Delius and Elgar both had an uncanny ability to print their signature on almost every bar they wrote. These two works, spaced apart in years from early and much later in Delius's composing career, certainly bear this out—and what a tune-smith to produce that Dance in the first movement of his very first orchestral work: subsequently it reappeared in his opera Koanga but it is best known as the orchestral piece La calinda.
This recording is up to the Chandos standard as regards perspective, and Vernon Handley takes full advantage of the dynamics. The Ulster Orchestra, incorporating many personnel from the late BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra, perform well but there is just enough roughness in the string tone at loud passages to deny this disc a top mark.'