The sound quality is outstandingly good. The ample resonance of All Saint’s Church, Tooting, South London, adds a glorious richness to the sound, with exceptionally natural balance and perspectives - yet, at the same time there is excellent clarity of detail and separation between the various groups involved and the recording has no difficulty in handling the wide dynamic range of Mathia’s complex scoring, with its extensive use of tuned percussion A wonderful record.
G H Lewis - Welsh Music - Summer 1990
Sir David dominates the preceedings with sovereign grace. His choirs sing gorgeously, the boy sopranosbeing especially praiseworthy for their open-throated vigor and palpable humanity. The soloists are radiant of voice and authoritative of enunciation A thoughtful, sincere, and welcome contribution to the world’s general clutter, this requiem mass should in time take a place of honour beside the equally unorthodox musical structures of Brahms and Britten.
David Claris - Fanfare - January/Febrary 1990
Each and every one of the participants in this undertaking - from conuctor Willcocks to sound engineer Ralph Couzens - does his or her necessary part in fusing the myriad components of Mathias’ teeming/aural imagination into a single entity, and all are to be commended in the highest terms. They help make this alternatively explosive and diaphanous, seraphic and boisterous, always elegant and handsome work a significant addition to that great and growing body of 20th-century English choral masterpieces.
PS - Fanfare - July/August 1985
the confidence of the writing makes the work far more than derivative, an approachable and colourful piece, full of memorable ideas, especially in this excellent performance, beautifully sung and played and atmospherically balanced.
The Penguin Complete Guide
It is a full, wide-ranging recording and one admires the wholehearted commitment of all concerned to Mathias’s music
MK - Gramophone - November 1989
not to be missed is the Britten inspired Mathias: Lux Aeterna. This noble work is most sensitively interpreted by the Bach Choir and LSO forces under Sir David Willcocks. Especially memorable is the overlapping of the Chorus, the Boys Chorus and the Soloists - including Felcity Lott - in the great prayer for eternal light and Mathias’ vision of the Holy Trinity.
Hedley Berry - Classical Express - October 1989