Composer Rebecca Dale (b1985) first came to the wider concert-going and record-buying public’s attention with her large-scale, heartfelt Materna Requiem (2017), her debut release for Decca (10/18). This new album also has a partly autobiographical, memorial inspiration, for her father who died recently of motor neurone disease, as well as the Covid pandemic and a traumatic break-up. Her abiding admiration for the choral group Tenebrae (no argument from me) is a key recurring feature, likewise the tone of the cello; Dale discussed these aspects in a Gramophone podcast in March.

The opening track, There will come for cello and string orchestra (2021), picks up where the Requiem left off as it is a development of the ‘Paradisum Interlude’ from the larger work; the soaring lyrical line and appealing consonance are warmly rendered here by Steven Isserlis, no less, accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Michael Collins. Its counterpart, There will come soft rains for unaccompanied chorus (2022), is a further reworking, setting a poem by Sara Teasdale. By contrast, The Cloths of Heaven and Jo’s Theme are arrangements from Dale’s music for the BBC TV series Little Women (2017). Effective in situ as part of the drama, as independent concert items they sound – to my ears – overly saccharine.

That is not the case with the imaginative (albeit expressively ‘safe’) settings of the Salve regina (2018), which has none of the compositional ingenuity of, for example, Karin Rehnqvist’s (2007), and Wordsworth’s I wandered lonely as a cloud (2019). Beautifully sung by Tenebrae (as all the choral numbers are), neither piece varies the mix overmuch. The overarching impression is of relentlessly lyrical (if not especially memorable) writing, harmonically anodyne, rhythmically slow-moving, too much of a good thing. The largest work (and title-track) Night Seasons (2022) is more of the same but here at least the larger scale recalls something of the monumental quality and appeal of the Requiem. It is performed with splendid feeling by Guy Johnston, Tenebrae and the Philharmonia under Nigel Short’s direction, building to a true catharsis. While any choral cello concerto draws memories of Nordheim’s incomparable Wirklicher Wald (1983, recorded on the Norwegian Composers label), it may just be that Dale’s talents are better suited to larger canvases. Fine sound throughout.