Frederick Delius

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Well said, Leo! Yes, the poignancy of Delius's music comes exactly from the embracing of an ever-transient Now

[Mirror Image]

We have a new Delian amongst us. I'm so happy!

[Leo K.]

Thanks gentleman! I'm happy to be here 

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I found some older posts of mine from another forum that I made about Delius:

Delius' music has become very important to me these past few months. I have realized that the more I listen to him, the more I understand him a lot better. He was kind of an enigmatic person in some regards, because his style wasn't really rooted in the Western Classical tradition, but rather an amalgamation of a lot of different kinds of music such as music he heard while he was working on an orange plantation in Florida. It was there he heard Black church music and spirituals. It was also in Florida where he received composition training. When he returned to Europe, he settled in Paris and became a permanent resident. This is where some of his best writing came about: "In A Summer Garden," "North Country Sketches," etc.

It's interesting that his music is rarely talked about on this forum as he was an important part of classical music's rich history. Nobody sounded like Delius and his music is certainly an acquired taste, but once you close off any pre-conceived notions of his style of composition, which is very impressionistic, then you can understand him better. July 2009

Someone asked me on this other forum of how I came to find sadness in Delius' music:

You asked me where do I get the sadness and despair in Delius' pieces? I soon found this element in his music, which is quite prevalent in many of his compositions, to be beneath the surface of these works, especially in "In A Summer Garden," "North Country Sketches," and "Florida Suite." This feeling can also be found in his "Mass For Life" and his "Requiem." His concertos also have a certain degree of sadness.

Where I get this from is simple: reading about his life. The suffering he must have went through at many stages of life (he had syphilis as you probably know), which contributes to this feeling of emptiness. I also think there's something a lot deeper than this that happened to him perhaps while he lived in Florida. It's hard to tell really, but I can just feel that for Delius his music wasn't all "rose gardens and butterflies" if you know what I mean.

The more you read about the man, the more you come to the realization that composing was the only way he could keep his sanity as is the case with many composers. There's just something disturbing going on in Delius' music that warrants deeper listening.

Another quote of mine:

What's amazing about Delius is his music predates so much music and he's given very little credit, but he was a very innovative composer. It's like I have told you he was using jazz harmonies before jazz was even established as a musical form.

I think people are generally put off by his music, because of the unusual synthesis he created, which blended those desperate influences I mentioned in this thread. His music is without question an acquired taste music like Debussy or Janacek are acquired tastes, but I think there is so much to learn from what he composed.

[Leo K.]

I found some older posts of mine from another forum that I made about Delius:

Someone asked me on this other forum of how I came to find sadness in Delius' music:

Another quote of mine:

That was very good reading John. Thanks for posting your quotes. The quality of sadness you mention is right on, and it's helping me to be aware of this deeper dimension as i Iisten.

Right now I'm listening to Brigg Fair as conducted by Boult on EMI. Wow, the beginning is such an evocative invitation  into Delius' sound world. I'm so glad that I'm hearing this music!

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That was very good reading John. Thanks for posting your quotes. The quality of sadness you mention is right on, and it's helping me to be aware of this deeper dimension as I listen.

Right now I'm listening to Brigg Fair as conducted by Boult on EMI. Wow, the beginning is such an evocative invitation  into Delius' sound world. I'm so glad that I'm hearing this music!

Thanks, Leo. That feeling of longing or yearning is so prevalent in the music. Have you watched Tasmin Little's short documentary on Delius? I posted it on this thread a page back or so. Brigg Fair is a fine work. There many good performances of that work available. My favorite may just be Hickox/Bournemouth on EMI. A scintillating performance.

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I think I'm going to revisit several of the EMI recordings I own outside of the 18-CD 150th Anniversary Edition set. I'm going to start with this one:

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This Hickox recording contains a great performance of Paris: The Song of a Great City that's not included in the large EMI set.

Then:

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I'm going to listen to Double Concerto with Tasmin Little and Raphael Wallfisch. Another great performance that wasn't included in the 150th set.

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Earlier today, I played The Walk to the Paradise Garden with Barbirolli/LSO through the stereo system and my Dad came in the room and said "Absolutely beautiful. You've just got to love Delius." This is coming from a hardcore Mahler fan. People who are close-minded to Delius' sound-world will forever be close-minded. This music is accessible, it's drenching in lush harmonies, the melodies are mesmerizing, and the music flows effortlessly. So where's the problem? Where's this horrible composer these naysayers speak of? This is just something that has always baffled me.

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It feels so good to be one of the rarer people who get Delius. I mean all I tend to read is one criticism after another of how his music so boring and goes nowhere. I'm tired of reading that junk. Thankfully, there is quite a large Delius listener community. I would join the Delius Society, but the membership is quite expensive.

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Right now I'm listening to Brigg Fair as conducted by Boult on EMI. Wow, the beginning is such an evocative invitation  into Delius' sound world. I'm so glad that I'm hearing this music!

Hey Leo, to my knowledge Boult never conducted Brigg Fair on EMI or any Delius for that matter. Could you possibly be talking about Beecham, Barbirolli or Hickox?

[Leo K.]

Hey Leo, to my knowledge Boult never conducted Brigg Fair on EMI or any Delius for that matter. Could you possibly be talking about Beecham, Barbirolli or Hickox?

I'm embarrassed! It was Beecham that I was listening to, I seem to always confuse Boult and Beecham in my mind

Been enjoying your comments above.

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I'm embarrassed! It was Beecham that I was listening to, I seem to always confuse Boult and Beecham in my mind

Been enjoying your comments above.

Thanks, Leo. You'll have to remind me again, what Delius recordings do you own?

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Since I've starting a bit of a Delius marathon and only a few people on GMG care anything about Delius' music, I'll keep my posts pertaining to his music on this thread. Here's a comment I made minutes ago on the listening thread:

Continuing with more performances on EMI that I own that are outside the Delius: 150th Anniversary Edition -



Listening to Late Swallows. Gorgeous work and performance. Barbirolli really an important conductor in Delius' music because he was very much the bridge between Beecham and later conductors like Groves, Handley, Hickox, A. Davis, etc. Barbirolli approached Delius in a much different way than Beecham did. One of the things he did was make the more atmospheric, textural aspects of the music more prominent, adding more subtle shadings that weren't quite heard in Beecham's recordings. Barbirolli also slowed things down a bit giving the listener more opportunities to hear the intertwining parts from each of the orchestral sections. In other words, he gave them more transparency.

[Leo K.]

[Leo K.]

I accidentally pushed send in the above post, I meant to include these too:






I have been on a marathon myself! Really enjoying this journey, I'll be posting more thoughts soon.

[Leo K.]

Oh, and thanks for your thoughts on the Barbirolli set, I've really enjoyed what I heard so far, and will listen more closely for the differences between Barbirolli and Beecham.

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The Lloyd-Jones' are good all-around recordings. The Beecham recording is essential. Interestingly enough, I own this recording and I even bought the Beecham set on EMI that came out last year (?) or so. I don't listen to Beecham's recordings very much but, for the Delius fan, they're as essential as Bruno Walter or Bernstein is for Mahler fans. Historically important rather. My favorite recording of the Violin Sonatas is with Little/Lane. I haven't heard, or own, this Naxos recording, but I never felt the need to buy any other performances of these works. If you haven't heard Tasmin Little's performance of Delius' Violin Concerto with Mackerras, then please, by all means, do so. You won't be sorry!

Have you considered any of the box sets from EMI, Decca, and Heritage? I own all three and they're all incredible.

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Oh, and thanks for your thoughts on the Barbirolli set, I've really enjoyed what I heard so far, and will listen more closely for the differences between Barbirolli and Beecham.

You're welcome. Baribirolli did for Delius what Boulez did for Debussy or Ravel. They conducted them in different, new, and exciting ways. The older order of conducting quickly subsided with these Barbirolli Delius recordings.

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I accidentally pushed send in the above post, I meant to include these too:






I have been on a marathon myself! Really enjoying this journey, I'll be posting more thoughts soon.

Good haul, there. I like the Requiem a good bit, I haven't completely warmed to Mass of Life. I think one of the problems is I'm trying to take on Mass of Life in one setting and I don't think this has given me the adequate amount of time to digest what I just heard. I'm going to try again with this work though. This time Charles Groves' performance.

That Piano Concerto recording is quite good. My favorite recording of the Delius PC is Piers Lane's earlier recording with Handley on EMI, but all of them have been really good. The performance with Jean-Rodolphe Kars and Mackerras on Decca is fantastic. Also, I like the Philip Fowke performance with Norman del Mar on the Heritage label (formally a Unicorn release).

I mentioned above about my preferred choice of the Little/Mackerras recording of the Violin Concerto. I like her new one as well. I need to listen to that one again. Another good performance is with Ralph Holmes and Handley on the Heritage label. The Double Concerto is another work where Little reigns supreme. Both of her performances are great: one with Raphael Wallfisch and the other with Watkins.

The orchestral set with Barbirolli I already commented on. It's really excellent despite some shaky orchestral playing from the trumpets towards the beginning of Brigg Fair.

I hope you enjoy these recordings, Leo!

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Hey Leo, when you have time please read this excerpt about the Florida Suite. It's quite interesting:

The Florida Suite is the stuff of legend. After a desultory school career and a rather wavering application to the family wool business, young Delius persuaded his father to stake him as master of a hundred-acre orange plantation along the St. Johns River, south of Jacksonville, Florida. Taking a Cunard liner from Liverpool, he arrived in late March 1884 and remained until September 1885. The impact of those months can hardly be overestimated, for it was here, in this lushly tropical setting, with its glowing spectrum of lurid natural splendors and preternatural quiet, that he recognized his vocation and took his first real steps toward it. When Delius took possession of Solano Grove, he had just turned 22. The critic, Cecil Gray, who knew the composer well in his later years, ascribed to this period "... that which is known to mystics as 'the state of illumination,' a kind of ecstatic revelation which may only last for a split second of time, but which he who has known it spends the rest of his life trying to recapture...I knew, too, the exact moment at which that experience must have occurred...and when I asked him if it were so and if I were right, he was surprised and admitted that I was. The occasion was one summer night, when he was sitting out on the verandah of his house in his orange grove...and the sound came to him from the near distance of the voices of the negroes in the plantation, singing in chorus. It is the rapture of this moment that Delius is perpetually seeking to communicate in all his most characteristic work."

[Excerpt taken from All Music Guide]

By the way, All Music Guide has some great write-ups about Delius' compositions. I've been reading these all night.