Delius: Wanderer's Song

“the languages are set idiomatically, and the best of the songs succeed in encapsulating the mood of their poems...This project has clearly been a labour of love for Mark Stone, to judge by his detailed notes...He sings strongly, revealing most character in the bass register, and always with exemplary enunciation. Stephen Barlow makes the best of the sometimes awkward piano parts...this issue completes a highly recommendable set.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 ****

“Mark Stone’s baritone pleads a strong case despite occasional stridency.” Financial Times, 28th January 2012 ***

“When virtually all of Delius's mature songs are very measured in their lyricism, it is remarkable what a wide range of expression Stone finds in bringing out the meaning of the words, not least in his high pianissimo phrases sung in a half-tone...Altogether an impressive follow-up to Stone's first volume of Delius songs” Gramophone Magazine, April 2012

“Performance and recording are both at the same level as on the previous release. Stone's baritone is a very natural-sounding instrument, at ease at both top and bottom of his range, and he has no need to push to make a big sound when required...He is helped...by the unobtrusive excellence of Barlow's accompaniments...Between them they have done Delius proud.” International Record Review, March 2012

“Stone sings with meticulous care for clarity and shape; there may be no great discoveries here, but Delius admirers will want to hear them.” The Guardian, 25th January 2012 ***

“[the choir] perform them with admirable tuning and ensemble...There is equally admirable direction by Spicer, too, who applies the minutiae of his choral dexterity to a responsive and surprisingly mature choral sound.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013

“The 24 voices of the Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir can boast in particular a marvellous top line; but truth to tell, they also blended ideally across the range: the partsongs collected here have evidently and without a single exception been rehearsed by choir and conductor to perfection.” International Record Review, December 2012

“Matthew Grenall and the Elysians should be congratulated ... this CD should be in the collection of every Delian” British Music Society Journal

“Delius had a special relationship with the collective human voice, and the songs here are presented chronologically, which allows us to follow pleasurably the development of his style.
The extracts from A Village Romeo and Juliet and Appalachia prolong what would otherwise be a rather brief encounter and their accompaniments also provide contrast of timbre, but they do need to be heard in context to 'take off'. The 'essential' Delius comes with On Craig Dhu – experience of nature not so much tinged by melancholy as perceived through it; a haunting evocation in grey; and the setting of Tennyson's The splendour falls on castle walls, as characteristically Delius as Britten's setting of it, in his Serenade, is Britten.
Though the singing itself deserves a generally warm welcome, not all Delius's chromatic wanderings are as confidently charted as they might be. The sopranos seem the strongest contingent, and the ones most often in the expressive spotlight. Nor are the soloists ideal, the tenor sounding unhappy in the higher regions of the second of the two songs, To be sung of a summernight on the water. And on occasions, as in the first of those two songs, one might have wished for more varied pacing and dynamic shading from the conductor. But the world of Delius performance is one where devotees are used to taking the roundabouts with the swings, and this is the only all-Delius collection of its kind on the market.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This is the only all-Delius collection of its kind on the market and it allows us to pleasurably follow the development of Delius's style” Gramophone Magazine