Frederick Delius

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Well, as I said on Facebook - the first minutes looked very promising... 

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Well, as I said on Facebook - the first minutes looked very promising... 

You'll enjoy it I think. Like I said, it's the best Delius documentary I've seen, although there were a few missing things that I thought were much more important than listening to what somebody I never heard of say about a piece of music. I'll let you figure out what the documentary missed.

[cilgwyn]

I'm listening to the Tasmin Litlle/Mackerras recording of the VC right now. This really is lovely! No problems here. I think coming back to it after discovering Koanga & the Mass of Life has opened my mind to it. And,of course Johan,before you,did allot of very persuasive Delian posting,which really got me into Delius,in quite a big way. As to whether it's discursive? When the music is as beautiful as this,who cares? I don't generally like Violin Concertos,I'm afraid. I don't know why. The only ones I have ever enjoyed really are by Mendelssohn,Brahms,Moeran,Korngold,Brian,Tchaikovsky(I suppose) and Barber's is rather nice...........and this one,in terms of form,is probably the most original of the lot;although,I probably shouldn't say that!
What not to like it? Thanks for getting me to give this another try MI!! I'm really enjoying it!

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I'm listening to the Tasmin Litlle/Mackerras recording of the VC right now. This really is lovely! No problems here. I think coming back to it after discovering Koanga & the Mass of Life has opened my mind to it. And,of course Johan,before you,did allot of very persuasive Delian posting,which really got me into Delius,in quite a big way. As to whether it's discursive? When the music is as beautiful as this,who cares? I don't generally like Violin Concertos,I'm afraid. I don't know why. The only ones I have ever enjoyed really are by Mendelssohn,Brahms,Moeran,Korngold,Brian,Tchaikovsky(I suppose) and Barber's is rather nice...........and this one,in terms of form,is probably the most original of the lot;although,I probably shouldn't say that!
What not to like it? Thanks for getting me to give this another try MI!! I'm really enjoying it!

Good to see you're enjoying the Violin Concerto now. It's certainly a beautiful work and favorite of mine. The rhapsodic nature of the piece I find very satisfying and is completely different than any other violin concerto written around that time. Delius is one of the most original and innovative of the 20th Century but this isn't what academia would have you to believe.

[cilgwyn]

A few comparisons,now!! It IS rhapsodic,yet,somehow,it works! Anyone who thinks it meanders can always have a listen to the Chandos recording of Scott's,similarly rhapsodic (in nature) Violin Concerto.Scott certainly knew how to orchestrate,but unlike Delius he doesn't know when to stop. Delius also,crucially,knew how to sort the chaff from the wheat. Having said that,Moeran's (very rhapsodic) Violin Concerto meanders like billy-o,but the orchestration is so beautiful I can happily ignore the not so good bits! By comparison,the Delius is a model of concision.

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A few comparisons,now!! It IS rhapsodic,yet,somehow,it works! Anyone who thinks it meanders can always have a listen to the Chandos recording of Scott's,similarly rhapsodic (in nature) Violin Concerto.Scott certainly knew how to orchestrate,but unlike Delius he doesn't know when to stop. Delius also,crucially,knew how to sort the chaff from the wheat. Having said that,Moeran's (very rhapsodic) Violin Concerto meanders like billy-o,but the orchestration is so beautiful I can happily ignore the not so good bits! By comparison,the Delius is a model of concision.

I just can't get into Scott's music. There seems to be a lack of melodic ideas in his music that I simply can't find any way to get inside of the music. He certainly isn't a Delius, Ravel, or Debussy! But not many are. I need to reacquaint myself with Moeran's music. It's been about three years since I've listened to any of his music. At the end of the day, I still find Delius to be one of the most original composers in the 20th Century.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I love Scott's First Piano Concerto, great piece.


As for the Delius Violin Concerto - ever since I heard it in the early 1980s (Albert Sammons' historic recording), I have loved it. The thing about Delius is that there is no preconceived form, form finds itself through a sort of inspired improvisation. Mood and recurring material bind the Delian composition tightly together. With Frederick Delius you only have to go with the (his) flow. And how people can find that difficult, is increasingly beyond me. We live through deaf and unfeeling times.

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As for the Delius Violin Concerto - ever since I heard it in the early 1980s (Albert Sammons' historic recording), I have loved it. The thing about Delius is that there is no preconceived form, form finds itself through a sort of inspired improvisation. Mood and recurring material bind the Delian composition tightly together. With Frederick Delius you only have to go with the (his) flow. And how people can find that difficult, is increasingly beyond me. We live through deaf and unfeeling times.

Well said, Johan. People have preconceived notions of Delius' music and with those notions they fall 'deaf' on the real magic of his music. For anyone to tell me that his Violin Sonata No. 3 is boring and meandering (two words that naysayers continue to use ) is beyond me. How can they not hear the aching pain of this work? The Violin Concerto is not difficult to comprehend. Like you said, there's a main melodic idea that gets repeated several times throughout the entire work. When this idea appears, it's as if he had finished writing a verse in a poem, and he ends each verse with a variation of that main melodic idea. It's lyrical, it's poignant, and it's searching work, but it never really reaches a final conclusion because heartbreak doesn't really offer a conclusion. He simply has chosen to move on from it and for his work post-1900 that's how a lot of his music is. It's a journey of one man's despair and each of these works represents a different journey, a different viewpoint of really the same emotion. This underlying desolation, if you will, is in all of these works even the ones that have a bright, sunny surface. Knowing his life, I cannot except that things were a rose garden for him because they weren't, but, like any great composer, poet, artist, etc., the only way for him to release himself was through his own art.

[Leo K.]

At this moment, the double concerto is my favorite string concerto of Delius, the melodies in this work have such ecstatic nature about them, truly inspired.

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At this moment, the double concerto is my favorite string concerto of Delius, the melodies in this work have such ecstatic nature about them, truly inspired.

The Double Concerto is very fine indeed. My favorite performance is Little/Wallfisch/Mackerras on EMI, but I did enjoy the more recent one Little made with Paul Watkins on Chandos.

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What do you guys make of the incidental music Delius wrote called Hassan? This is certainly some of the most exotic music Delius composed. There has only been one complete recording of it (Handley, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, EMI). Thomas Beecham came pretty close but still only just recorded excerpts.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

The closing chorus ("We take the Golden Road to Samarkand") is one of my favourite Delius pieces. I only know the historic Beecham recording of the Hassan music...

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The closing chorus ("We walk the Golden Road to Samarkand") is one of my favourite Delius pieces. I only know the historic Beecham recording of the Hassan music...

The Handley recording is incredibly difficult to track down for a good price. It is coupled with Elgar's Starlight Express. But, thankfully, EMI included it in the 150th Anniversary set!

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Hassan is a really inventive work. It shows Delius in a different kind of light compared to many of his other works. I'm going to try and track down some program notes on this work (if they exist) and post my findings here.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Yes, Delius having to illustrate, musically, a play, really asked for something different from him as a composer.


And now I have to eat and work!

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Yes, Delius having to illustrate, musically, a play, really asked for something different from him as a composer.


And now I have to eat and work!

In this different light, he still sounds unmistakably like himself. I'm still on the prowl for some program notes...

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I was looking through some of my classical music DVDs and I stumbled upon this:



I haven't even opened it yet! I see it has a documentary included called Discovering Delius.

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Anyone else here own this DVD of A Village Romeo & Juliet? I've read many good things about it. Hopefully, I'll be able to watch it tonight.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I have it. It was on BBC television, a long time ago. Beautiful, I think.

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I have it. It was on BBC television, a long time ago. Beautiful, I think.

Great! I look forward to watching it. But first I must finish Eric Fenby's book!