'With their reflections of Nature, the spiritual, and the oriental, the symphonies of Alan Hovhaness are rapidly acquiring cult status.' - CD Review (UK) The recording premiere of Hovhaness' Mount St. Helens Symphony, released in 1993, amazed us all by becoming Delos' most widely celebrated (and bestselling) release since Howard Hanson's Romantic and Nordic Symphonies in 1989. Requests poured in for a sequel offering Hovhaness' greatest hits - and here it is. Mysterious Mountain is probably Hovhaness' most famous symphonic work; And God Created Great Whales features some of the most majestic soloists ever recorded: humpbacked whales. It is clear that Hovhaness' music is finally finding a wider audience. This American mystic has long been a part of the international fabric, but has been waiting many decades for the extended recognition which is now coming to him. Certainly the symphonic sound stage that recording engineer John Eargle has established allows Hovhaness' music to be heard in a dimension never before available. For this album, everything was recorded 20-bit, and transferred in CD mastering via a 20-to-16-bit noise-shaping process. Mr. Hovhaness was present for the recording sessions, as he was for the Mount St. Helens recording. His emotion at hearing his music realized by Schwarz, Seattle, and the Delos team was evident to all in the sessions for both discs. Gramophone: 'If Gorecki, why not Hovhaness, one begins to ask, and there is something of the same flavour in this obviously dedicated music... The obvious dedication behind the performance, a quality which marks the playing of the Seattle symphony under Gerard Schwarz in all the works here. The recording too is full and atmospheric. Who knows, lightning might strike again, just as it did with Gorecki's Third Symphony.'