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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The must-have recording of Moeran's Serenade is here..., 8 Jun 2001
By A Customer
This disc has a unique full modern recording of Moeran's Serenade in G, a work which the publisher cruelly cut from its original 8 movements to a much less satisfying 6 movements. The missing movements add over seven minutes to the work, taking it to a more substantial 24 minutes total duration, and do contain some excellent music.Moeran was by 1948 starting to deteriorate mentally and this was his last orchestral work, yet half of the work was recycled from his withdrawn Farrago Suite of 1932 - withdrawn after repeated comparison and pairing with Warlock's Capriol Suite, also on this CD. Indeed, with a little careful CD programming you can more or less reconstruct the lost 1932 suite from this disc. The Serenade has in the past been written off by some commentators, but in this full version it is definitely worth reassessing. The other great interest in this disc comes from Moeran's Nocturne. Written in 1934 in response to the death of Delius, this hauntingly beautiful 15-minute piece for chorus, baritone and orchestra is alas very rarely heard. That it owes a debt to Delius is in this case wholly deliberate. Moeran was at this point in his life consciously moving away from the Delian influence of his earlier work, and clearly had sufficient confidence in his ability to do so to feel able to produce a work like this. The coupling with the Warlock pieces is obvious, and perhaps those have received better renditions elsewhere - the main interest here is without doubt the Moeran. All in all, though, a very good CD indeed.
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