This single track is drawn from Albion Records ALBCD059 – Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music - Exploring the Sixteen Singers Chosen for the First Performance. This great work was written in 1938 to celebrate 50 years of conducting by Sir Henry Wood’s, founder of The Proms. The first performance, and recording, was given by sixteen singers who had worked over the years with both Henry Wood, and the composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams. The album, released on 22 March 2024, explores those sixteen singers through solo or duet recordings, painting a picture of how this combination of voices came about. The works on it range from popular song to grand opera, and of course, the 1938 recording of Serenade to Music is included. All tracks have been remastered for the album, from original 78 rpm discs, by Peter Reynolds. Muriel Brunskill (1899-1980) was a favourite of Sir Henry Wood. Born in Kendal she studied singing in London and Paris. She made her London debut in 1920 and took the part of Aunt Jane in Vaughan Williams’s opera Hugh the Drover on tour in 1925. Wood cast her as Kundry in a 1936 performance of Parsifal. With a wide vocal range, her singing seemed effortless, suggesting charm and simplicity, yet she was also capable of much subtlety and power. Isobel Baillie said of her: ‘She not only possessed a quite remarkable voice but also had the ability to adjust its scale and proportions to whatever she sang. On stage she had an imposing presence; she appeared born for the stage’. Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1946) wrote his Six Jester Songs in 1898 to words by his wife Helena Bantock (1868-1961). Only the fifth song, Serenade was recorded by Muriel Brunskill. It is an appealing drawing-room ballad which suits Brunskill’s vocal strengths.