Delius - composer of the week 9.04.12

[salymap]

I have mixed feelings over Delius. I grew up with the Beecham live performances and recordings and still feel that he got to the heart of the music more than most.
I do find my attention wanders sometimes in certain works though.
My personal memory of Delius is seeing his grave in Limpsfield, Surrey, also taking his own mss score of the Violin Concerto from London to the printing works in Norfolk where it was to be lodged. I managed to have a good look at it on the car journey, signed 'Fritz Delius' of course. I don't know where it is now, that firm being taken over by someone else, a thing that happened constantly in music publishing in my day.

[Lancashire Lass]

I love Delius and am listening to the programme now.

But oh no, the dreaded accessibility question: "So, Tasmin and Julian, how did you first become interested in Delius?"

Why don't they just say "We're professional musicians, it's our b****y job"??

[Caliban]

Tasmin and Julian

Oh God...

[Caliban]

Hmmm... if you can put up with the sickly wobble that passes for a vibrato

[Stanley Stewart]

Saly, Do you remember Timothy West's gutsy performance as "Beecham" at the Apollo Theatre(?), Shaftesbury Ave, in the autumn of 1979? He captured the mischievous streak so well and was strangely moving when he mounted the conductor's podium and pointed his baton at a young lad, adding, "And Mozart composed this symphony when he was just your age." I also recorded the performance on video when it was shown on the telly and it is now on my transfer to DVD list.

EA, message 1. I did a double-take when you referred to Eric Fenby's sister. I knew her as Anne Gardiner, advertising manager at Hansom Books (publishers of Music & Musicians, Books and Bookmen, Plays & Players etc) when I took up my first London job with them in the late 1950s. She came to London more than a decade earlier and joined the chorus of Vivian Ellis's, "Bless the Bride" - a genteel but huge post-war success. Anne used to regale me with the substitute racy lyrics they used at matinees! 'This is my lovely day' invites innuendo. Maddeningly, I only met Dr Fenby, briefly, as he was heading for an appointment. We are now talking about 60+ years ago but sister and brother were totally disparate personalities.

I'm also glad to have a video/DVD transfer of "Song of Farewell - Eric Fenby at 90" on my shelves as a companion to Ken Russell's documentary. This film was shown in April 1996 on Tyne Tees (originally a London Weekend TV production ) and was a repeat screening of the documentary made in 1982 when Dr Fenby returned to the Delius estate and reminisced in the house and garden. He repeated the tensions and near disaster in communication in the early years, compounded by his worldly inexperience as he hadn't really left Scarborough until he was 21 when setting off for France. It was the limit of his horizons; the cliffs and 25 Trafalgar Square. Lots of Edwardian historical footage of the Esplanade and Spa. Neat intercutting between the Spa, in 1982, and stills from 60 years earlier when Alexander Maclean, conductor of the Spa orchestra, from 1912-1935, invited to Fenby to conduct one of his early compositions and pressed him to return with further work. We then saw Fenby on the cliffs reading about the plight of Delius and "I decided to pursue the idea of helping like The Hound of Hell". A quite extraordinary sequence in the Delius garden after his amanuensis was summoned to the spot where Delius dictated his notational ideas for 'The Song of Summer' (or 'Farewell' - can't remember) and surprised Fenby by using not only an image, but an image of the bay at Scarborough, from the clifftop, with a seagull flying overhead. This dovetailed nicely, I thought, with an earlier scene where Dr Fenby spoke to pupils at the Yehudi Menuhin School about the difference between melodic prose and melodic verse when playing Delius. He touched the heart when talking about Delius, cruelly emaciated at the end, dying in his arms. "He was a poet of nature, a poet of life...the common things of everyday."

It's probable, EA, that you already have a tape of this programme but I'll happily send a copy with my compliments as we still have an A64 pony express between York and Scarborough! The fill-up programme is "The Quest for Reggie Goodall" (1995) which is also worth shelf space, together with Ken Russell's, South Bank Show on the Symphonies of RVW, accompanied by Ursula VW. Triple goodies.

[salymap]

Saly, Do you remember Timothy West's gutsy performance as "Beecham" at the Apollo Theatre(?), Shaftesbury Ave, in the autumn of 1979? He captured the mischievous streak so well and was strangely moving when he mounted the conductor's podium and pointed his baton at a young lad, adding, "And Mozart composed this symphony when he was just your age." I also recorded the performance on video when it was shown on the telly and it is now on my transfer to DVD list.

EA, message 1. I did a double-take when you referred to Eric Fenby's sister. I knew her as Anne Gardiner, advertising manager at Hansom Books (publishers of Music & Musicians, Books and Bookmen, Plays & Players etc) when I took up my first London job with them in the late 1950s. She came to London more than a decade earlier and joined the chorus of Vivian Ellis's, "Bless the Bride" - a genteel but huge post-war success. Anne used to regale me with the substitute racy lyrics they used at matinees! 'This is my lovely day' invites innuendo. Maddeningly, I only met Dr Fenby, briefly, as he was heading for an appointment. We are now talking about 60+ years ago but sister and brother were totally disparate personalities.

I'm also glad to have a video/DVD transfer of "Song of Farewell - Eric Fenby at 90" on my shelves as a companion to Ken Russell's documentary. This film was shown in April 1996 on Tyne Tees (originally a London Weekend TV production ) and was a repeat screening of the documentary made in 1982 when Dr Fenby returned to the Delius estate and reminisced in the house and garden. He repeated the tensions and near disaster in communication in the early years, compounded by his worldly inexperience as he hadn't really left Scarborough until he was 21 when setting off for France. It was the limit of his horizons; the cliffs and 25 Trafalgar Square. Lots of Edwardian historical footage of the Esplanade and Spa. Neat intercutting between the Spa, in 1982, and stills from 60 years earlier when Alexander Maclean, conductor of the Spa orchestra, from 1912-1935, invited to Fenby to conduct one of his early compositions and pressed him to return with further work. We then saw Fenby on the cliffs reading about the plight of Delius and "I decided to pursue the idea of helping like The Hound of Hell". A quite extraordinary sequence in the Delius garden after his amanuensis was summoned to the spot where Delius dictated his notational ideas for 'The Song of Summer' (or 'Farewell' - can't remember) and surprised Fenby by using not only an image, but an image of the bay at Scarborough, from the clifftop, with a seagull flying overhead. This dovetailed nicely, I thought, with an earlier scene where Dr Fenby spoke to pupils at the Yehudi Menuhin School about the difference between melodic prose and melodic verse when playing Delius. He touched the heart when talking about Delius, cruelly emaciated at the end, dying in his arms. "He was a poet of nature, a poet of life...the common things of everyday."

It's probable, EA, that you already have a tape of this programme but I'll happily send a copy with my compliments as we still have an A64 pony express between York and Scarborough! The fill-up programme is "The Quest for Reggie Goodall" (1995) which is also worth shelf space, together with Ken Russell's, South Bank Show on the Symphonies of RVW, accompanied by Ursula VW. Triple goodies.

Fascinating post from you Stanley. Sorry I remember reading about the Beecham/Timothy West show but didn't see it.

Best wishes

[Panjandrum]

Turning into a bit of a Julian Lloyd Webber benefit this week. I'm half expecting DM to give details of where to buy his Delius arrangements before the end of the week.

[Serial_Apologist]

In the light of discussions on the relationship between composers' lives and their music, if any, it was interesting to hear one of this morning's contributers suggesting that the change in ethos in Delius's music after 1898 could be attributed to his quite possibly having fathered a child whom he never saw.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

EA, message 1. I did a double-take when you referred to Eric Fenby's sister. I knew her as Anne Gardiner, advertising manager at Hansom Books (publishers of Music & Musicians, Books and Bookmen, Plays & Players etc) when I took up my first London job with them in the late 1950s. She came to London more than a decade earlier and joined the chorus of Vivian Ellis's, "Bless the Bride" - a genteel but huge post-war success. Anne used to regale me with the substitute racy lyrics they used at matinees! 'This is my lovely day' invites innuendo. Maddeningly, I only met Dr Fenby, briefly, as he was heading for an appointment. We are now talking about 60+ years ago but sister and brother were totally disparate personalities.

I'm also glad to have a video/DVD transfer of "Song of Farewell - Eric Fenby at 90" on my shelves as a companion to Ken Russell's documentary. This film was shown in April 1996 on Tyne Tees (originally a London Weekend TV production ) and was a repeat screening of the documentary made in 1982 when Dr Fenby returned to the Delius estate and reminisced in the house and garden. He repeated the tensions and near disaster in communication in the early years, compounded by his worldly inexperience as he hadn't really left Scarborough until he was 21 when setting off for France. It was the limit of his horizons; the cliffs and 25 Trafalgar Square. Lots of Edwardian historical footage of the Esplanade and Spa. Neat intercutting between the Spa, in 1982, and stills from 60 years earlier when Alexander Maclean, conductor of the Spa orchestra, from 1912-1935, invited to Fenby to conduct one of his early compositions and pressed him to return with further work. We then saw Fenby on the cliffs reading about the plight of Delius and "I decided to pursue the idea of helping like The Hound of Hell". A quite extraordinary sequence in the Delius garden after his amanuensis was summoned to the spot where Delius dictated his notational ideas for 'The Song of Summer' (or 'Farewell' - can't remember) and surprised Fenby by using not only an image, but an image of the bay at Scarborough, from the clifftop, with a seagull flying overhead. This dovetailed nicely, I thought, with an earlier scene where Dr Fenby spoke to pupils at the Yehudi Menuhin School about the difference between melodic prose and melodic verse when playing Delius. He touched the heart when talking about Delius, cruelly emaciated at the end, dying in his arms. "He was a poet of nature, a poet of life...the common things of everyday."

It's probable, EA, that you already have a tape of this programme but I'll happily send a copy with my compliments as we still have an A64 pony express between York and Scarborough! The fill-up programme is "The Quest for Reggie Goodall" (1995) which is also worth shelf space, together with Ken Russell's, South Bank Show on the Symphonies of RVW, accompanied by Ursula VW. Triple goodies.

Many thanks for such a detailed reply, SS. I do indeed have a tape of that programme (somewhere!), but I appreciate the offer. Re Eric's sister, this one wasn't called Anne, so I presume he had more than one sister. This one was called Marjory Halstead, who sang with the local amateur operatic society

[Oddball]

Having spent a long car journey today travelling from London to Paris, and listening to the Radio, it was impressed on me how grateful I should be for programmes of the calibre of COTW, wonderful music (La Calinda!), and a depth of research that may not be matched by biographers of Delius.

French Radio stations in contrast, although there are tons of them, spaced 0.2MHz apart, just offer trash music in contrast, and I ended up listening to the local arabic music stations, which offered by far the most interesting music.