Delius film last night

[MrGongGong]

Anyone else watch this ?

[JimD]

I didn't! Can you give us a clue where and what it was?

[eighthobstruction]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01j0yys/Delius_Composer_Lover_Enigma/

[Nick Armstrong]

Anyone else watch this ?

Yes, it's the one from last year I think? Interesting though I still didn't warm to the music

[JimD]

Thanks eighthobstruction. I'll have a look at it. For me Delius's music is usually like jazz: I would like to enjoy it more than I do (not sure that makes sense but anyway...).

[salymap]

I still have it on the TV hard drive from last year but haven't bothered to watch it again, so...may delete it.I love some Delius, the rest of his music is hard for me to pin down. Even Beecham's performances couldn't win me over, sure the fault is mine.

[MrGongGong]

What struck me was how French Delius's music is
if only he had access to IRCAM then it would have been more like Grisey

[Nick Armstrong]

sure the fault is mine.

If so, it is a fault I share. (If that's any comfort! )

[ardcarp]

I thought the film itself was flawed by having too many 'talking heads'. And the sequences where conductors (e.g.Andrew Davies) were seen looking at a score and emoting were a bit OTT.

The most interesting point for me was the one made by Mark Elder...that Delius put very little in the way of phrasing and dynamics into his scores and that it was Beecham's markings that most interpreters follow. All in all, the programme's stance on Delius was one of exaggerated reverence, and to suggest he was of equal stature as a composer to Elgar is pushing things a bit far IMO.

I enjoyed the contributions by Schola Cantorum as much as anything.

But thanks BBC for screening (twice) a film about music.

[amateur51]

I still have it on the TV hard drive from last year but haven't bothered to watch it again, so...may delete it.I love some Delius, the rest of his music is hard for me to pin down. Even Beecham's performances couldn't win me over, sure the fault is mine.

I feel the same way, salymap - I just wish I could find the way in, I've tried often enough

[MrGongGong]

I thought the film itself was flawed by having too many 'talking heads'. And the sequences where conductors (e.g.Andrew Davies) were seen looking at a score and emoting were a bit OTT.

The most interesting point for me was the one made by Mark Elder...that Delius put very little in the way of phrasing and dynamics into his scores and that it was Beecham's markings that most interpreters follow. All in all, the programme's stance on Delius was one of exaggerated reverence, and to suggest he was of equal stature as a composer to Elgar is pushing things a bit far IMO.

I enjoyed the contributions by Schola Cantorum as much as anything.

But thanks BBC for screening (twice) a film about music.

I would agree with this
and Mark Elder's comments were most interesting

I've always been a bit sceptical of the Beechamites and this showed what a seemingly arrogant manipulative not at all likeable character he was.........

Having spent some time at an electroacoustic music festival and conference I was most struck by how one could consider Delius's music as a "place to be" as opposed to a "narrative".

[Lateralthinking1]

I would agree with this
and Mark Elder's comments were most interesting

I've always been a bit sceptical of the Beechamites and this showed what a seemingly arrogant manipulative not at all likeable character he was.........

Having spent some time at an electroacoustic music festival and conference I was most struck by how one could consider Delius's music as a "place to be" as opposed to a "narrative".

I saw it the first time around. A good film on one of Britain's two best composers.

[Stephen Whitaker]

I thought the film itself was flawed by having too many 'talking heads'. And the sequences where conductors (e.g.Andrew Davies) were seen looking at a score and emoting were a bit OTT.

The most interesting point for me was the one made by Mark Elder...that Delius put very little in the way of phrasing and dynamics into his scores and that it was Beecham's markings that most interpreters follow. All in all, the programme's stance on Delius was one of exaggerated reverence, and to suggest he was of equal stature as a composer to Elgar is pushing things a bit far IMO.

All the 'talking Heads' who discussed Delius and his music are people of demonstrable musical knowledge, experience and skill , so it is also a bit OTT to accuse them of exaggerated reverence, since all the objections to, and failings of, the music were alluded to throughout the programme.

Is there is anyone with a better understanding of the stature of Elgar than Anthony Payne?
It would have been quite acceptable for him object to any comparison between the two
but he discussed Delius without any suggestion that he considered him to be a lesser composer.

[Roehre]

If so, it is a fault I share. (If that's any comfort! )

Makes three of us then

[gradus]

I didn't see it all but it totally gripped me and 'explained' Delius to me in a way that opened my ears to what he wrote. The suggestion thst he had heard not a note of his music played by an orchestra until aged 37, he sponsored the London concert in 1899 is astonishing and the fact that Elgar's Enigma vars received their first performance only weeks later in the same hall utterly eclipsing Delius's concert is appalling bad luck.
Somebody described the music as 'filmic' and I agree, it certainly lent itself to the lovely images selected by the director. I was also surprised to learn that On Cooking the First Hero's folk tune is in fact Norwegian and a tribute to Greig. And what about that excerpt from The Mass of LIfe scored for solo horns and strings, what imagination, the sheer beauty of it.
Good too to have Beecham, a biographer of Delius, talking about the composer he did so much to champion, edit and revise, and it seems, to bury.