Frederick Delius

[cilgwyn]

A very good question,Sergeant! I'll come back to you on this!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

If I may offer my own answer - Hickox, in my view, doesn't cut it. Groves has the better soloists and his reading is more passionate. Same goes for Hickox' 'Requiem' - Meredith Davies is superior. There is an ecstasy in these works which a conductor must impart, so that you get a 'lift-off' at the end . For me Hickox fails to do that. But I like his 'Appalachia' a lot, though the soloist's voice at the end isn't to my liking.

[cilgwyn]

Thank you,Johan! I was cooking supper & downloading some Schulhoff,whose music I've suddenly developed quite a taste for,so a reply had to wait! I don't like burnt scampi! Sorry Sarge!!!!

  Scampi aside,I was going to say the same thing,really,except that I haven't actually heard the Hickox ,so I can't really make any comparisons......except,that I like the singers on the Groves,and I know I'm being a bit of a curmudgeon here,but I think some of those singers they had,years ago,just have more characterful,expressive sounding voices,and I like Groves as a conductor in this kind of repertoire. I will download it eventually,if emi don't come up trumps! I quite like downloading,now!

  By the way,has anyone heard the Del Mar performance? I have read some good things about it somewhere,but have avoided the Intaglio,even when someone was offering it cheap,because Intaglio are a bit dodgy,I'm not that mad about Kiri te wotsits singing (not that I would suggest she isn't good),at least not in this kind of music & I'm not too crazy about live recordings,unless there's no alternative.......it's the Gothic,or virtually anything by Havergal Brian!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Del Mar is good, too. I have it...

[cilgwyn]

Kiri te Kanawa! I remember mulling over a cheap ex library copy,but I eventually resisted. She could be very good in this,actually,come to think of it! I'm sure someone was praising this performance,up to the hilt, somewhere & Del Mar is underrated,I suppose. I should have bought it.........and it WAS cheap!   The only soloist I really DO like in the Hickox is Joan Rodgers!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

It's been a while since I last listened. I'll revisit it next week, if I find the time, just to check what I think of the performance now...

[cilgwyn]

It would be interesting to hear what you think. There isn't exactly a huge amount of informartion about that performance,on the internet.
Next time a cheap copy comes along.maybe I'll just buy it!!!

[raduneo]

Who wouldn't love this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/SVeaAhYluOc

Sounds absolutely gorgeous! Delius and Finzi I have to explore!

[Mirror Image]

Sounds absolutely gorgeous! Delius and Finzi I have to explore!

Glad you enjoyed that. This work The Walk to the Paradise Garden was extracted from one his operas called A Village Romeo and Juliet. The next Delius works I urge you to hear are Florida Suite and In A Sumer Garden. I think these will win you over and if they don't then I'm afraid to say that he may not be for you.

[Sergeant Rock]

If I may offer my own answer - Hickox, in my view, doesn't cut it. Groves has the better soloists and his reading is more passionate. Same goes for Hickox' 'Requiem' - Meredith Davies is superior. There is an ecstasy in these works which a conductor must impart, so that you get a 'lift-off' at the end . For me Hickox fails to do that. But I like his 'Appalachia' a lot, though the soloist's voice at the end isn't to my liking.

Scampi aside,I was going to say the same thing....I like the singers on the Groves,and I know I'm being a bit of a curmudgeon here,but I think some of those singers they had,years ago,just have more characterful,expressive sounding voices,and I like Groves as a conductor in this kind of repertoire. I will download it eventually,if emi don't come up trumps! I quite like downloading,now!

Thank you both.

Sarge

[cilgwyn]

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?

Just spotted this post. Nice to hear someone describe a Piano Concerto as being "Up there w/ Bax's Winter Legends" !!!
The last time I praised it here,someone said something about "Woolly mammoths!"

[cilgwyn]

As some members may have observed,I have often moaned here about the deletion of Grove's emi account of Delius's 'A Mass of Life'. I do not have it in my collection & for the last 2-3 years sellers have been asking such high prices (and some of them with lousy ratings,too! ) I have had to resist. Anyway,I now appear to have procured a set for £10 (+ p&p) from an Amazon seller. Having received a very prompt reply to my email,I will now be keeping my fingers crossed that within the next few days,I will have a nice s/h copy of the Groves emi set & nothing left to moan about!

[cilgwyn]

Well,I received my s/h copy of the Groves 'A Mass of Life' today. Absolutely mint condition & not a mark on either cd. The booklet itself looks like new! Did he ever play it,without surgical gloves? All I can say is,'Wow!' (a bit late for that,ed!)

[cilgwyn]

As to the music itself. Wonderful! Why wouldn't anyone like it? Although,I'll have to listen to it again,before I can really decide! And what glorious singing & I'm not just referring to 'A Mass of Life'. This is the sort of recording that really underlines the problem I have with allot of recent recordings. Well performed & sung as they are,they just don't seem to have singers with such distinctive voices anymore. Impressive as they are,I can't seem to tell one from the other!
Of course,I grew up with those 'old' singers,so it's not that suprising,really,I suppose. But I do feel there's something missing from the current generation! And I'm not referring to acne,although,yes,there is less of that!
Oh,and to think that emi once actually recorded repertory like this?!!!

NB: All I need is the emi set of Koanga,now!

                                   

[snyprrr]

The Delius Thread grows like the moss on a dewey morn.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Cilgwyn, I fully echo your enthusiasm for the Groves recording - it is excellent, it has all the power, feeling and colour you could wish for. The performance is so good, that it makes clear to anyone with ears that 'A Mass of Life' is major Delius, though an earlier incarnation of him.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Quote from: snyprrr on 24-08-2012, 18:29:56

The Delius Thread grows like the moss on a dewey morn.



Like it.

[xochitl]

i jut heard delius for the first time [violin sonatas with tasmin little].  holy cow!  i'm in love

where next?

[cilgwyn]

I'm going to have to hear those,myself!

It took a few more years for me to get a copy of the Groves Mass of Life. The thing is,you can't buy everything (not on my budget,anyway!) & you don't really expect anything to get deleted for that long. Back in the days of Lps,I would send off for secondhand records,often boxed sets,which would only cost a few pounds.Nowadays to buy some of the cds sellers offer on Amazon,you need a small mortgage!
Usually the price of s/h sets drop when the cd is reissued in some form. Unfortunately,emi seem to have developed an unfortunate tendency to reissue recordings as part of mult-sets!

You just have to be patient! Here are some other emi deletions I had to 'sit it out' for:

Holst: Choral Symphony/Boult
Britten Peter: Grimes/Rape of Lucretia/Goodall
Vaughan Williams:Hugh the Drover/Groves
Brian: Symphonies 7,8 & 9 (2 cd set)

But I eventually got 'em!

EMI have reissued their recording of 'A Village Romeo & Juliet' in a nice edition,with the original artwork,but I'm not sure if I'm allot happier with the Mackerras recording (the film was nice,too!). I only wish I'd kept the original Argo release,which looked allot smarter! It also had a complete libretto. This,incidentally,leads me another annoying trend. Libretto's on cds,or online,so you need a pc or laptop,to view them! Of course,the price is reduced,but what are you supposed to do? Print the whole thing out,I suppose? Or stare at a laptop?! One way around this is to hang onto the nice,big,often illustrated libretto's from the original Lp box sets! Some of which are very nice,indeed! (You can often buy an old ex library set,from a stall,for next to nothing!)

An emi release of Koanga,WOULD be very nice,but they appear to have reissued it as part of one of those mult-sets!
There was a BBC release of 'The Magic Fountain', once upon a time, and this is another one,obviously,overdue for a reissue! Luckily I have off air cassette tapes of a Scottish National Opera production,which I hope to transfer to cd,as soon as I have the right lead & the time!

Off topic I know,but listening to the 'off air' complete recording of Holst's,very colourful & entertaining opera,'The Perfect Fool'.it really is rather difficult to understand why emi never got around to a complete recording! Mind you,having said that,it's even harder to believe that emi once recorded repertory,like the stuff listed above!

How the once,mighty fall!

[cilgwyn]

After being 'blown away' (as they say! ) by the Charles Grove recording of Delius's 'Mass of Life',which I had been trying to get s/h for ages,I remember adding,albeit humorously,that the deleted 'Koanga' would be next on my 'list'!
  Well,I looked on Amazon the other day & there it was,at a nice low price! Wanting to save,part of me groaned inwardly,but at that price,what could I do? I HAD to buy it!
  So here I am,and by gum,Delius has 'blown me away' again!!! After being suprised at how full blooded the 'Mass of Life' sounded (I was expecting something pastoral & a bit polite) I am now astonished at how good this opera really is! Passionate,rousing,exciting and worlds away from his later more 'impressionistic' mood painting. And even more astonishing,some of it,really does make you think of Porgy and Bess. In fact,there are moments when the orchestration,the choruses,the banjos really do feel like a fore shadowing of that great work! In fact,if you nodded off & woke up at some points,you might actually think old Sportin' Life was about to show up!
Amazing,actually! And so varied. Not a dull moment. This is simply worlds away from the perceived image of English opera of this period & proves,for me anyway,that English opera before Peter Grimes WAS dramatic & not just all hey nonny no & pretty orchestration!

Wonderful! I REALLY AM gobsmacked about this one! A real suprise!!!!!!