Classical music spotlight: Brahms' Serenade No. 1 at SPCO

Concertgoers easily can go a decade or longer without encountering a performance of Brahms' fetching Serenade No. 1. This month in the Twin Cities there are two of them, the first by the Minnesota Orchestra and this week by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and guest conductor Paul McCreesh. Preceding Brahms is music from England: the early Serenade in E Minor, deservedly one of Edward Elgar's most popular pieces, and Benjamin Britten's Nocturne for Tenor and Chamber Orchestra, a virtual anthology (dedicated to Mahler's widow) of dream-themed English poetry, with tenor Robert Murray.