OK, maybe Delius is primarily known for his slow and lyrical music. But you gotta admit, the opening movement to “A Mass of Life” is pretty fast, exiting and all around glorious! Completely the opposite of Delius’ regular routine.
Great talk Dave. I have never heard someone explaining Delius' music better then you did, but give the opera's a chance! ± 3 three yers ago A village Romeo and Julia got a concert performance in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw (Radio Philharmonic & Chorus, Mark Elder conductor). It was the first performance in the Netherlands and it became a musical triumph. Of course 96% of the public didn't know Delius but it was interesting to see how this unaware crowd responded. They were ecstatic. It was later declared as the most important performance of the year.
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!! I've been listening to Delius since the days when Beecham was all there was. The performance of Sea Drift with Bruce Boyce is an all-time winner.
For me, Delius exists in his own universe. Languor, eroticism, and the death-wish commingled with an orgiastic joie de vivre. The long sunsets, the water, the sirens, the realm of the senses…I adore him.👍
I'm from Florida and Delius' Florida Suite has special meaning. He really captures the state from first note to the last. Especially his depiction of a thunderstorm or being on the river.
Excellent overview. I've always liked Delius as occupying sort of the easy listening spectrum of the classics. The local public radio station has had a longtime DJ who played Delius constantly, rather overmuch actually, because he was hot for English classical music, but I kind of liked that personal quirky touch from a local guy who was not pushing piped-in syndicated classical "bleeding chunks" programming.
I have had this box for a number of years. A good friend of the family, who’s musical taste I truly respected, gave me a Delius CD almost 20 years ago and I loved it. He passed away 4 years ago, but I think of him every time I hear Delius.
Absolutely recommendable: There is an opera film "A village Romeo and Juliet" in which the Mackeras recording was used. To see this opera as a movie was a great experience for me. It is available on DVD.
I was thrilled to see this (Czech) production when it appeared in the '90's; the onscreen actors do an amazing job with lip-synching. The problem...and it's a huge one...is the overall depressing, urban, industrial, grey visual setting which TOTALLY kills the fragrant, spring-time "Intoxication" of the music; the ending on the barge was embarrassing, I thought..utterly lacking in any sort of visual poetry. Too bad, since this was the ONE chance of illuminating the opera's beauties to the world at large. LR
a pretty exceptional thing about this box set is that not only is this 18cd from Delius. But really full 18cds with almost 80 minutes of music each. It's really a lot of Delius !!! Too much delius can't kill you
It's available on DVD in a set of films by its director Ken Russell, the English madman of the screen. Luckily "Song" was made in 1968, shortly before Russell went off the deep end with "The Devils" ('71). And it's a beautiful film, with the great Max Adrian as Delius and Christopher Gable is the young Fenby. I met Fenby at a choral festival of Delius' music in the early '80's; he was guest of honor (complete with a screening of "Song of Summer") and I asked him about his experience when he himself visited the location where the film was being shot. Very emotional. LR
A review full of sidebar wisdoms as well as being a very fair overview of Delius recordings. The observation that you have to be in the mood for him is apt, although I'd say that applies to most composers. Thanks for the nod to Groves, who had the RLPO for most of the five years I lived in Liverpool. Always puzzlingly underrated and unrecognised by British pundits. He pioneered Mahler in that city long before the composer became 'in'.
Re: the "mood" thing. Of course, in a generic sense it does apply to most composers, but then, most composer cover a far wider range of moods than does Delius, and so you are more likely to find yourself in one of them. That, naturally, was the point.
I love Delius. I think Fenby once referred to The Mass of Life as the "".Mess of Life". I wish someone had written a composition called the Mess of Life. Perhaps Allan Pettersson.
I discovered so much of Delius when I bought this collection - I only knew (and loved) a few pieces beforehand. The performances of the Violin Sonatas by Menhuin are by far the best interpretations I've ever heard. It's not a perfect collection of CD's, but it is a great one!
I’ve tried and tried to get more into Delius, but just about the only works I ever return to are the Violin Concerto, the Cello Concerto (!) (performed by DuPre), and the three Violin Sonatas played by Tasmin Little (ditto the concerto). One day something else may click, but not so far
Talk about a timely coincidence...I have been reading the Gramophone Archives during the period of WWII..In the September 1943 edition, I came across a letter in the correspondence page title "Delius Worship-A Protest." I will provide some interesting quotes from this letter: ""I protest at the recent flow of requests for more Delius recordings. Delius supporters already possess quite a good selection of his music, while other, and in my opinion, better contemporary British composers have received much worse treatment."...... "Delius' recipe for almost any of his large scale works seems to have consisted, more or less, of the following. He takes a simple tune (often a folk-song or a pseudo-hymn-tune) and seasons it with lush harmonies....they are the same harmonies that form the basis for all sentimental popular songs and the commercial dance tunes of to-day. But Delius inevitably further sentimentalises his music by slurring his notes....and using thick orchestration.....Thus he makes a thick, sticky, sweet paste of the whole, by orchestration which avoids clashes like a teetotaler avoids beer." "Enough of this drooling escapism. Delius' star will fade, as the star of any composer whose music lacks virility, and it is to other Britons that we must turn for something more vital and lasting.......No more Delius, please---shellac is far too valuable at present to be used for insipid escapism. Let us have some Bax and Rubbra, some more Bliss and Britten....For these composers, and compositions, whose music has permanence, which provokes deep thought and often rouses to action, it is a far cry from the sentimental gibberings of a lotus-nibbler." It is nice to see someone had their priorities in place while the Allies were busy invading Sicily and Italy isn't it?
Pretty nasty stuff; too bad there are many who will never "get" Delius. Add to the list of comments the late James Levine who, when I once asked if he were interested in doing Delius, replied: "Naw, too antiseptic." LR
Great quote though I love much of Delius. Mass of Life has real fibre and sinew though it hadn't been recorded yet. Reading between the lines I sense some wartime need for sterner stuff than much of Delius. But Delius must have sold reasonbly well. As a collector, acquiring the Delius Society 78 sets has proved much easier than the Wolfs, Beethoven sonatas w/Schnabel (nearly impossible), or even the Sibelius sets which aren't hard to locate.
If 18 discs of Delius is too much, I saw a 6 disc Warner Classics box titled "English Music" conducted by Beecham with 5 discs of Delius and 1 disc with compositions by German, Bantock, Bax and Lord Berners. Very cheap, but it looks like extremely limited availability - one from Amazon, a handful new and used from resellers.
Hello Mr Hurwitz! If it's box week, could you please consider a talk about Kempes Strauss box. Or maybe Kubelik's complete Dg recordings. Or a Mahler symphony cycle. Best wishes Fred from Sweden .
I bought this box the first time around and it’s still here, so thanks for inspiring me to listen to more of it (I think I listened to 4 or 5 discs and then got sidetracked by other things. Being from Scotland, I “want to believe”, lol as he seems like a very un-English English composer. His orchestration is rather marvellous although the lack of drama (not necessarily a bad thing!) can leave you drifting off and not listening….
For me Delius’s most annoying work is his short Sleigh Ride, which once heard you cannot get it out of your head! A little Delius goes a long way, but I love Over the Hills and Far Away and occasionally listen to some of his other orchestral pieces. If you don’t want much Delius, you can download some of Mackerras’s wonderful recordings on Presto for $.85 a track. Now that’s a real bargain!
After watching this video, I was able to acquire a used set, that looked like new, for $44.99. That comes out to $2.50 per disc which is an excellent deal! If you're willing to take a chance on a used set, there are bargains to be had. The real question is, did I need this much Delius⁉️ 🤔🤣
The usual English translation of På vidderne as On the Mountains has always bothered me. As you might guess, it is literally something like "On the Widenesses" (respecting the etymology) in Norwegian, or Plateaus, or Expanses, a different topography altogether.
I think you do Delius a disservice with your occasional mocking descriptions of some of his works. Also, he never wrote meandering, formless music. He had a perfect sense of form for what he had to say. The fact it doesnt conform to the Germanic structural tradition does not mean it is a formless blob of orchestral marshmallow.
Take him a bit at a time. Try the 1958 Beecham EMI "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring"..in which the 2-note cuckoo call is barely detectable, hidden in the texture. It's the impressions or feelings of the arrival of Spring that Delius captures here..in my opinion better than any other composer. LR
Τhis box is really good. Βeecham, Fenby and Groves are the best conductors for Delius. My only disagreement is that is not included the violin concerto with Sammons instead of Menuhin. Sammons plays this concerto with the conviction that it is a very great work.
@@johns9624 Τhanks for your remark. No, this record has not come to my attention. Nor i have heard something by Holmes until today. I ll take a listen to them.
I have to admit I’ve never been able to move past the “monumentally boring” phase with Delius; too many other mellifluous, pastoral-seeming works out there I like better. But, I’ll keep on listening. Maybe I’ll give the Florida Suite another try.
OK, maybe Delius is primarily known for his slow and lyrical music. But you gotta admit, the opening movement to “A Mass of Life” is pretty fast, exiting and all around glorious! Completely the opposite of Delius’ regular routine.
Great talk Dave. I have never heard someone explaining Delius' music better then you did, but give the opera's a chance! ± 3 three yers ago A village Romeo and Julia got a concert performance in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw (Radio Philharmonic & Chorus, Mark Elder conductor). It was the first performance in the Netherlands and it became a musical triumph. Of course 96% of the public didn't know Delius but it was interesting to see how this unaware crowd responded. They were ecstatic. It was later declared as the most important performance of the year.
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!! I've been listening to Delius since the days when Beecham was all there was. The performance of Sea Drift with Bruce Boyce is an all-time winner.
For me, Delius exists in his own universe. Languor, eroticism, and the death-wish commingled with an orgiastic joie de vivre. The long sunsets, the water, the sirens, the realm of the senses…I adore him.👍
I'm from Florida and Delius' Florida Suite has special meaning. He really captures the state from first note to the last. Especially his depiction of a thunderstorm or being on the river.
Excellent overview. I've always liked Delius as occupying sort of the easy listening spectrum of the classics. The local public radio station has had a longtime DJ who played Delius constantly, rather overmuch actually, because he was hot for English classical music, but I kind of liked that personal quirky touch from a local guy who was not pushing piped-in syndicated classical "bleeding chunks" programming.
Thanks much for the review. You sold me on this set.
I have had this box for a number of years. A good friend of the family, who’s musical taste I truly respected, gave me a Delius CD almost 20 years ago and I loved it. He passed away 4 years ago, but I think of him every time I hear Delius.
I’m a great fan of Delius’s music. I think my favourite is Paris - Song of a Great City.
Absolutely recommendable: There is an opera film "A village Romeo and Juliet" in which the Mackeras recording was used. To see this opera as a movie was a great experience for me. It is available on DVD.
I was thrilled to see this (Czech) production when it appeared in the '90's; the onscreen actors do an amazing job with lip-synching. The problem...and it's a huge one...is the overall depressing, urban, industrial, grey visual setting which TOTALLY kills the fragrant, spring-time "Intoxication" of the music; the ending on the barge was embarrassing, I thought..utterly lacking in any sort of visual poetry. Too bad, since this was the ONE chance of illuminating the opera's beauties to the world at large. LR
"Plops of a new rock to set up new ripples". Genius description. Might even be true.
a pretty exceptional thing about this box set is that not only is this 18cd from Delius. But really full 18cds with almost 80 minutes of music each. It's really a lot of Delius !!! Too much delius can't kill you
Sir Thomas Beecham commented that conducting Delius was like trying to tame a wayward woman.
A taste I acquired many years ago. Have you seen the film "A Song of Summer?"
It's available on DVD in a set of films by its director Ken Russell, the English madman of the screen. Luckily "Song" was made in 1968, shortly before Russell went off the deep end with "The Devils" ('71). And it's a beautiful film, with the great Max Adrian as Delius and Christopher Gable is the young Fenby. I met Fenby at a choral festival of Delius' music in the early '80's; he was guest of honor (complete with a screening of "Song of Summer") and I asked him about his experience when he himself visited the location where the film was being shot. Very emotional. LR
A review full of sidebar wisdoms as well as being a very fair overview of Delius recordings. The observation that you have to be in the mood for him is apt, although I'd say that applies to most composers. Thanks for the nod to Groves, who had the RLPO for most of the five years I lived in Liverpool. Always puzzlingly underrated and unrecognised by British pundits. He pioneered Mahler in that city long before the composer became 'in'.
Re: the "mood" thing. Of course, in a generic sense it does apply to most composers, but then, most composer cover a far wider range of moods than does Delius, and so you are more likely to find yourself in one of them. That, naturally, was the point.
I love Delius. I think Fenby once referred to The Mass of Life as the "".Mess of Life". I wish someone had written a composition called the Mess of Life. Perhaps Allan Pettersson.
I discovered so much of Delius when I bought this collection - I only knew (and loved) a few pieces beforehand. The performances of the Violin Sonatas by Menhuin are by far the best interpretations I've ever heard. It's not a perfect collection of CD's, but it is a great one!
I’ve tried and tried to get more into Delius, but just about the only works I ever return to are the Violin Concerto, the Cello Concerto (!) (performed by DuPre), and the three Violin Sonatas played by Tasmin Little (ditto the concerto). One day something else may click, but not so far
Talk about a timely coincidence...I have been reading the Gramophone Archives during the period of WWII..In the September 1943 edition, I came across a letter in the correspondence page title "Delius Worship-A Protest." I will provide some interesting quotes from this letter:
""I protest at the recent flow of requests for more Delius recordings. Delius supporters already possess quite a good selection of his music, while other, and in my opinion, better contemporary British composers have received much worse treatment."......
"Delius' recipe for almost any of his large scale works seems to have consisted, more or less, of the following. He takes a simple tune (often a folk-song or a pseudo-hymn-tune) and seasons it with lush harmonies....they are the same harmonies that form the basis for all sentimental popular songs and the commercial dance tunes of to-day. But Delius inevitably further sentimentalises his music by slurring his notes....and using thick orchestration.....Thus he makes a thick, sticky, sweet paste of the whole, by orchestration which avoids clashes like a teetotaler avoids beer."
"Enough of this drooling escapism. Delius' star will fade, as the star of any composer whose music lacks virility, and it is to other Britons that we must turn for something more vital and lasting.......No more Delius, please---shellac is far too valuable at present to be used for insipid escapism. Let us have some Bax and Rubbra, some more Bliss and Britten....For these composers, and compositions, whose music has permanence, which provokes deep thought and often rouses to action, it is a far cry from the sentimental gibberings of a lotus-nibbler."
It is nice to see someone had their priorities in place while the Allies were busy invading Sicily and Italy isn't it?
There are always a bunch of them around. Thanks for the effort to share this with us!
Pretty nasty stuff; too bad there are many who will never "get" Delius. Add to the list of comments the late James Levine who, when I once asked if he were interested in doing Delius, replied: "Naw, too antiseptic." LR
Great quote though I love much of Delius. Mass of Life has real fibre and sinew though it hadn't been recorded yet. Reading between the lines I sense some wartime need for sterner stuff than much of Delius. But Delius must have sold reasonbly well. As a collector, acquiring the Delius Society 78 sets has proved much easier than the Wolfs, Beethoven sonatas w/Schnabel (nearly impossible), or even the Sibelius sets which aren't hard to locate.
If 18 discs of Delius is too much, I saw a 6 disc Warner Classics box titled "English Music" conducted by Beecham with 5 discs of Delius and 1 disc with compositions by German, Bantock, Bax and Lord Berners. Very cheap, but it looks like extremely limited availability - one from Amazon, a handful new and used from resellers.
I read a description of his music as "one chord sloppily dissolving into another".
Have you listened personally to determine if that statement has any merit?
Hello Mr Hurwitz!
If it's box week, could you please consider a talk about Kempes Strauss box. Or maybe Kubelik's complete Dg recordings. Or a Mahler symphony cycle.
Best wishes Fred from Sweden .
There are more than a number of videos addressing those--just have a look at the composer playlists on my channel home page.
I bought this box the first time around and it’s still here, so thanks for inspiring me to listen to more of it (I think I listened to 4 or 5 discs and then got sidetracked by other things. Being from Scotland, I “want to believe”, lol as he seems like a very un-English English composer. His orchestration is rather marvellous although the lack of drama (not necessarily a bad thing!) can leave you drifting off and not listening….
For me Delius’s most annoying work is his short Sleigh Ride, which once heard you cannot get it out of your head! A little Delius goes a long way, but I love Over the Hills and Far Away and occasionally listen to some of his other orchestral pieces. If you don’t want much Delius, you can download some of Mackerras’s wonderful recordings on Presto for $.85 a track. Now that’s a real bargain!
Rather comprehensive. Second full visit to this Talk, for me.
Once there was a bumpersticker; "dull, duller, Delius"
After watching this video, I was able to acquire a used set, that looked like new, for $44.99. That comes out to $2.50 per disc which is an excellent deal! If you're willing to take a chance on a used set, there are bargains to be had. The real question is, did I need this much Delius⁉️ 🤔🤣
The usual English translation of
På vidderne as On the Mountains has always bothered me. As you might guess, it is literally something like "On the Widenesses" (respecting the etymology) in Norwegian, or Plateaus, or Expanses, a different topography altogether.
Thanks--something there didn't seem right.
I think you do Delius a disservice with your occasional mocking descriptions of some of his works. Also, he never wrote meandering, formless music. He had a perfect sense of form for what he had to say. The fact it doesnt conform to the Germanic structural tradition does not mean it is a formless blob of orchestral marshmallow.
I think you need to relax and acquire a sense of humor. No one needs your sanctimony, and Delius doesn't need you to defend him.
"Unending" is the perfect word for describing Delius. Sorry, I keep trying to like him, but haven't succeeded yet.
Take him a bit at a time. Try the 1958 Beecham EMI "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring"..in which the 2-note cuckoo call is barely detectable, hidden in the texture. It's the impressions or feelings of the arrival of Spring that Delius captures here..in my opinion better than any other composer. LR
Τhis box is really good. Βeecham, Fenby and Groves are the best conductors for Delius.
My only disagreement is that is not included the violin concerto with Sammons instead of Menuhin. Sammons plays this concerto with the conviction that it is a very great work.
Have you heard Holmes with Handley - originally on Unicorn? For me, by far the best performance of this work, but difficult to find these days.
@@johns9624 Τhanks for your remark. No, this record has not come to my attention. Nor i have heard something by Holmes until today.
I ll take a listen to them.
I have to admit I’ve never been able to move past the “monumentally boring” phase with Delius; too many other mellifluous, pastoral-seeming works out there I like better. But, I’ll keep on listening. Maybe I’ll give the Florida Suite another try.