BaL 5.03.16 - Delius: Sea Drift

[Nick Armstrong]

No, Ferney. He has only one collection, so it doesn't involve number.

Hey! I am still here you know! (Shades of 'does he take sugar?')

So - was I right all along?

[ardcarp]

which I suppose I must have bought in an attempt to cure my Delius allergy.

Wouldn't the rhapsody on Brigg Fair work, Calibs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_JUKXwHZz4

I think he's a Marmite composer. An old guy of my acquaintance was absolutely nuts about Delius, and loved his chromatic, sliding, smulchy harmony. When he died a few years ago his widow asked if I would play for his funeral, requesting at the end his Summer Night on the River. This tested my score-reading to its limits (there being no keyboard copy to hand) and I must admit I hated Delius during the short period in which I struggled to lick it into something vaguely recognisable. However as so often happens, a closer encounter with a piece generates a certain respect, even love.

One of my 1001 things to do before I die is to get to know (maybe even arrange a performance of, despite large forces?) Delius's Mass of Life. Has anyone here sung or played in it?

[makropulos]

I think he's a Marmite composer. ... However as so often happens, a closer encounter with a piece generates a certain respect, even love.

One of my 1001 things to do before I die is to get to know (maybe even arrange a performance of, despite large forces?) Delius's Mass of Life. Has anyone here sung or played in it?

I think you're right. In my case, it was getting around the piano part of the Third Violin Sonata that comprehensively converted me to him when I was a student, and I've grown to love a lot of his music, especially Appalachia, Sea Drift, Brigg Fair, the incidental music to Hassan and A Village Romeo & Juliet (especially the wondeful final scene).

But I have to confess that one piece which doesn't do it for me (or hasn't done yet) is the Mass of Life...

[Pianoman]

Our local choir Huddersfield Choral Society did it a couple of seasons ago, and I'm afraid it didn't win the piece many new friends, either from audience or choir members. A case of 'lovely moments' and 'awful half-hours' a la someone's dig at Wagner...

[ahinton]

I once thought that Sea Drift was indicative of some kind of intonational inconsistency...

[Pabmusic]

I once thought that Sea Drift was indicative of some kind of intonational inconsistency...

Lovely.

[Barbirollians]

From the examples played I was sent back to that BBCMM recording of Hampson/Hickox which I think is outstanding and deserves a wider release .

[ahinton]

Lovely.

Thank you - but then I used to think of a certain work by Igor as the Sea Symphony (yes, I don't have much wit, man - and nor does Igor's symphony)...

[Pabmusic]

Thank you - but then I used to think of a certain work by Igor as the Sea Symphony (yes, I don't have much wit, man - and nor does Igor's symphony)...

[ahinton]

Lest anyone wonder, I have a high regard for Sea Drift and quite a few other works by Delius...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

From the examples played I was sent back to that BBCMM recording of Hampson/Hickox which I think is outstanding and deserves a wider release .

- and fascinating to hear A Poem of Life and Love (the first version of A Song of Summer, and Moiseiwitsch in the Piano Concerto, too.

[ahinton]

- and fascinating to hear A Poem of Life and Love (the first version of A Song of Summer, and Moiseiwitsch in the Piano Concerto, too.

Delius' Piano Concerto seems to me to be something of a troublesome piece and certgainly his least convincing concerto, perhaps to some extenty because of all the transformations through which it went before arriving at its best known final version. I'm not sure that he was an especially accomplished pianist but I seem to recall that he played through a two-piano version of the work in its original guise with no less a pianist then Busoni, who evidently thought enough of Delius to conduct his music occasionally (as he did Elgar's). Of the Delius concertos, the one that stands out for me is the Double one.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Delius' Piano Concerto seems to me to be something of a troublesome piece and certgainly his least convincing concerto, perhaps to some extenty because of all the transformations through which it went before arriving at its best known final version. I'm not sure that he was an especially accomplished pianist but I seem to recall that he played through a two-piano version of the work in its original guise with no less a pianist then Busoni, who evidently thought enough of Delius to conduct his music occasionally (as he did Elgar's).

Yes - it's the one that sounds least like Delius; Moiseiwitsch makes a good case for it as as it stands in its final published form, though even then it suffers (albeit quite charmingly at times) from "Piano Concerto Cliché Syndrome".

Of the Delius concertos, the one that stands out for me is the Double one.

I agree - with the 'cello concerto not that far behind (and I really must buy the most recent Paul Watkins recording, which restores much of the Music that Delius actually wrote for the solo part.)

[ahinton]

Yes - it's the one that sounds least like Delius; Moiseiwitsch makes a good case for it as as it stands in its final published form, though even then it suffers (albeit quite charmingly at times) from "Piano Concerto Cliché Syndrome".

Yes he does and yes it does, the latter perhaps being evidence of the composer's shortcomings in sympathy for the instrument; it would have been fascinating to hear Busoni perform it as soloist rather than as conductor but, by the time its final form was well established, Busoni was devoting less time to conducting other composers' work than he had done up to the early years of the last century (à propos which - albeit off-topic - it's curious that, of the score or so of performances of his own monumental piano concerto given during his lifetime, he participated in almost half as conductor and almost half as pianist).

[makropulos]

I agree - with the 'cello concerto not that far behind (and I really must buy the most recent Paul Watkins recording, which restores much of the Music that Delius actually wrote for the solo part.)

[/QUOTE]

And while we're about it, let's hear it for the Violin Concerto - a lovely piece. I agree that the Piano Conc is not even close to the level of the string concertos - even with Moiseiwitch playing it I've always found it a bit of a dud.