Prom 41: Delius-'A Mass of Life', BBCSO&SC/LPC,J.Davis/Huckle/Philip/R.Williams/Elder

[Roger Webb]

We shan't see the likes of the great Norman Del Mar again, I fear. Apart from his inspirational conducting, his scholarly volumes on Richard Strauss will be appreciated long after we're gone. Footnote -- he was loved and admired in the orchestral scene, but if a player was to ask of his colleagues "Who's conducting us next week ?" the affectionate soubriquet " The Mass of Life" would be instantly recognisable.

Yes, I have the three Strauss volumes, and his examination of Mahler 6th he did for Eulenburg, he conducted this symphony on one of his visits with the Bournemouth S O, and he was the main conductor for the orchestral concerts at the '85 Delius Festival....so much to admire - what stays in the memory was a stunning 'Enigma Variations', and his recording for DG is one often overlooked in reviews of the piece.

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't think anyone's written so thoroughly and positively uplifting a piece of music since. We don't seem to go in for that sort of thing these days.

"We", in this country? possibly not - I'm out of date on such matters these days. How about David Bedford's "into Thy Wondrous House"? of 1989 to words from Isiah and Kenneth Patchen? Maybe not recent enough, perhaps. Unfortunately there's no Youtube of it - I taped it from a Radio 3 programme covering a wide swathe of Bedford at that time - but it's one of the most uplifting works of its kind, to me: very Holstian indeed in the harmonies but without the anxt or the religion.

[oliver sudden]

Yes, I have the three Strauss volumes, and his examination of Mahler 6th he did for Eulenburg, he conducted this symphony on one of his visits with the Bournemouth S O, and he was the main conductor for the orchestral concerts at the '85 Delius Festival....so much to admire - what stays in the memory was a stunning 'Enigma Variations', and his recording for DG is one often overlooked in reviews of the piece.

There is a recording of his Mahler 6 out there somewhere, I believe. Anyone here heard it?

[Roger Webb]

There is a recording of his Mahler 6 out there somewhere, I believe. Anyone here heard it?

I didn't know there was, the perf. I attended was Colston Hall Bristol...and I don't remember it being recorded (except for the hospital relay...but that was strictly 'live', no recording allowed), of course Del Mar must have performed it many (?) times....but I don't recall there being, say a Radio 3 broadcast.

The finest Mahler 6th I ever attended was Tennstedt/LPO Proms, which is a recording....and on Qobuz.

Tennstedt played the Scherzo second, Del Mar third.....I prefer 2nd.....but I don't want to ignite that argument again!

[LMcD]

One of the earliest concerts we attended together at the RFH - in 1969 if I remember correctly - featured Mahler's 6th conducted by Charles Groves. The forces at his disposal included a large wooden box and what looked like a mallet.

[oliver sudden]

I didn't know there was, the perf. I attended was Colston Hall Bristol...and I don't remember it being recorded (except for the hospital relay...but that was strictly 'live', no recording allowed), of course Del Mar must have performed it many (?) times....but I don't recall there being, say a Radio 3 broadcast.

The finest Mahler 6th I ever attended was Tennstedt/LPO Proms, which is a recording....and on Qobuz.

Tennstedt played the Scherzo second, Del Mar third.....I prefer 2nd.....but I don't want to ignite that argument again!

You play Mahler your way, I’ll play him his way

I see references on the Genome to Mahler 6/Del Mar broadcasts in 1956 and 1963, the latter a Prom. I have a reasonably strong memory of reading, er, something where, er, someone wrote they’d heard a tape…

[Roger Webb]

I notice the Mass of Life is to have an interval tonight...I prefer to go straight through, but, as the interval talk is an interview with Delius scholar Daniel Grimley....OK, this once!

Grimley's 'Delius and the Sound of Place' (Cambridge Univ. Press 2018) is a fascinating study of the effect of landscape on the composer's music - perhaps if the makers of last night's Delius and Yorkshire Sunday Feature had consulted a copy they may have eased up on the works played and the claim that Delius's surroundings as a child in Yorkshire had any effect on their composition!

[smittims]

I think an interval has been considered useful to rest the chorus, and of course for 'personal needs ' breaks. I recall a performance of Verdi's Requiem when oneof the basses had had 3 pints of lager before, expecting an interval. There wasn't one.

Certainly the music Delius wrote associated with different places has differing character. I've even heard talk of an 'American' ,a 'Scandinavian' and a 'French' phase in his music, though he does seem to have been sensitive to nature more than many composers. He travelled more too, until he settled in Grez: much more than ,say , Elgar or Debussy. I'd say the 'influence' of landscape on his music is similar to the influence of family crises on the work of Wordsworth and Schoenberg, i.e. tramsmuted through the subconcsious.

[Roger Webb]

Certainly the music Delius wrote associated with different places has differing character. I've even heard talk of an 'American' ,a 'Scandinavian' and a 'French' phase in his music, though he does seem to have been sensitive to nature more than many composers. He travelled more too, until he settled in Grez.........

Yes, those three are the ones I'd say are to the fore and discernable in works whose titles prompt us to look for 'national' characteristics eg. Appalachia, Florida Suite, Sea Drift, Koanga for 'American'..........Eventyr, An Arabesque, Song of the High Hills, Paa Vidderne (both 'versions'), and Fennimore and Gerda and the many songs on 'Nordic texts', for 'Scandinavian'........In a Summer Garden, Song Before Sunrise, and many more tone poems for 'French'....but not forgetting those earlier works written whilst living in Paris and immediate environs, and are the most ''French' of anything he wrote: Suite for Violin and Orchestra, the early violin sonata, and particularly the gorgeous Verlaine settings - these could easily be by a French composer of fin de siecle Paris!....I have a special fondness for these, admittedly immature, works.

Those works he wrote after his permanent move to Grez, although 'national' in character, and calling on his experiences in the various countries are 'memories' of those places....hardly any of his more mature pieces were actually written in situ, but those experiences recalled 'in tranquility', back at Grez........the much quoted 'North Country Sketches' as being influenced by his upbringing in Yorkshire is hard to believe when in it he uses a similar sound world as for his 'Scandinavian' works - and Georgia Mann's once made claim that Song of the High Hills is 'about' the Yorks Moors is merely absurd!

[Prommer]

A sudden burst of interest to this year's Proms... this and the LSO tomorrow night!

[Prommer]

Tom Service talks to Mark Elder about Mass of Life and other matters. Elder says that he spoke to a choir member, who, amazingly, had who also sung in the first complete Prom performance under Malcolm Sargent in 1966. Includes a nice reminiscence describing Sargent's reaction to the work.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live/bbc_radio_three. Around 10.15 to 10.30.

Which programme was this, please, and was it earlier today?

[Keraulophone]

Which programme was this, please, and was it earlier today?

It was on Saturday morning.

[Keraulophone]

A sudden burst of interest to this year's Proms... this and the LSO tomorrow night!

My first two in situ this season, up from Cornwall. It was inspiring to watch again the Ken Russell and John Bridcut films on Delius last night on BBC4. Andrew Davis was in raptures!

[Roger Webb]

My first two in situ this season, up from Cornwall. It was inspiring to watch again the Ken Russell and John Bridcut films on Delius last night on BBC4. Andrew Davis was in raptures!

Whilst listening to the central section of 'Song of the High Hills' if I remember correctly........a memorable moment in the Russell film too, when they carried Delius up the mountain in Norway for him to see the sunset one more time, to a different section of that wonderful work!

[Prommer]

It was on Saturday morning.

Found it - danke schön.