Ireland
Concertino Pastorale for String Orchestra
Britten
Serenade for Tenor Solo, Horn and Strings, Op. 31
Goossens
By the Tarn, Op. 15/1 (from Two Sketches for String Quartet)
Walton
Sonata for String Orchestra (transcribed by the composer and Malcolm Arnold from the String Quartet in A minor)
Laurence Kilsby (tenor)
Christopher Parkes (horn)
Sinfonia of London
John Wilson
Recorded at the Church of St Augustine, Kilburn, London on 20 – 23 October, 23 November 2025 and 11 March 2026
Reviewed by: David Gutman
Reviewed: September 2026
CD No: Chandos: SACD, download and stream: CHSA 5392
Duration: Running time: 74.46
The third collection of English String Music from this source is as outstanding as its predecessors, albeit more distanced from the famous Sir John Barbirolli LP that inspired John Wilson to resurrect the Sinfonia of London brand for his elite supergroup. In lieu of Elgar or Vaughan Williams, the big names here are Britten and Walton, with behind-the-scenes linking threads provided by the Boyd Neel Orchestra and the activities of Sir Eugene Goossens. There are fine accompanying notes by Andrew Burn, even if the works are considered in an order that is neither chronological nor matching how the pieces are actually programmed. Chandos provides photographs, artist biographies, and the appropriate texts for the Britten but there is no list of ensemble members
We begin with a comparative rarity: John Ireland’s Concertino Pastorale of 1939, precisely the kind of music that Wilson seems able to raise to unsuspected heights of eloquence. As with similar pieces by Howells and Bliss, he is more astringent than Sir Adrian Boult in his treatment of the music’s friskier moments, yet no less poignant in Ireland’s reflective central ‘Threnody’. The first movement, entitled ‘Eclogue’, opens with a slow introduction in which the nagging repeated note on the violins is less prominent than it can be, drawing the ear instead to the tortured contours of a theme which, in spring-like transformation, forms the basis of what follows. In this rendering, Elgarian regret is braced by the Stravinsky of Apollo.
Next up is the Serenade, another distinctly contemporary account, not a million miles from the ensemble’s revitalisation of Les Illuminations with soprano Julie Roset at the 2026 Proms. Wilson never lets Britten’s discourse hang fire. For the Serenade, he has chosen a light English tenor protagonist in Laurence Kilsby. Not that Kilsby lacks experience. A prize-winning boy treble at age twelve and latterly in demand for baroque opera, he was cast as Freddy in Wilson’s recent Chandos recording of the complete My Fair Lady. Shorn of the mannered vocal production and prep-school vowels of yesteryear, Britten’s score emerges subtly transformed, flowing breezily from section to section. This youthful directness is enhanced by Kilsby’s excellent diction, the vocal line hardening just a little at high decibels. Christopher Parkes, principal horn of the Sinfonia of London, is equally forthright—already an old hand, having recorded this work wearing his other hat as solo horn of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. With both soloists, we are doubtless further from the Britten-Pears tradition than some will like.
The Goossens piece, vaguely French in style (or, more specifically, Delian perhaps), was composed during the First World War and fleshed out variously. It pops up here as a sort of interlude that, miniature or not, is lent unsuspected weight in Wilson’s interpretation; there’s nothing wan or pastel about it.
Most thought-provoking of all is the Walton, written between 1945 and 1947 but rejigged in 1971 with the assistance of Malcolm Arnold. At first I wondered whether Wilson might be driving this music too hard. The score certainly feels closer to the gutsy First Symphony than to the more Mediterranean products of Walton’s subsequent output. Time and time again, tension is screwed tight. The scherzo displays absolute rhythmic precision, while the slow movement is several glorious notches slower and more intense than usual, the vibrato unashamed. As always in a Wilson performance, opportunities for precisely calibrated, non-standard string articulation are eagerly seized upon: expect a wider range of affekt here than in the classic account by Neville Marriner’s Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Always taking his cue from the dots on the page, Wilson’s manner is at once ‘objective’ and hyper-virtuosic, uncommonly bracing when not positively incendiary. Less apparent, perhaps, is that gentler swing and jazz-derived nonchalance others have found in Walton’s idiom. What we used to call charm seems to be viewed with suspicion.
As with the team’s previous Chandos recordings, the recorded sound alchemizes sumptuous ecclesiastical resonance with forensic clarity. The tried and trusted team is headed by recording producer Brian Pidgeon and sound engineer Ralph Couzens.
You can stream the album now on Apple AirPlay. For those looking for a must-have CD Christmas present for lovers of top-tier indigenous fare, that is released on October 30.