Yehudi Wyner: Serenade/Ralph Shapey: Evocation

Julius Baker, flute; Ralph Froelich, horn; Robert Nagel, trumpet;
Keith Brown, trombone; Harry Zaratzian, viola; Charles McCracken, cello; Yehudi Wyner, piano; Matthew Raimondi, violin; Paul Price, percussion; Werner Torkanowsky, conductor "The Serenade was written in 1958 in response to a commission by the Friends of Music at Yale University and was first performed on Alumni Day, February, 1959. The title page bears a dedication to James Hoffman, the young American painter who was mortally ill at the time and soon to die. The dedication was intended as a gesture of devotion to a friend, a noble individual and eloquent artist. The titles Serenade and Nocturne I and II refer to qualities of the night and reflect the darkness of his passing. "Serenade is a lyric, poetic work, remarkable in no way for its structural devices. No preconceived schemes were used, no preliminary formal plans imposed; the piece grew in an almost improvisatory way, formal decisions being reached in the writing,