Search - Williams, Corydon Singers, English Co :: Serenade to Music / 5 Mystical Songs

When the Serenade was premiered in 1938 at Henry Wood's Jubilee Concert, Rachmaninov (who also took part in the event) reputedly wept at the sheer beauty of the score. The feat in organizing any "authentic" performance always is assembling 16 solo voices of distinction at the same place and time. Hyperion certainly manages it here, and features such names as Sarah Walker, Gwynne Howell, and Amanda Roocroft. By and large, they sing ravishingly--the only minor criticism being that conductor Matthew Best occasionally allows phrasing to sag in his desire to "linger lovingly." The largely contemplative Five Mystical Songs might set one wishing that Thomas Allen had recorded still more English song than he has in his career--the nut-brown sound could not be more apt. Here and in the Fantasia, his partners, the Corydon Singers, are exemplary--even if, away from the festive season, the Fantasia is perhaps only for the sweet-toothed. But then comes the shock: the reminder that you can never typecast Vaughan Williams. The mysticism of the Song of Songs-inspired Flos Campi takes us into another world altogether; enigmatic, astringent, disturbing. An imaginative, palate-cleansing closer. --Andrew Green