Delius - A Mass of Life

Frederick DELIUS (1867-1934)

Requiem & A Mass of Life

  Jean Rigby contralto

  Joan Rodgers soprano

  Nigel Robson tenor

  Peter Coleman-Wright baritone

  Rebecca Evans soprano

  Bournemouth Symphony Chorus

  Waynflete Singers

 

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

  Richard Hickox

Recorded in:

  Wessex Hall, Poole Arts Centre

  9 June, 5-7 July 1996

Reviews

"Hickox gives a glowing account of this ambitious setting of a German text drawn from Nietzche’s Also sprach Zarathustra. He is helped by excellent singing and playing from his Bournemouth forces, and by fine solo singing, notably from the soprano Joan Rodgers. The full and atmospheric Chandos recording confirms the primacy of this version even over the excellent earlier recordings, the Requiem, half an hour long makes ideal coupling, emerging as a fine example of Deliu’s later work... Here too - with Rebecca Evans this time as soprano soloist - Hickox conducts a most persausive performance, ripely recorded."

The Pengiun Guide – 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12

'…pride of place goes to the present offering not least for its spectacularly superior sound transparently capturing the stillest moments in a spaciousness gorgeously, gloriously, tumultuously filled at the climaxes.'

Fanfare

'…Hickox proved in his 1996 recording, here reissued, that given a sumptuous recording, sensitive orchestral playing and expert choral and solo singing, it can emerge as a truly great one [work].'

Fanfare

'A full and atmospheric Chandos recording confirms this as a first choice.'

The Guardian