This is a transfer to CD of a recording issued nearly five years ago, just after Lux aeterna had had its first London performance by the artists on this disc. The work was a Three Choirs commission for Hereford in 1982. It is a full wide-ranging recording and one admires the wholehearted commitment of all concerned to Mathias's music. One also admires the pertinacity with which the Three Choirs almost annually seek for new works in this honoured tradition to succeed the masterpieces of the past.
I wish I thought they had found one in Lux aeterna. Mathias's music in this work says nothing to me, I am afraid, but I am sure there are many who will welcome it, not least for the mastery shown by Sir David Willcocks in conveying his own obvious enthusiasm for the piece.'