The Delius Society Journal Autumn 2006, Number 140 The Delius Society (Registered Charity No. 298662) President Dr Lionel Carley, BA PhD Vice Presidents Sir Andrew Davis, CBE Mark Elder, CBE Vernon Handley, CBE, MA, FRCM Richard Hickox, CBE, FRCO Lyndon Jenkins Richard Kitching Tasmin Little, FGSM ARCM (Hons) Hon D.Litt DipGSM David Lloyd-Jones, BA Hon DMus FGSM Julian Lloyd Webber, FRCM Sir Charles Mackerras, CH, AC, CBE Robert Threlfall Website: http://www.delius.org.uk ISSN-0306-0373 1 Chairman Roger J. Buckley Treasurer and Membership Secretary Stewart Winstanley Windmill Ridge, 82 Highgate Road, Walsall, WS1 3JA Tel: 01922 633115 Email: [email protected] Secretary Ann Dixon 38 Canadian Avenue, Catford, London SE6 3AS Tel: 0208 690 9136 Email: [email protected] Journal Editor Martin Lee-Browne Chester House, Fairford, Gloucestershire GL7 4AD Tel: 01285 711417 Email: [email protected] Front cover: Delius in the Garden at Grez (Jelka Delius) (Reproduced with the permission of the Harrison Sisters’ Trust) Back cover: The Jacksonville Mural (See Miscellany) 2 The Door at 94 Rue Wilson, Grez (Photo by Claire Leray) 3 CONTENTS Chairman’s Notes ............................................................................................. 6 Editorial ............................................................................................................. 8 OBITUARIES Professor Roger Cotton .................................................................................... 10 Bill Early ............................................................................................................ 10 THE SOCIETY’S WEEKEND, THE AGM & DELIUS INSPIRED by Charles Barnard, the Editor, Brian Radford & Geoff Mogridge...................... 12 ARTICLES MADAME ANNA MERLE D’AUBIGNÉ (“BIBKA”) by Jean Merle d’Aubigné and Claude Nathalie Thomas ..................................... 20 THE ‘SUMMER PIECES’: Delius in his Garden by Philip Oyler .............................................................. 23 In a Summer Garden by Lyndon Jenkins ......................................................... 29 Summer Evening, Summer Night on the River & A Song of Summer – A Musical Analysis by Paul Guinery ............................................................. 35 Origins & First Performances by Martin Lee-Browne .................................... 42 Mark Elder talks to the Editor about conducting Delius............................... 58 Two Unaccompanied Partsongs: A Conductor’s Perspective by Paul Spicer 61 The Recordings by Lewis Foreman ................................................................... 66 Inspired by Delius: Anthony Paynes’s Spring’s Shining Wake ....................... 71 “Come hither, lass” - Some Other Musical Gardens by Stephen Lloyd & Martin Lee-Browne ............................................................ 73 HECKELPHONE OR BASS OBOE by Robert Mongomery ........................... 77 MISSA ZHIZNI V MOSKV’YE by David Lloyd-Jones...................................... 83 MARGOT LA ROUGE: David Lloyd Jones interviewed by Paul Guinery ........ 86 DELIUS – THE ANAGRAMS by Tony Watts .................................................. 89 DELIUS AND THE DANCE by Michael Green ............................................... 91 WHEN DID THE AIR ACQUIRE A DANCE? by Robert Threlfall & Stephen Lloyd .................................................................. 103 DELIUS SOCIETY MEETINGS London Branch, 21 March 2006 - Mike Green ............................................. 105 Midlands Branch, 9 April 2006 - Recital by Paul Guinery ............................ 105 4 London Branch, 27 April 2006 - Sally Groves .............................................. 107 Philadelphia Branch, 28 April & 11 June 2006 .............................................. 108 West of England Branch, 6 May 2006 - Lewis Foreman ............................... 110 CONCERTS The St. Helen’s Sinfonietta ............................................................................. 112 Piano duets at Bath ......................................................................................... 113 RETROSPECTIVE BOOK REVIEW Delius – Thomas Beecham by Paul Chennell .................................................. 115 MUSIC REVIEW The Young Pianist’s Delius (Ronald Stevenson) by Richard Kitching ........... 117 LETTERS – from Alan Rowlands, Andrew Sellon, Paul Chennell & Heinz Wallisch 118 MISCELLANY ................................................................................................. 122 EVENTS 2006-2007 ......................................................................................... 127 � Percy Grainger in the Garden at Grez (Photo from Lewis Foreman’s collection) 5 CHAIRMAN’S NOTES As I predicted in my last Notes, 2006 is turning out to be a rewarding year for Society. The AGM Weekend in Bradford proved thoroughly enjoyable, the Society’s main annual event coinciding with the opening of the ‘Delius Inspired’ Festival. Fifty-six members and guests sat down to the Annual Lunch on 2nd July - and we were delighted that our Vice President Tasmin Little was able to join us on that occasion, despite the heavy burden of her responsibilities as Artistic Director and one of the Festival’s principal artists. Our Vice President Lyndon Jenkins, who played a major part in the Festival, was recently honoured by the Queen of Denmark who has conferred on him a Knighthood of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog (‘Danish Flag’). This major honour recognises Lyndon’s services to Anglo-Danish cultural relations, particularly in the field of music. The Order dates from 1671 and its conferment is the prerogative of the Danish monarch. It recognises special individual contributions to Danish arts or sciences or to the cultural interests of Denmark. At an investiture ceremony at the Royal Danish Embassy in London, the Ambassador highlighted Lyndon’s contribution over many years in the fields of writing, broadcasting and promoting the cause of Danish music in the UK. In recent years these have included organising a month- long Danish Festival in Birmingham and an anniversary concert of the music of Denmark’s foremost composer Carl Nielsen at London’s Wigmore Hall. Warmest congratulations to Lyndon on this outstanding achievement. As these notes are being written, final arrangements for the Society’s fifty- strong September trip to Grez-sur-Loing are being made by the organisers, Joanna O’Connor and James Baker. We have been fortunate to have the generous co-operation of Jean Merle d’Aubigné, whose family this year celebrates seventy years in Delius’s former home. All the tickets have been allocated for the Society’s meeting at Steinway Hall on 31st October, at which Paul Guinery will present a recital of piano music by Delius, his friends and contemporaries. Tickets will be needed also for the final of the third Delius Prize competition, to be held once again in the David Josefowitz Recital Hall of the Royal Academy of Music at 7pm on Friday 17th November. The Delius Prize has been a highlight of the last two years. Please support this year’s event, which is to be adjudicated by the distinguished conductor and Vice President of our Society, Sir Charles Mackerras. Booking details are given below. In addition to all of these special functions we can look forward to a new 6 season of London meetings. But the Society faces a fundamental problem! As I explained both in the last edition of the Journal and at the AGM, three Committee members have warned that they will not continue to serve beyond 2007. The Society simply cannot function without a Committee. If, at the 2007 AGM, seven members are not prepared to stand for election, we may be faced with a resolution to wind up this great Society. It is your Society and the solution is squarely in your hands! If you think you might be able to help, please contact me or any other member of the Committee without delay. My email address is [email protected], my telephone 01223 302302. Roger Buckley At the RAM’s request, you are asked to apply in writing; your ticket(s) will admit you to the event and to the Delius Society reception afterwards. Please send ticket requests (a maximum of four per member), with a stamped self-addressed envelope to Ben Furnival, Box Office Administrator, Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5HT. Bookings will also be taken by telephone on 0207 873 7300. � Delius’s right hand (1929) (Ernest Proctor – by courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery) 7 EDITORIAL Some members will have noticed that on the front cover of their copies of DSJ 139 there was only one ‘seabird’, and two little black blobs at the top right-hand edge. Those were in fact the feet of the second bird, but unfortunately the printers cut the poor thing in half, so that (to mis-quote The Seven Ages of Man) it came out ‘sans body’. My apologies for not having made its crucial role in the picture crystal clear to them. As I mentioned in the Editorial for DSJ 139, our President has written a magisterial book – Edvard Grieg in England – and it will be reviewed in the next issue. Suffice it to say in the meanwhile that it received four stars in the September issue of the BBC Music Magazine, the review ending “…an authoritative and well documented survey with generous illustrations and unlikely to be surpassed.” For buying details, see below. It being Eric Fenby’s centennial year, I have headed each section of the article on the origins and first performances of the ‘Summer Pieces’ with