When I read the disc
title, "Frederick Delius, arrangements
for piano four hands", my initial
thought was to doubt the success of
such a feat. After all Delius’s music
is surely inextricably bound to the
orchestra with its lush harmonies and
sonorities. However, as the album played,
I found myself entranced by the beauty
and flow of the performances by pianists
Noriko Ogawa and Kathryn Stott. Later,
I became engrossed with the substantial
amount of information in the liner notes
supplied by Robert Threlfall.
The majority of Delius’s
arrangements for piano four hands are
credited to composer, author and musicologist
Philip Heseltine, who went by the name
of Peter Warlock. Born in London in
1894, Heseltine became fascinated with
Delius’s work in his childhood. After
an introduction and constant correspondence,
the two became friends until Heseltine’s
death in 1930. It was his wish early
on to create arrangements of Delius’s
orchestral music. Delius was "someone
he regarded as a great English composer."
Heseltine believed in the power of piano
reductions as a means of reaching a
larger audience.
On hearing the first
Cuckoo in spring is probably Delius’s
most famous work for orchestra. It is
based on a Norwegian melody, which had
been previously employed by Edvard Grieg.
Summer Night on the River depicts
the flowing river by Delius’s garden.
In a Summer Garden draws its
inspiration from the very same garden
and the performance is impressive maintaining
an expressive musical flow as well as
attentiveness to precision. The performance
of A Song before Sunrise is by
far the most dramatic of any on this
disc. The work was composed in 1918
and dedicated to Heseltine, who completed
the piano arrangement three years later,
in 1921. I have to admit I was unfamiliar
with Delius’s North Country Sketches,
but having heard the arrangement, I
am quite eager to hear the original
four-movement suite for orchestra. The
movement titles are Autumn (the wind
soughs in the trees), Winter
Landscape, Dance (mazurka tempo),
and The March of Spring (Woodlands,
meadows and silent moors). What
stood out in North Country Sketches
is the third movement and the performers’
power of dynamic projection. Dance
Rhapsody No. 1 and Dance Rhapsody
No. 2 are two flamboyant pieces
performed here with an almost unyielding
fervor for excitement.
It is the careful attention
to detail by Heseltine and the aggressive
musical drive by Ogawa and Stott, which
makes this album a must-buy.
Christopher Tucker
Noriko Ogawa and Kathryn Stott, piano 