Delius: A Song of the High Hills

This recording presents two comparatively rarely heard but striking works by Frederick Delius, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis with entirely idiomatic results. Both works are prime examples of Delius’s highly individual and ground-breaking use of voices in predominantly orchestral works.

In Appalachia, the sombre mood reflects the fate that overcame many black slaves along the Mississippi River, who were sold by one cotton planter to another, simply uprooted from loved ones, and transported to a different place – the practice is the origin of the expression ‘being sold down the river’. The inspiration for the work came to Delius when he was working on an orange plantation in Florida as a young man, and from across the water in the distance heard the singing of black farm labourers. Many year later, Delius recollected: ‘they showed a truly wonderful sense of musicianship and harmonic resource in which they treated a melody, and hearing their singing in such romantic surroundings it was then and there that I first felt the urge to express myself in music.’

Setting an anonymous slave song, Delius expresses the human tragedy that unfolds in it initially through the full chorus in unaccompanied song. The orchestra steals in to reflect on the suffering before the baritone sings and the chorus responds. Rising to its climax, the music suggests hope and human dignity triumphing over adversity; the music of the introduction returns and the vision poignantly fades as the ship with its dispossessed slaves sails downstream and disappears from sight.

The inspiration for The Song of the High Hills was the mountains of Norway, which Delius regarded as his spiritual home. In 1911, he started composing the tone poem in which he sought to capture the impression created by a still summer night in the Norwegian mountains. It was completed the following year, written for large orchestra and chorus which, as in Appalachia, plays an integral part in the work, although the singers here are wordless. To emphasise their role in providing colour to the texture, they were directed to be seated throughout, and to ‘sing on the vowel only which will produce the richest tone possible’.

In the words of Delius, the work ‘expresses the joy and exhilaration one feels in the mountains and also the loneliness and melancholy of the high solitudes and the grandeur of the wide far distances. The human voices represent man in nature; an episode which becomes fainter and then disappears altogether’. Delius considered this not only one of his best works, but one of the works in which he had expressed himself most completely.

There can be few, if any, musicians who have singlehandedly done so much in the establishment of resources for musical performance than Sir Thomas Beecham.

During WWI he conducted and supported financially both the Hallé and London Symphony Orchestras and the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1915 he formed the Beecham Opera Company which trained many young British singers in this field. Eight years later this became the British National Opera Company and was absorbed into Covent Garden in 1932 when Beecham returned to be its Musical Director.

To quote David Cairns “We are nationally and individually a more musically aware people because of him and what he gave us”. A forceful statement, true, but whose life could ever challenge it?

Dissatisfied by conditions and practices, notably the supply of deputies for rehearsals, prevalent in British orchestras, he formed the London Philharmonic Orchestra that same year. Beecham was now able to be at the fulcrum of all developments in music in Britain. WWII put an end to this halcyon period. With Covent Garden shut he travelled, primarily in America, and did not return to Britain until 1944. The London Philharmonic had now become a self-governing body so Beecham, then aged 67, launched the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This was the orchestra with which he committed to disc so many classic recordings with which EMI Classics marks the 50th anniversary of his passing.

It is true that Beecham had particular favourites in composers – Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Berlioz, Bizet and Puccini spring immediately to mind; also his love for Handel – even though his performances were always BIG-scale! He was an early champion of Richard Strauss and became a most effective exponent of Sibelius. His name will always be inextricably linked with that of Delius whose music Beecham seemed to know better even than the composer and it is appropriate that they are buried not far apart in the graveyard at St. Peter’s Parish Church, Limpsfield, Surrey.

He was knighted in 1916, the year he succeeded to his father’s baronetcy, and made a Companion of Honour in 1957.This affable, brilliant, usually charming, ever-communicative, quick-witted – even, at times, to the point of cruelty, dedicated conductor was also the most gifted executive musician England has ever produced.

He was fortunate that his grandfather, a chemist, had created the highly successful pharmaceutical manufacturing business which bore his name. His father, who had started in the company whilst still a teenager, was also fond of music so he was prepared to fund his son’s enthusiastic appetite to attend operas and concerts both here and abroad.

Born on 29th April 1879 in St. Helens, he attended public school at Rossall where his talent at the piano became a legend (the only boy ever to have been allowed a grand piano in his study!). From there he briefly attended Oxford (Wadham) but the composition classes, with Charles Wood in London and Moszkowski in Paris, were funded privately. As a conductor he was purely self-taught.

He formed an orchestra in his home town and deputised for Richter at a Hallé concert when his father was mayor. His career path was clear: he would use his financial resources to support the art which he enjoyed with the aim of bringing it to as many as possible.

At the age of 30 he launched the Beecham Symphony Orchestra, all young and carefully chosen. They would tour, play for opera and ballet and give concerts of adventurous music. London duly welcomed him for a season of intensive opera performances and over the next three years introduced many new ones to British audiences, including by Strauss, Delius and the Russians. He also brought Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes starring Nijinsky and Karsavina to the British stage.

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.

Marking the 150th Anniversary of Delius’ birth date in 1862, Decca Classics releases the ‘Delius Edition’ - the most comprehensive Collection of Delius’ music ever put together on 8CD and featuring noted Delius conductor Sir Charles Mackerras.

Containing all of Delius’s major work, this cap-box set combines the major orchestra & choral works of Brigg Fair, Sea Drift, In a Summer Garden, Florida Suite, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto & Paris: Song of a Great City along with the major chamber music, such as the Cello Sonata, String Quartet and 4 Part Songs. The set culminates in Delius’s masterpiece, his opera, A Village Romeo and Juliet.

Featuring a cast of great artists and performers, including Thomas Hampson, Julian Lloyd Webber, the Fitzwilliam Quartet, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner & Sir Charles Mackerras.