In 1938 Sir Henry Wood celebrated his 50 years as a professional conductor with a concert.
Vaughan Williams composed a work for the occasion, the Serenade to Music, in which he set words by Shakespeare from Act 5 of The Merchantof Venice. Sixteen star vocalists of the age were gathered together for the performance and Vaughan Williams customised the vocal parts to show off the best qualities of the singers. The work turned out to be one of the composer's most sybaritic creations, turning each of its subsequent performances into a special event.
Hyperion has gathered stars of our own age for this outstanding issue and Best has perceptively managed to give each their head, while melding them into a cohesive ensemble. A mellow, spacious recording has allowed the work to emerge on disc with a veracity never achieved before.
The coupled vocal pieces are given to equal effect and the disc is completed by Nobuko Imai's tautly poignant account of Flos campi, in which the disturbing tension between solo viola and wordless chorus heighten the cryptic nature of the work.