Delius: Violin Sonata No. 2

Beneath the shimmering surface of Delius’s little-known violin sonatas are the latent exuberance and nostalgic rapture which have made his orchestral music so popular.

Across the decades separating the B major Violin Sonata of 1892 from the Third Violin Sonata of 1930, Delius developed a unique musical language which leavened the post-Romantic heritage of Wagner with French Impressionism and European and Afro-American folk idioms; an intoxicating mix that moved Sir Thomas Beecham to call him ‘the last great apostle in our time of beauty and romance in music’.

Suzanne Stanzeleit has been praised by The Strad for her “very considerable style… magnificent flourishes and proud rodomontade.”

On this release, Roger Chase plays the celebrated Montagnana viola, which Lionel Tertis used at the height of his career. Here Chase presents four of Tertis’s own arrangements. The Delius Violin Sonatas Nos. 2 and 3, together with John Ireland’s Cello Sonata and Second Violin Sonata (this CD marks the world premiere recording of Tertis’s arrangement of Ireland’s Second Violin Sonata), make a revelatory programme of viola sonatas, the plangent sound of the instrument bringing a new vision to these works.

Accorded "Record Of the Month" by Hi-Fi News on its original release in 1974 and the performance is just as relevant and the sound just as brilliant today.

To mark the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Delius, Heritage is thrilled to announce the re-release of ‘The Delius Collection’, a 7 CD slim-line wallet box of benchmark Delius recordings which originally appeared on the Unicorn Kanchana label. At the heart of this set are the recordings made by Eric Fenby and the RPO – interpretations of those works that Fenby took down or edited whilst working with the composer in the capacity of amanuensis. Further recordings from the Delius oeuvre are conducted by two luminaries of English music, Norman Del Mar and Vernon Handley with contributions from Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Sarah Walker, Felicity Lott, Thomas Allen, Julian Lloyd Webber and Ralph Holmes amongst others. Extensive liner notes are provided by Robert Matthew Walker as well as a ‘Foreword’ by Delius and Fenby authority, Stephen Lloyd. Full texts are included in the commemorative 28 page booklet.