Frederick Delius

Started by tjguitar, May 14, 2007, 05:44:52 PM

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tjguitar

Listening to his piano concerto. What an incredible work.  Very soothing. I like the interplay between piano and orchestra. Up there w/ Bax's "Winter Legends"





Anyone else enjoy his work here?

I have very few Delius CDs, but the ones that I do, I can recommend:






I am currently looking for a recording of his "Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra."  Any recommendations?

Harry

Sure I like his music, and have some of it, but it never made a profound statement for me.
Nice enough but nothing more. Sweet rural music. I have the usual blockbusters, but did not play it for years.
Have to dive a little in his oeuvre. Thanks for bringing him up. :)

vandermolen

I like the Piano Concerto and also the Requiem.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

springrite

Quote from: Harry on May 14, 2007, 10:43:45 PM
Sure I like his music, and have some of it, but it never made a profound statement for me.
Nice enough but nothing more. Sweet rural music. I have the usual blockbusters, but did not play it for years.
Have to dive a little in his oeuvre. Thanks for bringing him up. :)

May I suggest some Delius works that are not among "the ususal suspects"? Try the violin sonatas. They are delightly. They are the only works by Delius that Vanessa loves. If they are good enough for Vanessa, surely Harry would love them as well!

Harry

Quote from: springrite on May 14, 2007, 11:11:00 PM
May I suggest some Delius works that are not among "the ususal suspects"? Try the violin sonatas. They are delightly. They are the only works by Delius that Vanessa loves. If they are good enough for Vanessa, surely Harry would love them as well!

Absolutely Paul, I will fortwith try to find some recordings of it.
Feel free to give some suggestions. :)

springrite

Quote from: Harry on May 14, 2007, 11:21:22 PM
Absolutely Paul, I will fortwith try to find some recordings of it.
Feel free to give some suggestions. :)

From Conifer: Tasmin Little's recording.  ;D

Harry

Quote from: springrite on May 14, 2007, 11:41:34 PM
From Conifer: Tasmin Little's recording.  ;D

On the order list!
Thanks.

Sergeant Rock

This is one of my favorite Delius recordings:




This is another:




Mackerras conducts Delius in a way that might convince skeptics of Delius's music: no dainty, lazy summer's walk in the country, scrupulously avoiding the cowpats, here. The music is full-blooded, passionate, with almost overwhelming climaxes.

The twofer contains: Brigg Fair, Florida Suite, In a Summer Garden, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, Two Aquarelles, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Summer Night on the River, Dance Rhapsody 1 and 2, and the relatively rare North Country Sketches.

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

PerfectWagnerite

I really like Delius. He is just "different" and very orginal. I don't have too many of his CDs but do have these:





which I kinda feel is enough for now since there are no duplicates.

Hector

I think that if it hadn't been for Beecham his music would have dropped into obscurity that many deserve but Delius, certainly, does not.

Died the same year as Elgar and Holst, it was Holst that was mourned the most because Elgar was old, Delius lived in the S of France and Holst was regarded as unfulfilled as a composer. This was the view in 1934, I hasten to add.

A bit hit and miss for me. He couldn't compose opera for toffee, no sense of the theatre, but his orchestral works have a quality that I find compelling having, when younger, found him a bore.

If the 'Florida Suite' doesn't do it for you I doubt whether anything he wrote will. Go on, prove me wrong!

German by inclination if not birth it has been our Scandinavian friends that have done the most for the composer's music in recent years.


SonicMan46

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on May 15, 2007, 04:33:23 AM
This is one of my favorite Delius recordings:...............................

This is another:



Mackerras conducts Delius in a way that might convince skeptics of Delius's music: no dainty, lazy summer's walk in the country, scrupulously avoiding the cowpats, here. The music is full-blooded, passionate, with almost overwhelming climaxes.

The twofer contains: Brigg Fair, Florida Suite, In a Summer Garden, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, Two Aquarelles, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Summer Night on the River, Dance Rhapsody 1 and 2, and the relatively rare North Country Sketches.

Sarge

I'm also a long-time Delius fan - own the 2-CD set mentioned by Sarge - excellent and bargin introduction to his orchestral works; also have the discs shown below (one or several already mentioned); dont' have much of his 'vocal' works (except the songs below), so that might be a 'new' consideration:

Tasmin Little w/ Piers Lane on piano in the Violin Sonatas - she is outstanding in these pieces.
Sea Drift, Songs of Farewell, & Songs of Sunset w/ Hickox + Sally Burgess & Bryn Terfel (always love that guy's singing!)
Cello + pinao works of Delius & Grieg w/ Julian Lloyd Webber & Bengt Forsberg
Concertos Cello + Violin/Cello & Paris-Song of a Great City w/ Little & Wallfisch; Mackerras + Royal Liverpool PO.

 

 

SimonGodders

No Delius collection is worth it without Beecham (IMO). I can't think of a composer/conductor relationship that was as intrinsically linked as these two. Beecham takes you away to a unique and totally original sound-world, full of mystery, romance and allure. Be warned, there are those that positively loathe Delius, A very divisive composer!

This collection is the one to have:


Re-mastered as a GROC, but frustratingly not all of it by EMI (downsized to single CD):


There's also some good stuff on Sony/Columbia from the 1950's, including The Mass of Life:


The Barbirolli collection on EMI is good, Handley is fine, haven't heard Mackerras, but the best anyone has done after Beecham are the two Naxos CD's by Lloyd-Jones I feel.

I'ld be wary of the very first Beecham/Naxos CD's with the pre-war LPO, they are quite awful transfers, but the transfer engineer Lennick seems to have done better with the post-war early RPO stuff.

SimonGodders

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on May 15, 2007, 04:33:23 AM
no dainty, lazy summer's walk in the country, scrupulously avoiding the cowpats, here.

I think that's what I like in the music of Delius!

;D

knight66

I used to enjoy The Mass of Life until I sang in it. Close up and getting into the guts of it, apart from the opening chorus, I became increasingly disenchanted with it, the structure is poor and basically, panthistic rubbish, unredeemed by the music.

I enjoy quite a bit of his work, but not this turkey.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

tjguitar

QuoteConcertos Cello + Violin/Cello & Paris-Song of a Great City w/ Little & Wallfisch; Mackerras + Royal Liverpool PO.

I've been looking at this CD, it's certainly in the price range ($6.98, also part of amazon's 4-for-3). Does this get as much praise as the Mackerras Double Decca?


TJ

SonicMan46

Quote from: tjguitar on May 15, 2007, 11:18:15 AM
I've been looking at this CD, it's certainly in the price range ($6.98, also part of amazon's 4-for-3). Does this get as much praise as the Mackerras Double Decca?

TJ - for the price, the disc of the concertos is an outstanding value - my most recent Delius acquisition (need to get his piano concerto, and already some recommendations appearing - any more?).  Paris - The Song of a Great City (which I had not heard before) is done wonderfully w/ Mackerras (kind of like a pre-Gershwin 'An American in Paris'; of course, Delius was an Englishman in Paris!).  The two concertos are superb - Little & Wallfisch are fantastic - highly recommended!

BTW - the 'Penguin Guide' gives this CD 3* and feels the solo performances are pretty much at the top; also, the 'Third Ear' classical music guide states "Little was also featured, with cellist Raphael Wallfisch, in the best recording to date of the Double Concerto..., along w/ the latter's Cello Concerto - a worthy rival to Du Pre - and Mackerras's brilliant Paris, easily the finest since Beecham's."

Finally, I've not heard Beecham in this orchestral repertoire although he seems to gleem some of the better if not the best comments regarding Delius performances - my only reservations would be the 'sound quality' of these older recordings, which has received some negative reviews; but I'm 'open' to all considerations & suggestions - Thanks.  :D

SimonGodders

Quote from: SonicMan on May 15, 2007, 12:32:09 PM
Finally, I've not heard Beecham in this orchestral repertoire although he seems to gleem some of the better if not the best comments regarding Delius performances - my only reservations would be the 'sound quality' of these older recordings, which has received some negative reviews; but I'm 'open' to all considerations & suggestions - Thanks.  :D

I think you're right. The music of Delius can be a subtle and nuanced affair that doesn't lend itself well to historic sound IMO. For this reason, go for either the EMI 2CD set or the later re-mastered GROC, both in stereo and the GROC sounding fabulous. All the more reason I'm cross they didn't re-master both the CD's  :(

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: knight on May 15, 2007, 10:00:28 AM
I used to enjoy The Mass of Life until I sang in it.

Thank god I can't sing  ;D

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

tjguitar

Quote(need to get his piano concerto, and already some recommendations appearing - any more?)

I read on MusicWeb that there are actually two versions of the Delius Piano Concerto, I think Piers Lane even performed piano on both of them, anyway, the CFP one with Handley and the RLPO I thought was very good.

tjguitar

#19
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on May 15, 2007, 04:33:23 AM
This is one of my favorite Delius recordings:




Sarge

I see this on Amazon:



Is it just a reissue?


I also found another Delius Chandos CD on Amazon that nobody has mentioned that has a really good review. Amazon says ADD, so must be fairly old recordings: