The Delius Society Journal Autumn 2011, Number 150
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The Delius Society Journal Autumn 2011, Number 150 The Delius Society (Registered Charity No. 298662) President Lionel Carley BA PhD Vice Presidents Roger Buckley Sir Andrew Davis CBE Sir Mark Elder CBE Bo Holten RaD Lyndon Jenkins RaD Richard Kitching Piers Lane BMus Hon FRAM ARCM LMusA David Lloyd-Jones BA Hon DMus FGSM Julian Lloyd Webber FRCM John McCabe CBE, Hon DMus Anthony Payne Robert Threlfall Website: http://www.delius.org.uk ISSN-0306-0373 1 DSJ 150 Autumn 2011.indd 1 25/10/2011 14:56 Chairman Martin Lee-Browne CBE Chester House, Fairford Gloucestershire GL7 4AD Email: Chairman@The DeliusSociety.org.uk Treasurer and Membership Secretary Peter Watts c/o Bourner Bullock – Chartered Accountants Sovereign House 212-224 Shaftesbury Avenue London WC2 8HQ Email: [email protected] Secretary Lesley Buckley c/o Crosland Communications Ltd The Railway Station Newmarket CB8 9WT Tel: 07941 188617 Email: [email protected] Journal Editor Paul Chennell 19 Moriatry Close Holloway, London N7 0EF Tel: 020 7700 0646 Email: [email protected] Front cover: The House at Grez. Photograph: Monty Parkin Back cover: A Prized Possession. Photograph: Anne Baker The Editor has tried in good faith to contact the holders of the copyright in all material used in this Journal (other than holders of it for material which has been specifically provided by agreement with the Editor), and to obtain their permission to reproduce it. Sometimes, however, he has received no reply. Any breaches of copyright are unintentional and regretted. 2 DSJ 150 Autumn 2011.indd 2 25/10/2011 14:56 Martin Lee-Browne and Roger Buckley in conversation at the 2011 AGM photograph © Brian Radford 3 DSJ 150 Autumn 2011.indd 3 25/10/2011 14:56 CONTENTS CHAIRMAN’S NOTES................................................................................... 6 EDITORIAL...................................................................................................... 8 OBITUARY Malcolm Smith................................................................................................. 10 Ian McPherson................................................................................................. 13 TWO NEW VICE PRESIDENTS Anthony Payne................................................................................................ 15 John McCabe.................................................................................................... 17 THE 2011 DELIUS SOCIETY AGM ............................................................. 18 THE DELIUS PRIZE 2011.............................................................................. 21 BRIAN ON DELIUS by Paul Chennell................................................................................................ 24 RECORDING THE DELIUS PART-SONGS by Martin Lee-Browne....................................................................................... 38 NEWS FROM MEMBER SOCIETIES by Michael Green............................................................................................... 41 2012 – FURTHER NEWS by Michael Green and Lyndon Jenkins.............................................................. 47 THE DELIUS INTERNATIONAL COMPOSITION PRIZE by Roger Buckley................................................................................................ 52 A TRIP TO GREZ by Monty Parkin................................................................................................ 53 100 YEARS AGO by Paul Chennell................................................................................................ 56 PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YORKSHIREMAN by Samuel Shaw................................................................................................. 58 FREDERICK DELIUS – APOSTLE OF NATURE by John Tolansky................................................................................................ 69 4 DSJ 150 Autumn 2011.indd 4 25/10/2011 14:56 WORKING WITH ERIC FENBY by Anne Baker.................................................................................................... 72 DELIUS’S VIOLIN SONATA No 3 – A TRANSCRIPTION FOR FLUTE AND PIANO by Tony Summers.............................................................................................. 75 LETTERS David Whitton................................................................................................... 78 Lionel Friend...................................................................................................... 78 BOOK REVIEWS Ravel by Roger Nichols................................................................................... 79 Frederick DELIUS ou Une célébration de la vie by Jérôme Rossi.................. 82 CD REVIEWS Delius: The Complete Songs, Volume 1...................................................... 85 Delius: Life’s Dance (Lebenstanz) (1901, Rev. 1912) Irmelin: Suite (Edited & Arranged Beecham, 1955) Poem of Life and Love (1918) A Village Romeo and Juliet: Suite (Arr. David Matthews 1987, Rev. 2010).......................................................... 88 Delius: Appalachia; The Song Of The High Hills............................................. 91 Delius: In a Summer Garden............................................................................ 95 Percy Grainger on Record.............................................................................. 97 CONCERT REVIEWS Sea Drift............................................................................................................. 103 Summer Night on the River ............................................................................. 104 DELIUS SOCIETY MEETINGS London Meeting, 29th January 2011............................................................ 106 London Meeting, 28th February 2011.......................................................... 107 London Meeting, 30th March 2011............................................................... 113 Midlands Branch Report................................................................................ 116 Philadelphia Branch Report........................................................................... 117 MISCELLANY.................................................................................................. 120 EVENTS 2011-12.............................................................................................. 128 5 DSJ 150 Autumn 2011.indd 5 25/10/2011 14:56 CHAIRMAN’S NOTES One hundred and fifty issues of a specialist periodical such as this one can’t be a bad record! We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all those who have contributed to it over the years − making it now, as I am often told by people who are not Society members, the best of the ‘composer−society’ journals. Paul Chennell, our editor, tells me that he plans to include an article on the development of this Journal, next year, when one issue will be celebrating the Society’s 50th birthday. As the country sportsmen say down here in Gloucestershire, the period between April and September is the ‘close season’ for pheasants, and this year it has, sadly, seemed somewhat closer for Delius than usual, for there has been little in the way of interesting or unusual performances. Just two of the Cello Sonata, The Walk, The Cuckoo and Summer Night on the River; one each of Late Swallows, and two of the Violin Sonatas, plus two part songs and a handful of solo songs − and the only (as I am sure Members would agree) ‘interesting’ or ‘unusual’ things have been Brigg Fair (given twice) and the Violin Concerto (once). The first group are, of course, lovely pieces of music, but overall that is a sad state of affairs, which we hope will be greatly improved as the result of the efforts of the 2012 Sub−Committee to encourage choirs and orchestras, both professional and pro−am, to sing and play Delius’s music. The Sub−Committee continues to work extremely hard, and we are being really well served by the excellent advice and ideas we are getting from our Project Adviser, Chris Green, and our Publicity expert, Karen Fletcher. Its Chairman, Mike Green, gives a full report on progress a few pages on. So, in the absence of much other ‘news’, how about something a little different from the usual Chairman’s Notes stuff? While working on Paul Guinery’s and my book on Delius’s music, I have been tremendously struck by the extent to which Delius’s earliest works were quite different in sound, style and subject-matter from almost anything that had been heard before − certainly in this country and to a very large extent in mainland Europe − and I am certainly not the first person to believe that that unquestionably accounts for the difficulty he had in getting his music performed here before 1908 (when he was 46). Imagine that it is 1900, and that you are a well−known English music publisher, who happens to work for all the ‘good and the great’ of music in this country. You have recently published the latest works by Sullivan (a Te Deum), Parry 6 DSJ 150 Autumn 2011.indd 6 25/10/2011 14:56 (another Te Deum), Stanford (his opera Much Ado about Nothing), Cowen (his overture The Butterfly’s Ball), and Elgar (The Dream of Gerontius). Into your office comes Fritz Delius with a bundle of scores − Paa Vidderne, Idylle de Printemps, Sakuntala, Summer Evening and Mitternachtslied Zarathustras. Have you ever heard music like any of them before? They are somewhat (to put it mildly) different, are they not, from those others − discordant, monotonous, barbaric, pointlessly wandering [as his music was