Although Roman Kofman and the Kiev Chamber Orchestra have a broad repertoire that they have brilliantly performed around the world, their choice of Benjamin Britten's music for their 2004 debut on MDG may be somewhat surprising. Yet this esteemed Ukrainian ensemble's specialization in great music for string orchestra inevitably must lead to British composers, and Britten's works for this combination are outgrowths of an English fondness for string serenades, as shown by Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, and others. Britten, however, takes the sentimental, fin de siècle serenade into neo-Classicism, and his shining timbres, lean textures, and bright harmonies are features of a modernist sensibility. The Simple Symphony and the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, played here with refinement, demonstrate Britten's development of the string serenade into formalized structures, a more rigorous approach than the suite format commonly used before him. However, Les Illuminations, Op. 18, is a serenade in every sense, and Britten's vocal settings of Rimbaud's visionary poetry hearken back to the Italian usage of serenata as an "evening song." Soprano Franziska Hirzel is eloquent and haunting in her delivery, and the orchestra shimmers behind her in rapt accompaniment. MDG's unprocessed sound is fine overall, though a little unclear in the softest passages.
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