Delius: Requiem / Idyll / A Song before Sunrise / Songs of Farewell

"This disc deserves a warm welcome from enthusiasts for Delius. It comes to nearly 80 minutes of music, and most of the music is fairly unfamiliar. Why it should be unfamiliar I'm not at all clear. Eric Fenby seems in no doubt that so far as the Requiem goes the reason is or was that the text is not the familiar Latin text as set by Mozart, Verdi and the rest of them, but it's hard to believe that. Brahms's Requiem is not to that text either, and it could hardly have been classed as unfamiliar even in Fenby's time. It`s not a matter of the quality of the music either as best I can tell. The Requiem, the Idyll and the Songs of Farewell can easily stand beside, say, Sea Drift or Paris in terms of quality, they make no greater demands on resources and they ought to have similar audience-appeal. It seems to be just random luck of the draw, and I for one am more than pleased that someone has seen fit to put right the blind caprice of fortune or of the concertgoing public or whoever we should ascribe it to. The Song Before Sunrise is here too, perhaps just as a filler item but a welcome one to me. It's Sargent's version, not the equal of Beecham's I dare say, but presumably nobody expects it to be that, and a refreshing and interesting change from what we're all used to."
(Amazon.com)