the vocal lines by instruments, as in Wagner's arrangements—they are mostly just left out! But I still find it tiresome since I keep trying to remember the singers and what they were singing about. It remains a tribute to the beauty of the composer's orchestral writing. The BBC showed at this year's Proms how well the most characteristic, at any rate, of the original voices can be 'matched'. I know that 16 soloists, even the least famous, cost money; but the composer authorised a quartet of voices or even, so considerate was he, just the chorus singing everything and I should have thought that a record company which is going to make a permanent record of the piece might be more enterprising.
That apart, everything is brightly recorded, yet with warmth, too, and Handley's performances are, as always, very sympathetic.
Since writing the above the CD has arrived. This is equally good, with a particularly brilliant sound for the opening of The Wasps, while the more translucent textures of the Delius pieces are equally well served. I think, by the way, that since almost all of the Air in his Air and Dance is for solo violin, the player should be named somewhere.'