Recording When Music Sounds
//PRESS
// MEDIA
Gramophone Magazine 2025 composer feature here.
Gramophone podcast interview here.
Classic FM interview here.
Decca press release here.
// REVIEWS
"The young British composer Rebecca Dale has emerged from a career in film music into major stardom"
James Manheim, AllMusic
"One of our brightest British composers"
Presenter Margherita Taylor, Classic FM
"Rebecca Dale floored me with her debut album, Requiem for my Mother. Her follow-up, Night Seasons, is no less sublime: graceful melodies atop rich harmonies wind through the darkness towards the dawn."
Tom Shone, Sunday Times
"If I’m honest, I held back listening to this, because I feared it might be another boring neo-classical album. How completely wrong I was. This is a miraculous, life-affirming wonder. Seriously. It’s astonishing. It’s one of those rare works that is so mind-blowing that you know you’ll never write anything that comes close, but it doesn’t make you want to give up. Thank you Rebecca Dale"
Dru Masters, TV and film composer, PRS & BASCA Board Director, on Requiem For My Mother
"Finest of all, though, is Rebecca Dale's specially commissioned title-track, Winter. With mulled wine and a slice of Stollen to hand, this warming masterpiece will definitely see me through any hivernal hardship."
Malcolm Riley, Gramophone
"A household name in years to come"
Presenter Charlotte Hawkins, Classic FM
"The essence of Night Seasons, the choral parts immaculately and feelingly sung by Tenebrae, the cello parts eqully singing, is of hope and fresh life. Night is, after all, the time when we grow, heal and dream. This is a celebration of live and those who give it."
Gramophone / Choir & Organ Magazine
"Powerful emotional charge... British composer Rebecca Dale has musical roots in both the worlds of concert and film composition. Incorporating lush tonal harmonies and an unabashed lyricism, Dale’s crossover style has won the composer a considerable following. These two works for voices and orchestra are richly cinematic in colour. The final requiem movement for unaccompanied voices is arrestingly lovely. While the Requiem otherwise sets the Catholic Mass, here Dale turns to Joyce Grenfell’s stoic ‘If I Should Go’ (‘Parting is hell / But life goes on / So sing as well’). Dale sets this simple, affecting text with deliciously rich harmonies and unexpected melodic turns. Beautifully sung by the Kantos Chamber Choir, it brings the work to a radiant close. Dale’s choral symphony When Music Sounds (2014) closes the disc and features the track ‘I’ll Sing’ which shot to the top of the classical charts. It is a stirring and generous piece, full of soaring melodies and cheering climaxes, and here well performed by Cantus Ensemble. This vibrant celebration of the music’s power is an uplifting conclusion to this debut disc."
Kate Wakeling, BBC Music Magazine, on Requiem For My Mother
"Spectacular. The quality of her orchestral writing is phenomenal. I was instantly blown away and completely transported. I actually wish I'd written that one myself. This woman has an illustrious future ahead of her."
BAFTA Games Music winner Jessica Curry, Classic FM, on Out Of The Water
"One of the most breathtaking albums I've heard in a while. A lush choral sound that sounds contemporary, but still sacred and old-timely. That combined with the playing of cellist Steven Isserlis, the music sounds divine, wistful and hopeful all at the same time"
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio on Night Seasons
"An evocative seasonal minature, Winter really does have a superb glow - a transparent and sparkling instrumental backdrop from violin, cello and celeste, and rich, full-bodied writing for the singers"
Presenter Sarah Walker, BBC Radio 3
"The Materna Requiem is likely to build further bridges for the composer, especially among Classic FM listeners. Echoes of consonant choral style... are never far away, often appearing alongside rhythmic bursts of energy and colourful splashes of sound one associates with the film soundtracks of John Williams and Howard Shore. Dale’s masterstroke is that she manages to blend these two elements. If Verdi’s Requiem is operatic in its visual power, Dale’s is predominantly filmic."
Pwyll ap Siôn, Gramophone
"One of today's most exciting young composers"
Presenter Catherine Bott, Classic FM
"Set to the text of the Roman Catholic rite and contemporary poetry, the requiem has moments of solemn, introspective beauty which can build to a startling climax. Dale has an expert's grasp of orchestration that illustrates whichever text she is setting. All the performers here give a very moving performance of the work; conductor Clark Rundell has a complete grasp of the idiom and gives Dale the best start for her debut disc."
Shirley Ratcliffe, Choir & Organ Magazine
"A terrific composer"
Aled Jones
"The music is so good!"
Stephen Mangan, actor (Green Wing, Episodes, Alan Partridge)
"It really is something special"
Presenter Nicholas Owen, Classic FM, on I'll Sing