This was definitely worth reissuing. The singers of Pro Cantione Antiqua sound on superb form here, especially Paul Elliott in the introduction, David Thomas as a suitably troubled Belshazzar and James Griffett as a golden-voiced Daniel. Mark Brown's edition of the music adds a fair amount of instruments and bells in the New York Pro Musica fashion, interpolates a few nicely performed external pieces and (my chief sadness) transposes melodies up and down on a whim. Among its virtues are its relatively fluid rhythms, which avoid too much joggy flavour, and some neatly devised counterpoints.
When the record was first issued, many of us rather preferred David Wulstan's more sober Calliope version issued only a few months earlier, which was thoroughly eloquent even if the singers were not so expert. But even then nobody regretted Pro Cantione Antiqua's version. Returning to it after all these years (during which, so far as I know, only one further record of the play has been issued) is a considerable pleasure. The Play of Daniel is one of the major monuments of musical theatre, full of characterization and drama; it merits a place in the catalogue. It also merits a new recording, but purely in terms of vocal excitement any new challengers will have a hard time beating this.'