When this recording was last issued on LP, I greeted it with some reservation, saying that what we needed was a brand-new one of Flos campi but, failing that, this performance from Bournemouth under Del Mar would be a ''decent substitute''. However, since then a brand-new issue has indeed appeared on HMV (EL270060-1, 9/84) with Richard Hickox conducting the Northern Sinfonia and its chorus and Andrew Williams (viola) in Flos campi. I hailed this as ''exquisitely done'', followed by a number of superlatives. I hope therefore that EMI will issue it on CD before too long. Meanwhile this performance under Del Mar remains a useful one in that medium. The orchestral sound is not so clear as we have come to expect in this form, though the choral sound is excellent: and Frederick Riddle, who gives a compelling performance, plays with more experience and authority than Andrew Williams (HMV)—good player though he is. I should have liked some bands to separate the movements of Flos campi, especially as Alan Frank's admirably clear notes give the quotations from The Song of Solomon which Vaughan Williams put at the head of each movement, and one may like to refer to each and then hear the music. (The pieces are each marked segue but that, of course, need make no interruption on CD.)
The Viola Suite is completely banded and its eight items, though very light-weight, are often completely characteristic of the composer and I find them extremely attractive.'