Delius has always been one of my favourite composers,and I have derived great satisfaction and joy from hearing his music.

He certainly had a very individual way with composing, and I think that is why few people are moderate about his works.They tend to love them or loathe  them.

SorThomas Beecham used to emphasis how energetic a hill-walker Delius was even in his forties,and what a cultured and informed conversationalist.

I think a fuller picture is always benficial,as with Elgar, say,often portrayed as a grumpy retired-Colonel deploring 20th-century manners, rather than the fun-loving raconteur known to his friends.

Hello all. But especially fellow Delians! Not sure about current availability - but there haven’t been that many recordings of Song of the High Hills (surely D’s masterpiece) over the years - Beecham, Groves, Fenby, Mackerras and Bo Holten. And that’s it, I think. Beecham to my mind, despite the insights, is ruled out by a restrictive (and mono) recording, Groves is relatively perfunctory (compared to his marvellous ‘A Mass of Life’), Mackerras and Holten both have more energy for the ascent than Fenby. Fenby’s is an expansive view of the piece (Unicorn - with the Ambrosian Singers and the Royal Philharmonic - a recording made in 1983) but the only one where the Song - the voices - really do sing their triple pianos as a triple piano - neither does any other recording do quite as much justice to Delius’s evocative and elemental timpani writing in the piece. I’d suggest Fenby and then Mackerras, in that order. All best, J

Mark - I must seek out that Elder Brigg Fair (I admire him too, but didn’t hear the interview). It must be strange for Elder with the Hallé picking up with Delius (and Elgar etc). from JB, albeit after a gap of over thirty years. I wonder if there are any of the same players in the orchestra? I don’t suppose Elder does the JB thing in Brigg Fair in Variation no.11...... in Barbirolli’s hands, a quite explicit funeral march - and perhaps more moving as a result  - apparently Philip Heseltine claimed that it should be taken, effectively, as if it were in 4/2, not 4/4 (as marked in the score) i.e. twice as slow! Bws, J.

Jonathan, Elder doesn't slow down to the extent that Barbirolli does, but the overall account takes a tad over 16 and a half minutes, so it never feels too swift. The programme for the rest of the disc is particularly good - some Butterworth, some more Delius (Irmelin Prelude + Walk to the Paradise Garden), plus the Grainger arrangement of Brigg Fair (with James Gilchrist) and the 1908 recording of Joseph Taylor singing Brigg Fair, who Grainger first heard in 1905!

Clips here (plus a couple going very cheap!  ):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Rhapsody-Frederick-Delius/dp/B0000AE7B3/ref=sr_1_1/202-5913406-5145461?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1176391210&sr=8-1

Thanks A,

Have just started a quartet and need to try some stuff  I'll see if I can hunt it out

Tommo

Mackerras' 'Song of the High Hills' is the best modern recording(ie. post-Beecham) I know of the work.

I don't know if it is still available. The number was London 443 171-2. It was issued in 1995 and the couplings were similarly pre-eminent performances:  'Appalachia' and 'Over the Hills and Far Away'

Koanga' is probably the most stageworthy of Delius' operas,but like all the others ,it has dramatic imperfections. As with all composers who lacked extensive practical experience of the theatre Delius faced insurmountable probems in writing operas,regardless ofthe beauty of the music. .

Even Beecham had trouble staging 'Koanga',though the costumes seem to have been much to blame.  Eric Fenby said that John Browlee in shorts looked 'like  a goalkeeper' and when Beecham saw Oda Sloboskaya's headdress he laughed so much she threw  a shoe at him (an operatic first?).

Maybe the CD,and the listener's imnagination ,are the best way to hear these works. I don't feel as compelled to watch the DVD of 'A Village Romeo and Juliet' ,though beautifully filmed in the open air on location , as I am to hear  again Beecham's BBC broadcast oin SOMM CDs.