Sir Thomas Beecham and Sir Malcolm Sargent birthdays today

[gurnemanz]

I bought a 3LP CBS set of Sir T conducting the RPO in Berlioz at an Oxfam in Bridport. One pound.

Interesting concert venue.

[verismissimo]

... While still at school I got badly hit by The Walk to the Paradise Garden...

Exactly the same for me, LMP. In my case in was closely associated with a school production of James Elroy Flecker's Hassan. Absolutely awful - the production, not the play, which is full of good things.

[salymap]

Help please. Which Delius work has parts for male and female solo voice and contains the line 'Once I walked through a populous city' ? Was that'Paris' ?

I remember hearing that years ago and was really bowled over by the beauty of it.

[Sir Velo]

Help please. Which Delius work has parts for male and female solo voice and contains the line 'Once I walked through a populous city' ? Was that'Paris' ?

I remember hearing that years ago and was really bowled over by the beauty of it.

It's a Whitman text used by Delius in Idyll (though it's actually "Once I pass'd through...etc"). There's a fine recording made by Fenby as part of the Delius Collection with Thomas Allen and Felicity Lott in the solo roles.

Paris is an orchestral tone poem, of course.

[amateur51]

I think I know what you mean, salymap. While still at school I got badly hit by The Walk to the Paradise Garden on a 10" disc (Collins??) in the school music room. But still rather waiting for the rest of Delius to do the same. Some works nearly do it (Brigg Fair, Appalachia, Sea Drift - nearly, but they don't quite stick), yet even WttPG has faded for me, which hasn't happened for most of the music that hit me in my teens. A very slippery fish somehow, our Frederick!

That's been my experience too salymap & LMP

[salymap]

It's a Whitman text used by Delius in Idyll (though it's actually "Once I pass'd through...etc"). There's a fine recording made by Fenby as part of the Delius Collection with Thomas Allen and Felicity Lott in the solo roles.

Paris is an orchestral tone poem, of course.

Thanks a lot Sir Velo. I'm not buying any more CDs, [age, space, so many I have but not played] but must make a noteof it.

I usually remember a lot about music I've heard but, as I said earlier, Delius is a difficult one for me.
My old senior colleague, Ernest Chapman, actually met Delius and took Felix Aprahamian,another critic to meet Delius in France. All on Google. He would be ashamed of me.

[Sir Velo]

My old senior colleague, Ernest Chapman, actually met Delius and took Felix Aprahamian,another critic to meet Delius in France. All on Google. He would be ashamed of me.

A wonderful story salymap. All told here.

[Alain Maréchal]

This is steadily getting further away from the opening post, but I distinctly remember on a very foggy evening in the late 1970s in Muswell Hill, being scared witless by the sudden apparition in my way of a Martian. It was FA, wearing that distinctive long cloak, trying out the latest fad in large headphone radios, complete with antennae.

[amateur51]

This is steadily getting further away from the opening post, but I distinctly remember on a very foggy evening in the late 1970s in Muswell Hill, being scared witless by the sudden apparition in my way of a Martian. It was FA, wearing that distinctive long cloak, trying out the latest fad in large headphone radios, complete with antennae.

great story Alain!

[secondfiddle]

This is steadily getting further away from the opening post, but I distinctly remember on a very foggy evening in the late 1970s in Muswell Hill, being scared witless by the sudden apparition in my way of a Martian. It was FA, wearing that distinctive long cloak, trying out the latest fad in large headphone radios, complete with antennae.

Dear Felix, a wonderful man - and a wonderful host. A great lover of Delius. I knew him well and heard him many times tell of his visit to Delius. Sadly missed.

[salymap]

Alain and second fiddle No one could complain of 'off topic' with such wonderful posts. I didn't know FA at all but he sounds more fun than our Ernest.

And friends lived next door to FA in MuswellHill years ago and my friend's mother 'Firewatched' in WW2 with him.

[Sir Velo]

Come to think of it Beecham didn't do much Beethoven either.

Listening to the 7th reminds me of his famous quote on the Scherzo: "What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about"?

This image always cracks me up, and I have to exercise especial care not to think of it when at a concert for fear of the consequences.

[Stanley Stewart]

More than two weeks since the start of this thread and have just got round to playing, yet again, a highly infectious recording by TB of Handel's, arr. Beecham,( EMI Studio, DRM,) "Love in Bath". 22 scintillating and evocative tracks played by the RPO. The disc is completed by "The Gods Go A'Begging" and 'Amaryllis Suite (excerpts). Worth seeking - CDM 7 63374 2.

The pleasure compounded by reading Beecham Stories, (Futura 1978, p.b.), compiled by Harold Atkins and Archie Newman, Foreword by Yehudi Menuhin.