Glowingly welcomed in The Gramophone on its original issue, this first recording of a late-Victorian masterpiece gains the well-deserved chance of wider circulation on the popular Naxos label. The Requiem was written in 1896 in memory of Lord Leighton. It is scored for the usual forces of solo quartet, chorus and orchestra, and it strikes the familiar balance between grief and condolence, its manner essentially lyrical, its form determined by that of the Mass and by its well-defined musical climaxes. Yet the composer’s individuality is everywhere unobtrusively evident, as is the warmth of his feeling. If these things were indeed too unobtrusive to gain recognition in their own time and the largely unsympathetic century which followed, they should win it now.

The performance is admirable, with good work by all four soloists and a special word of appreciation is due to the delightful soprano, Frances Lucey. The choir needs more presence in the recorded sound, which in general is none too sharply defined. The excerpts from The Veiled Prophet, another rarity, provide a well-chosen bonus. The omission from David J Brown’s valuable booklet-notes of his detailed survey of the Requiem itself may justify a search for any residual copy of the original Marco Polo issue before settling for this.