Delius: The Walk to the Paradise Garden (Intermezzo from A Village Romeo & Juliet) - CD

‘Made in Britain’ is a rich and nostalgic journey through English music straddling the turn of the 20th century, with John Wilson, today’s leading proponent of British Music, at the helm of the UK’s oldest orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

‘Made in Britain’ celebrates a rich period of English music surrounding the turn of the 20th century, including evergreens such as Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending (for years No 1 in the Classic FM Hall of Fame) and Elgar’s Salut d’amour, as well as the folk-inspired Two English Idylls by Butterworth and English Folk Song Suite by Vaughan Williams. The programme opens with Walton’s commedia dell’arte overture Scapino and closes with the Nell Gwyn Overture by Edward German, music director of London’s Globe Theatre from 1888. Along the way we take A Walk to the Paradise Garden from Delius’ opera A Village Romeo and Juliet, and stroll through Bax’s woodland evocation The Happy Forest.

Overseeing this celebration is today’s leading interpreter of British Music, John Wilson conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra which, founded in 1840, is steeped in this glorious musical tradition. Hard on the heels of Wilson’s high-profile headlining of the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, BBC Radio 3’s Light Fantastic Weekend, and a televised appearance with his eponymous orchestra at the BBC Proms, Made in Britain catches a prevailing mood and taps into today’s huge appetite for an evocative era.

Following on from Mackerras’ critically acclaimed opening night of the Sydney Opera House (ABC4766440), ABC is delighted to present this live performance recorded at Hammer Hall from November 2007.

Frederick Delius (1862-1934) was born in Bradford of parents who had been born in Germany. His father was a successful wool merchant and although he allowed his son to study music he did not regard it as a career option. On leaving school he therefore joined the wool company but he proved unreliable; he did, however, visit Norway and Paris on the firm’s business and met life-long friends. In 1884 he was allowed to go to Florida as an orange grower. This gave him freedom from family pressures – he neglected the oranges but studied music and was greatly influenced by the music of the plantation negroes. He developed one of the most individual and easily recognisable harmonic and melodic styles of composition. He was strongly supported by the eminent conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham, who gave numerous performances of his work and clearly established an appreciation for it amongst its listeners. Some critics have remarked that whilst his formula for composition was artistically successful it was so but within a strictly defined and narrow emotional and expressive range – certainly this is borne out by the popularity of the shorter works which form the vast majority of this collection, especially the exquisite sensuous idylls catching the lights, sounds, perhaps even the smells of the English countryside.

His last ten years were blighted by illness and in 1928 Eric Fenby became his amanuensis thereby enabling the composer to complete a number of works including A Song of Summer.

He died virtually a recluse in Grez-sur-Loing and, as French law forbade his burial in his garden, his remains were removed from Grez’s cemetery after a year and moved to Limpsfield in Surrey.

Five substantial pieces of 'classic' Delius are brought together on this remarkable and heartfelt tribute to the English composer (who spent very little of his actual career in England!), Frederick Delius.

These mono recordings with the LSO and Anthony Collins are true Legends and for the Eloquence reissue have been remastered for optimum enjoyment. They represent Decca's earliest recordings of this composer's music - and arguably, the best.

The music of Delius has been recorded consistently ever since electrical recordings began, noticeably by conductor Thomas Beecham. This disc brings together a fascinating mix of familiar and less familiar Delius works, recorded on rare 78s between 1929-1955 by other devoted Delius interpreters such as John Barbirolli and Eugene Goossens.

The best-loved and most popular works by Frederick Delius, performed by the world’s leading artists, in an accessible format at budget price as part of the ESSENTIAL CLASSICS series.

Although Barbirolli’s achievement in rebuilding the war-ravaged Hallé Orchestra during the darkest days of the Second World War may remain the greatest fulfilment of his life, his renown as a conductor within the United States was not confined to his New York era. From 1961-67 Barbirolli was music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra in Texas, holding the post concurrently with that in Manchester, and in 1967, marking the 125 anniversary of the New York Philharmonic, he was invited back to conduct the orchestra at Lincoln Center. But even before then, Barbirolli’s appearances in north America would seem to demand a special study by themselves, for early in 1959 he gave several concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as part of a quite extended tour involving a number of the greatest American and Canadian orchestras, including those in Winnipeg and Vancouver alongside those in Detroit, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York (where in the last city he conducted no fewer than sixteen concerts).

The issue under discussion commemorates a typical Barbirolli programme, given in Boston on consecutive days in January 1959, notable for half of it being given over to British music, in essence from the sixteenth-century to the twentieth. Barbirolli never ‘drove’ the Symphony No.2 by Brahms, which approach can be profoundly detrimental to its inner qualities – for this conductor, the nature of the music was essentially Brahms at his most lyrically expressive, and there can be no doubt that for the Boston players, Barbirolli’s view of the work came as something of a revelation: they had performed it under Monteux and Koussevitsky – string players both, like Barbirolli – but the Englishman brought something of a southern European nature to the music, allowing it to unfold at its own pace, yet at all times never allowing a trace of somnolence to enter his interpretation.

Barbirolli treads a fine line, but it is remarkably successful and interpretatively impressive, as the Boston players surely felt so themselves, for in a letter home to his mother, written in Boston on February 1, he said ‘…this Boston orchestra is perhaps the greatest of the lot…The other day after I had rehearsed the 2nd Brahms symphony the whole orchestra stood and cheered me for quite some time, and they have done the same at both concerts…It was lovely, too, to have both the present conductor, [Charles] Münch, and one of the past conductors, Pierre Monteux, both there.’ After that first concert, we learn that all three conductors had a ‘memorable dinner’ together afterwards – the conversation at which would surely have also been worth recording!