The Delius Society Journal
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Spring 1987, Number 93 The Delius Society Journal 1 The Delius Society Journal Spring 1987, Number 93 The Delius Society Full Membership £8.00f8.00 per year Students £5.00f5.00 Subscription to Libraries (Journal only) £6.00f6.00 per year USA and Canada US $17.00 per year President Eric Fenby OBE, Hon DMus,D Mus,Hon DLitt,D Litt, Hon RAM, FRCM, Hon FTCL Vice Presidents Felix Aprahamian Hon RCO Roland Gibson MSc, PhD (Founder Member) Sir Charles Groves CBE Meredith Davies CBE, MA, BMus,B Mus, FRCM, Hon RAM Norman Del Mar CBE, Hon DMusD Mus Vernon Handley MA, FRCM, D Univ (Surrey) Chairman RBR B Meadows 5 Westbourne House, Mount Park Road, Harrow, Middlesex Treasurer Peter Lyons 160 Wishing Tree Road, St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex Secretary Miss Diane Eastwood 28 Emscote Street South, Bell Hall, Halifax, Yorkshire Tel: (0422) 50537 50537 Editor Stephen Lloyd 85a Farley Hill, Luton, Bedfordshire LU15EGLUl 5EG Tel: Luton-(0582) 200752007 5 2 CONTENTS Conductors I have known: a talk bybv Dr Fenby .... 3 Obituary .........6 Delius's American Rhapsody by Philip Jones ..... 7 Midlands Branch Reports: Rcports: AAHistoryofHistory of MusicMusicinin Birmingham: aatalkbyLyndon talk by Lyndon Jenkins ......... 10 A Piano Recital by Robert Threlfall ..... 13 Delius in inl-eipzigLeipzig 19861985by Joyce and Bill Thornton ...... 12 Book and Record Reviews: Delius: A Supplementary Catalogue by Robert Threlfall ....... .. 14 Delius Trust Music Archive Catalogue by Rachel Lowe .... 14 Havergal Brian on Music: Volume One .. ........ 15 DELIUS Cello Sonata (Caroline Dale and Keith Swallow) .... 17l7 Correspondence 18r8 News in Brief 22 Forthcoming Events'Events 24 Additional copies of this issue £1.30f 1.30each, inclusive of postage ISSN-0306-0373 3 CONDUCTORSCONDUCTORSII HAVEHAVE KNOWNKNOWN AA talktalk givengiven toto thethe Delius.Delius. SocietySociety byby DrDr EricEric FenbyFenby atat MaryMary WardWard House,House, London,London, onon2222 OctoberOctober 1986.1986. A packed audienceaudience atat Mary Ward House last October greetedgreeted Dr Fenby whose talkstalks areare alwaysalways thethe highlighthighlight ofof thethe Society'sSociety's calendar.calendar. He began by consideringconsidering how fortunatefortunate he was toto have been born intointo aa happy Yorkshire familyfamily inin suchsuchan an 'out-of-the-way 'out-of-the-way place likelike Scarborough', and toto have obtained fullfull parental supportsupport as he developed as a musician. On reflection he felt that Scarborough had offered him more opportunities thanthan he would have received fromfrom any college, 'learn having been compelled to 'learn by doing' (something(something of which Delius greatly 'get approved), and furthermore having to 'get on' with littlelittle help fromfrom his busy mentor, Claude Keeton, whom indeed he even sometimes had to assist by takingtaking choral society rehearsals and playing at church services. He spoke of always having preferred thethe organ toto thethe piano and thoughtthought thatthat he might well have ended up as a church organist but forfor thethe discovery thatthat his keyboard gifts tendedtended towards accompanying rather than solo playing. It was as an accompanista@ompanist that he was constantly in demand in his early Scarborough years, and it was a propitious day, as it turned out, when his father received a letter from the manager of the Scarborough Spa concerts, asking if young Fenby would be allowed to play for the auditions of singers from London and Manchester who were seeking engagements for the concert season. That letter opened the door to his future. While there was no fee attached, it gave him free access to all the Spa concerts and - more importantly - he met Alick Maclean, the conductor of the New Queen's Hall Light Orchestra who in the summer months came to Scarborough to conduct the Spa concerts [seefsee Journal 89 pp. 14-17].L4-l7l.InIn those days musicians' contracts only covered about eight months of the year and they were naturally anxious to fill the summer months by taking jobs offered by the many light orchestras in the resorts around the country. The Scarborough Orchestra, which drew most of its players from the Hall6,Halle, Birmingham and Scottish Orchestras, was one of the best, was better paid, and there was consequently much competition to join its ranks. It was at these concerts that Maclean invited Eric Fenby to conduct his first compositions. Paul Beard, then the leader of the City of Birmingham Orchestra, led the Scarborough Spa Orchestra and with his sports car apparently cut quite a dashing figure with the young ladies of Scarborough! Dr Fenby left to our imagination the spectacle of the Spa Orchestra's cricket team returning swathed in bandages for an evening concert after a match with a neighbouring village, with Paul Beard out of action for several days! The orchestral players were somewhat in awe of Maclean who had a highly individual manner on thethe podium, standing very stiffly with a beat that was not easy to follow. His programmes consisted of English, French, German and Norwegian lightlight music, with thethe occasional American novelty, all of which he treatedtreated with thethe same care and serious attention he would give toto thethe morning symphony (usually Haydn or Mozart). Roger Quilter and Eric Coates often came 4 as guest conductors and agreed that music-making on the Spa front was an idyllic experience. As an exampleexarnpleof Maclean's skill ininhandlinghandling light music, a recording was played of him conducting the New Queen's Hall Light Orchestra in a movement from Eric Coates' Summer Days suite. Dr Fenby turned next to Beecham whom he described as the greatest of all the living conductors, unsurpassed when seized with his demonic energy. Sadly, he added, Beecham seems today to be held in lessening esteem, for his Mozart is dismissed as being too romantic and self-indulgent, and his unique"recordingsunique-recordings have been overlooked in the transfer to CD. To exemplify all that is best in Beecham's approach to Delius, the introduction and the opening chorus to Part 2 of A MassMassof Life'Lrfe' were then played. 'When have you ever heard another conductor conjure up such an exquisite ebbing and flowing of sound in the string accompaniment to the solo horns, and who, at the end of the introduction, has ever unleashed such an electrifying choral outburst as Beecham with the flick of his stick?'stick?'DrDr Fenby asked. In the next music illustration, Beecham conducted the L"POL?O in the opening movement from the earlier of his two recordings of Schubert's Fifth Symphony. Recalling the time when he helped Sir Thomas with the Covent Garden production ofof. Koanga, Dr Fenby painted an engaging picture of Beecham responding to thatthat'boyish'boyish innocence'innocence'hehe found and loved so much in Schubert, sitting at the piano in white silk pyjamas, illustrating some point or just reading over the score while enjoying the first cigar of the day. Beecham was, of course, a law unto himself - and that extended to the rehearsal too. Dr Fenby said that Beecham rehearsed in a manner unlike anyone else he had known; the rehearsals always sounded more like the real thing. Unlike Malcolm Sargent who talked too much, Beecham made very few comments, letting the orchestra play great stretches of music as if for the sheer pleasure of playing. He could also be extremely nonchalant, as on the occasion when one morning at breakfast he announced that he was going to record Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 1I with Szigeti. Fenby was to collect the full score from Goodwin & Tabb's library and meet him at the Abbey RoadRodd studios. Dr Fenby recalled that when he placed the score on the conductor's stand, it was apparent that Beecham had not seen the score before, and yet it turned out a fine performance, drawingdrawint from Szigeti a flow 'of ethereal loveliness the moment he lifted his baton'. As another example of Beecham at his best, the first half of the evening's programme ended with an excerpt from his historic recording of Sibelius's Fourth Symphony. Sargent was Dr Fenby's nextnixt subject, and his association with Dr Sargent (as he then was) began at the rehearsals for Songs of FarewellFarewel/in March 1932. Anyone acquainted with Sargent would inevitably be drawn into the socialsocial,circlescircles inirt whicI:twhich he moved. Dr Fenby had already sampled Londonl-ondon social life at the time of the 1929 DeliusFestival:Delius Festival: 'Half the titled ladies of London vied with each other in sendingsenbing their chauffeur-driven cars to take Delius out in the morning, and he always wanted to go to the same place, Richmond Park, and I always had to describe the deer'. Dr Fenby spoke of Sargent's generosity, how he introduced him to his friends and frequently invited him (then a bachelor) to make up a party at his box in the Albert Hall. During the first bombing of Londonl.ondon Fenby was invited each 5 weekend to staystay near Reading with Malcolm and his wife, Eileen. Yet despite Sargent's generous spirit,spirit, itit was not easy toto taketake his sideside with thethe frequentfrequent arguments he had with orchestral players. At the time of their firstfirst acquaintance, Sargent was not generally regardedregarded as a very good orchestral conductor, but Dr Fenby recalledrecalled thatthat on his.his,firstfirst meeting with Beecham inin 1929 when he came to GrezGrez for lunch,lunch, Sir Thomas spoke of Sargent as the finestfinest choral conductor in thethe world, at thethe same time giving him littlelittle credit on the purely orchestral side. One of Sargent's greatest successes was with-the first performanceperfonnance of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast at the 1931 Leeds Festival, a performance which Dr Fenby attended.