DELIUS
Symphonic Poem On the Mountains; Seven Songs from the Norwegian; Melodrama
Paa Vidderne
GRIEG orch. DELIUS
Norwegian Bridal Procession.
Jan Lund (tenor), Peter
Hall (narrator)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Douglas Bostock.
Classico CLASSCD 364
[79.52 ]
Crotchet
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The eighth in Classico's enterprising series collectively entitled 'The
British Symphonic Collection' concentrates on the least British of
the composers so far included: Frederick Delius. Although Bradford born,
Delius's life was spent mostly abroad, in Florida (ostensibly managing a
citrus plantation), studying briefly in Leipzig (the most significant result
being the friendships he made with Grieg and other Norwegian artists), and
France, where he eventually married and settled at Grez-sur-Loing. If Florida
and Negro harmonies inspired such works as the Florida Suite,
Appalachia, and the operas The Magic Fountain and Koanga,
Delius had a great fondness for Scandinavia, and Norway in particular, which
was to be his spiritual home. It was on summer holidays in Norway that he
planned many a work which would be completed later at home in France.
The works on this CD, all inspired by Norway, were composed between 1888
and 1892, before Delius was 30. The most substantial is the melodrama Paa
Vidderne, a forty-minute narration with orchestra of a poem by Ibsen
in nine sections, subtitled 'On the High Mountains', an important
if youthful work. This first commercial recording is greatly to be welcomed.
It fills a gap in Delius's recorded oeuvre that is probably unfamiliar even
to many Delius enthusiasts. Delius's friendship with Grieg and the latter's
melodrama Bergliot (1885) more than likely provided the inspiration for Paa
Vidderne (1888). Delius must have identified closely with the hero of
the poem who rejects his own home and its conventional life and, with Nietzschean
parallels ('Men lose themselves in the valley'), seeks the solitude of the
mountain heights and steels himself for his higher artistic calling. The
work was not performed in Delius's life-time and remained largely unknown
until in 1981 the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation presented it as a television
film with Charles Farncombe conducting the Oslo Philharmonic and with Svein
Sturla Hungnes narrating (in Norwegian). It had its first public performance
in February 1984 when Allan Hendrick was the narrator (in English), Leslie
Head conducting the Kensington Symphony Orchestra. Later that year Sir Charles
Groves gave it at the Cheltenham Festival (with the original narrator), and
more recently, in June 1994, there was a broadcast performance (repeated
in February 1995) with Vernon Handley conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra,
with Simon Ward narrating. In this recording, using Lionel Carley's English
translation, Peter Hall is expressively and boldly dramatic in his declamation
of the text. There are moments of great beauty and power that make one wonder
how such a work can have been neglected for so long.
The first item on this CD, the orchestral tone-poem Paa Vidderne,
here referred to by its alternative title On the Mountains to avoid
confusion with the melodrama of the same name, is, frankly, inferior Delius
but nonetheless fascinating to hear, if only to follow Delius's development
to maturity, especially alongside the markedly superior Over the Hills
and Far Away of 1897. It was his first orchestral work to receive public
performance, at Christiania (Oslo) in 1891, and it was heard again at Monte
Carlo in 1894. The manuscript's dating of 1892 possibly suggests that changes
were made after its first reading. It was then not heard again until Beecham
put it in his second (1946) Delius Festival. At that time he also recorded
the work, but his recording remained unissued until it was included in the
second World Records Delius-Beecham boxed set (SHB54; CD reissue CDM 7 64054-2).
The work's only other modern recording was for Marco Polo (8.220452, Slovak
Philharmonic O, John Hopkins). The indefatigable Leslie Head conducted it
at St. John's, Smith Square, in March 1974 (broadcast by Radio London in
1974 and rebroadcast in 1977). More recently, in December 1994, there was
a BBC Radio 3 performance, with Barry Wordsworth conducting the BBC Concert
Orchestra.
The seven Songs from the Norwegian were composed between 1889 and
1890 for voice and piano (six of the poems had in fact been previously set
by Grieg). Here they are recorded for the first time in orchestral dress,
two of the orchestrations being by Delius, two by Beecham, one by Sondheimer,
and - to complete the set - two recently by Anthony Payne, a composer with
strong sympathies for Delius as well as for Elgar, Bax, Bridge and others
of that generation. Only four of the orchestral versions had been previously
recorded, by Beecham and Fenby, who both used female singers. The soloist
on this complete set is a tenor, thus necessitating a few transpositions,
and Jan Lund gives a most expressive rendering of the songs, skilfully
underlining the meaning of the text without mannerism or exaggeration. Just
in one or two places does his voice sound a little strained. The opening
bars of Hidden Love surely betray the orchestrator of Elgar's Third
Symphony: with their serious tone they could almost have come from the slow
movement - or does hindsight make one too wise ? And his treatment of The
Minstrel is especially effective, too, with its use of harp and the magical
horn note at the end, surely suggestive of the water-spirit of the poem.
One other item that makes this CD essential to any Delian collection is Grieg's
Norwegian Bridal Procession as orchestrated by Delius in December
1889. In his Grieg and Delius: A Chronicle of their Friendship in Letters
(Marion Boyars, 1993), Lionel Carley suggests that this may have been intended
as a Christmas gift to Grieg but it is not known whether the manuscript exchanged
hands as Halvorsen's orchestration of 1903 is the one generally heard today.
Without being able to make a side-by-side comparison of the two, Delius's
seems a most effective orchestral realisation of what is now a familiar piece.
Douglas Bostock brings off convincing performances with the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra, more especially so when rehearsal time is often short
for unfamiliar repertoire. The recording lacks just a little in clarity and
definition; the balance between voice and orchestra is not always ideal.
But this does not detract from enjoying a most enterprising and important
CD. I expect that there will be many listeners experiencing the thrill of
the Norwegian heights through repeated hearings of Paa Vidderne.
Stephen Lloyd
