Williams / Delius: Orchestral Works (Essential Classics)
Here's a fantastically played album of quiet, largely relaxing music by two of this century's greatest English composers. Delius, despite the popularity of his little tone poem about the cuckoo, remains something of an acquired taste; but Eugene Ormandy has selected some of the composer's best pieces, performing them all with uncommon character and no sense of dullness. And as for the great "Tallis Fantasion" of Vaughan Williams--possibly the finest work ever written for string orchestra--suffice to say that the Philadelphia Orchestra at the time of this recording had the world's best string section. This is a marriage made in heaven. A marvelous disc.--David Hurwitz