A Sonic Spectacular, proclaims a sticker on the shrink-wrap. Well, not exactly. What we have here is a fine disc of Elgar miniatures, sweetly and unpretentiously performed. The most nearly major of these minor works are the charming Nursery Suite and the popular Serenade for Strings. The Suite’s more fully scored passages (such as “The Merry Doll”) doubtless gave rise to that sticker, and with the single exception of William Bennett’s hollow-toned flute in the second movement, a contribution further marred by excessively close miking that makes audible every click of his keys and gasp for breath, it’s beautifully played.
In the Serenade, Goodwin begins well, but the finale needs either a bit more sheer weight of tone or else a firmer rhythmic treatment than it receives here. As with the suite, it’s a minor fault; especially when Sospiri and In Moonlight (a.k.a. the quiet interlude from the tone poem In the South) sound so lovely. As hinted at above, the recorded sound captures some extraneous performance noises as a result of overly close balances, but still offers excellent warmth and amplitude. The booklet fails to give individual track listings and timings for the Serenade and Dream Children, a surprising lapse given Harmonia Mundi’s usual pride in presentation. Definitely not spectacular, then, but why in the world would anyone buy this largely subdued, lyrical music expecting that it should be?
