Frederick Delius

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Regarding Hassan:

James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915) was a late exponent of Aestheticism who worked in the consular service and was fascinated by the East. His works include the collection of poems The Golden Journey to Samarkand and the poetic drama Hassan, published posthumously and staged eight years after his death. Delius's substantial incidental music to the play includes preludes to each of the five acts, interludes, a serenade, fanfares, a four-movement ballet, melodramas and choruses.

[Taken from Boosey & Hawkes]

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A short review by Ian Lace of Handley's Hassan performance:

Delius's Serenade from Hassan is well known but the rest of his incidental music for this very successful 1920s play is virtually forgotten. Hassan, by James Elroy Flecker, is an Arabian Nights-type escapade – a heady mixture of pantomime comedy, disillusionment and sadism. Handley draws out all the romance and drama from this richly evocative score and the soloists and chorus are first class. The valuable illustrations that enhanced the original LP are omitted. Nevertheless, highly recommended.

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"Mr. Delius Discourses on His Music to 'Hassan'"

A report from Marion Scott

Christian Science Monitor Saturday, October 27, 1923

Special Item from Monitor Bureau London, Oct. 15

Flecker's drama "Hassan", with incidental music by Frederick Delius, is the most talked of production in London at the moment. Undoubtedly here is a great play by a man of genius, around which another genius has woven music that is the sensitive, sincere reaction of one poet to another.

Very soon after the premiere the writer had the privilege of a talk with Mr. and Mrs. Delius on his music. The writer was received by Mrs. Delius. The questions that followed may be seen from her replies.

"When did my husband compose the music to "Hassan"? It was about three years ago in 1920. And, no, he didn't know Flecker at all, or any of his work; the first thing that happened was that he had a letter from Mr. Basil Dean asking him if we would compose the music for this play. But my husband does not like writing for plays, and he refused.

"Then Mr. Dean himself came over France, brought "Hassan" with him and insisted on reading it to my husband. Mr. Dean asked him again if he would do the music. My husband was so impressed with the drama that this time he consented, and began work upon it almost at once. It took such possession of his thoughts that in a few months he had completed it. He wrote it straight off as he felt it, without any consultations with Mr. Dean or the theater people. Then delays occurred, and everything had to wait three years before the play could be produced.

"Yes, "Hassan is a wonderful drama, isn't it, and Mr. Dean has produced it wonderfully. He has thought of everything. The music? Yes, my husband put his very best into it. Yet at the performances the audiences make so much noise that hardly anyone can hear it properly. It is strange in England how they allow tea and chocolate to be sold in the theater while the music is going on, and then the people talk! It is terrible: - I think that the English theater public has no reverence for art."

Reticent and Modest

At this moment Mr. Delius entered the room, quiet, reticent, modest. However, after a few general remarks, he was induced to discuss his 'Hassan' music. "Yes, it was practically all done in those few months. Only the ballet was enlarged later. When Mr. Dean saw the first draft he thought it was too short, so I added to it".

"When composing the music did you wish to emphasize any particular aspects of the drama?" Mr. Delius replied very simply: "No, I had no special views. I just followed the drama and wrote music when it was necessary. The ballet is the only thing that really has nothing to do with the drama - that was added later, as I told you, because they thought it would be effective. From the theatrical point of view." "People are already beginning to express a hope that they may hear your "Hassan" music in a concert room version. Have you any wishes yourself?" Mr. Delius dismissed the question like one whom it did not concern. "No - no views at all. At present my music is so bound up with the drama for me that I cannot think of it apart from it." He seemed to muse a moment perhaps recalling the poet's work surrounded and completed by the atmosphere of his own melodies. Then he again roused to speech.

Curtain Calls Deplored

"But how can one make an atmosphere when the people talk all through the music. It is true, the audiences at the 'Old Vic' and the Queen's Hall Promenade concerts show that there are some people in London who appreciate art, but they are not the regular theater audiences. And then that terrible English custom of allowing actors to come before the curtain and take calls at the end of each act. It destroys any atmosphere which the musician has succeeded in building up. (Speaking with energy). Now there is something I particularly want you to say - a full artistic impression is impossible under the conditions that prevail in the London theaters."

That closed the interview, but readers of The Christian Science Monitor who have not had a chance of hearing "Hassan" for themselves may like a brief description of this much-talked-of and talked-over music.

In all theater bands the number of players is necessarily small. Delius, famous in the past for his masterly management of great masses of instruments, here shows an equal mastery of his treatment of few. He has taken the original course of scoring "Hassan" for an orchestra of 26 solo instruments. This, besides the usual strings, wood-winds, and horns, etc., includes such less usual instruments as the cor anglais, tuba, xylophone and harp. The result is rich, varied and original - the more so that he introduces voices freely, with or without words, not only for solo purposes and in chorus, but sometimes as parts of the orchestral texture.

Music and Play Well Related

This method is familiar to people acquainted with his concert works. Here it gains additional appositeness from the singers having their raison d'être in the scheme of the play. Throughout, the relation of the music to the drama is resourceful and sincere. Sometimes it stands by itself, as in the preludes and interludes; at others it forms a background to the spoken words as when Ishak extemporizes his exquisite poem on the dawn, or again it rises clear into song. Mainly lyrical during the earliest part of the drama, the music moves in soft tone colors and exotic melodies. The little prelude preceding the night scene in the street is perfect of its kind, though scarcely more than 6 bars long.

As the drama proceeds, the music gathers force, the colors heighten, the chorus and ballet are introduced, and the voices produce wild, elementally indefinite waves of sound. Though not realistically Eastern nor dominantly rhythmic, all is poetic and picturesque. Toward the close of the drama come two great opportunities for the composer - the march and the final scene. Opinions probably will be divided as to whether Delius has found inevitable music for the march, but in the closing scene (which the poet evidently intended as a choral climax) Delius has achieved a splendid finale. Fully experienced as a composer of opera and concert room music, he has known exactly how to draw together, harmonize and tranquillize all the actions, passions and tragedy of the drama, and has ended the whole upon the emotion of hope.

M.M.S.



This article appears here with the kind permission of Pamela Blevins

[Article taken from MusicWeb]

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks, John! Yes, that closing scene is wonderful and - moving in a way Delius couldn't have foreseen. In its optimism I always hear the 19th century, taking 'the Golden Road to Samarkand', but ending up in Auschwitz instead.

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Thanks, John! Yes, that closing scene is wonderful and - moving in a way Delius couldn't have foreseen. In its optimism I always hear the 19th century, taking 'the Golden Road to Samarkand', but ending up in Auschwitz instead.

I listened to it twice today. It's quite a work. The closing scene is mesmerizing, Johan, but that Prelude which precedes the closing scene really grabbed my ear. So atmospheric with seductive melodies.

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Revisited this recording earlier:

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In my opinion, this recording contains the best On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring performance I've heard. Sorry Beecham! Handley has really impressed me these past few days. An underrated Delian? Yes, I really think so.

Summer Night on the River is exquisitely played as is Summer Evening and Air and Dance.

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Hey Leo, you still enjoying the Double Concerto?

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Today, I've been digging this recording:



It contains an early tone poem Hiawatha (composed in 1888) that had to be reconstructed because Delius had torn some pages out of the manuscript. This recording is notable for being the premiere of this work, but also containing an arrangement of the Double Concerto for violin and viola. Suite for Violin and Orchestra and Legende have been recorded before.

[Leo K.]

Hey Leo, you still enjoying the Double Concerto?

I certainly am, the work is one of my most played Delius works, and actually the piano concerto is too, one of my favorite piano works ever, the account on the Delius Collection is stunning!

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I certainly am, the work is one of my most played Delius works, and actually the piano concerto is too, one of my favorite piano works ever, the account on the Delius Collection is stunning!

Yes! The PC with Philip Fowke/Del Mar is excellent. Right up there with Lane/Handley. You own the Double Concerto performance with Little/Watkins, right? I couldn't remember if you bought that recording or not (I'm too lazy to go back a few pages ).

On another note, have you heard any of the operas yet? Do give A Village Romeo & Juliet a listen. The Davies recording is OUTSTANDING! This is one of the greatest operas I've ever heard. Koanga has some Wagnerian outbursts, but A Village Romeo & Juliet is much more atmospheric and textural, although it does contain a few high-voltage musical passages. You'll love it, Leo. Trust me on this one.

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A work I'm stuck on right now is Legende for Violin and Orchestra. This work was written in 1895 and it's before Delius reached his mature style. It has some absolutely infectious melodies. It lasts around 8-9 minutes. There are several performances of this work, but the one I've been listening to is Philippe Graffin with David Lloyd-Jones conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra.

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Now I'm listening to Holmes/Handley performance of the Legende for Violin and Orchestra. A masterly performance.

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Has anyone heard this recording?

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I'm definitely thinking about buying it with some of my birthday money. I own two other Mass recordings: Groves/LPO and Hickox/Bournemouth SO.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I listened to a few tracks on Spotify and was not impressed. Also - the pronunciation of the German isn't very good. I'd stick with Groves (and Hickox).

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Here is a nice homage to Eric Fenby, ending with part of the ravishing Third Violin Sonata.


http://www.youtube.com/v/hSL61RrD-O0

[cilgwyn]

The Groves set is superb. It really is! One of the best recordings of a choral work I have ever heard.Something to rave about!
I suppose I'm a bit of a curmudgeon in this respect,but I just don't think they make singers like that any more! But by all means by the Naxos set if you want to. Being a Naxos set,it won't cost the earth!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Del Mar is good, too. But yes, Groves is the best.

[cilgwyn]

I've heard the Del Mar is good. I nearly bought it once (low price) but the 'ex library' description put me off. (Although,'ex library,can be ok,it all depends!).
  Which recording of the Violin Sonatas (or recordings?) do you have,by the way?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Holmes/Fenby, Little/Lane.

Here a nice interview with Tasmin Little about Delius:



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3653130/Sorry-but-Delius-isnt-soothing.html

[cilgwyn]

Thank you very much for the link,Johan!

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I just got home from a little 6-hour shift and to find some wonderful activity here! Goody, goody!

Where to start....

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I listened to a few tracks on Spotify and was not impressed. Also - the pronunciation of the German isn't very good. I'd stick with Groves (and Hickox).

Thanks, Johan. I think I'll get it anyway. As cilgwyn says, it's certainly cheap enough. You can never have too many Mass of Life recordings. Groves still reigns supreme but I did enough the Hickox much more after spending some time away from it. I thought the Hickox could have benefited, though, from a stronger orchestral presence, but that's just one gripe...

Both Groves and Hickox have a lot going for them.