110982-83bk Delius 14/6/04 11:00 am Page 8 Also available on Naxos Great Conductors • Beecham ADD 8.110982-83 DELIUS A Village Romeo and Juliet The Song of the High Hills Irmelin Prelude Dowling • Sharp • Ritchie Soames • Bond • Dyer Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Sir Thomas Beecham Naxos Radio (Recorded 1946–1952) Over 50 Channels of Classical Music • Jazz, Folk/World, Nostalgia Accessible Anywhere, Anytime • Near-CD Quality www.naxosradio.com 2 CDs 8.110982-83 8 110982-83bk Delius 14/6/04 11:00 am Page 2 Frederick Delius (1862-1934) 5 Koanga: Final Scene 9:07 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra • Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus) Recorded on 26th January, 1951 Delians and Beecham enthusiasts will probably annotation, frequently content with just the notes. A Matrix Nos. CAX 11022-3, 11023-2B continue for ever to debate the relative merits of the score of a work by Delius marked by Beecham, First issued on Columbia LX 1502 earlier recordings made by the conductor in the 1930s, however, tells a different story, instantly revealing a mostly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, in most sympathetically engaged music editor at work. comparison with those of the 1940s and 1950s Pulse, dynamics, phrasing, expressive nuance and All recordings made in Studio 1, Abbey Road, London recorded with handpicked players of the Royal articulation, together with an acute sensitivity to Transfers & Production: David Lennick Philharmonic Orchestra. Following these two major constantly changing orchestral balance, are annotated Digital Noise Reduction: K&A Productions Ltd. periods of activity, the famous EMI stereo remakes with painstaking practical detail to compliment what Original recordings from the collections of David Lennick, Douglas Lloyd and Claude G. Arnold made even later in his career allowed a third bite of the can seem a surprisingly naked, almost template, cherry, which at last allowed Beecham’s subtle original score. The end result in performance requires balance of dynamics and layered textures to be levels of intensive rehearsal to test any orchestra’s CAST: A Village Romeo and Juliet: appreciated with something approaching sonic powers of patience and concentration. There are no Manz . .Dennis Dowling, Baritone authenticity and truth. At the height of his powers in quick short cuts to success. his first trail-blazing recordings, the younger Beecham A Village Romeo and Juliet is Delius’s fourth and Marti . .Frederick Sharp, Baritone strove for a livelier and fresher response that the most successful opera. Work started in 1897 in a Sali as a child . .Margaret Ritchie, Soprano orchestra was not always able to match. The special decade that saw the stage as a prime focus for his Sali (Son of Manz) . .René Soames, Tenor relationship with the Royal Philharmonic, very much compositional activity. The previous seven years had Vreli as a child . .Dorothy Bond, Soprano Beecham’s own orchestra immediately after the seen the completion of Irmelin, The Magic Fountain Vreli (Daughter of Marti) . .Lorely Dyer Second World War, brings an even subtler, more and Koanga, all large-scale works much influenced by The Dark Fiddler (Rightful Heir to the Wildland) . .Gordon Clinton, Baritone flexible response, occasionally compromised by less Wagnerian music drama. The new opera was to be the First Peasant . .Donald Munro, Baritone than ideal recording quality. Most listeners however final instalment of what started out as an operatic Second Peasant . .Dennis Dowling, Baritone remain grateful that such a close match between trilogy highlighting different ethnic cultures, Native composer and interpreter is documented so Americans, Negroes, and Gypsies or Vagabonds. First Woman . .Marjorie Avis, Soprano extensively and with such consistently magical Although both the two preceding operas basically Second Woman, Third Woman . .Gwladys Garside, Mezzo-Soprano inspiration. fulfilled their objectives on a local colouristic level, Gingerbread Woman . .Dorothy Bond, Soprano Unlike some received opinions, this special, the choice of Gottfried Keller’s immensely popular Wheel-of-Fortune Woman . .Marjorie Avis, Soprano almost unique, partnership continues to survive the and well-established story from Die Leute von Cheap Jewellery Woman . .Gwladys Garside, Mezzo Soprano critical re-evaluation of succeeding generations, Seldwyla radically altered the trajectory and dramatic Showman . .Lloyd Strauss-Smith, Tenor frustratingly perhaps when subsequent conductors potential of the new work. His transference of Merry-Go-Round Man . .Donald Munro, Baritone have been so reluctant even to begin to try to foster a Shakespeare’s timeless and cautionary tale of continuing performing tradition for the composer. outlawed young love to an unforgiving everyday The Slim Gir . .Marion Davies, Soprano Detractors have suggested that the music of Delius is provincial environment offered far deeper exploration The Wild Girl . .Gwladys Garside, Mezzo-Soprano all effect with little substance, and the nagging fact of fundamental aspects of the human condition than The Poor Horn-Player . .Lloyd Strauss-Smith, Tenor remains that few composers are so inescapably anything Delius had touched upon so far. Although The Hunch-backed Bass Fiddler . .Philip Hattey, Bass-Baritone dependent upon the creation of atmosphere. Unlike so vagabonds do feature prominently in the scenario, it is many contemporaries, both then and more especially the study of individual freedoms, both physical and (With Chorus and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) now, he was remarkably sparing with expressive spiritual, that transforms the psychological reach of 8.110982-83 2 7 8.110982-83 110982-83bk Delius 14/6/04 11:00 am Page 6 Frederick Delius (1862-1934) the piece, allowing the composer to combine leitmotiv complete recording from 1948, the first of any Delius technique and tone-painting with potent resonances of opera, took place immediately after another BBC CD 1 71:57 Tristan und Isolde. broadcast with essentially the same forces, apart from 1 The Song of the High Hills 24:46 Originally entitled Le Jardin du Paradis (the the notable exception of Lorely Dyer, who replaced Freda Hart, soprano; Leslie Jones, tenor; Luton Choral Society French possibly due to the fact that one of the earliest Vera Terry as Vreli. It has remained a landmark Recorded on 22nd November, 1946 sources was the first vocal score prepared by the performance ever since, with Beecham’s evangelising Matrix No. 2EA 11429/34, all take 2. First issued on HMV DB 9151/3 composer Florent Schmitt), the opera was planned as a conviction, passion and experience shining from every prologue and three acts. Having commissioned drafts bar. 2 Prelude to Irmelin 4:36 from two different librettists, Delius eventually The closing scene of Koanga was not included in Recorded on 21st December 1946. Matrix No. 2EA 11530-1. First issued on HMV DB 6371 abandoned both and wrote his own in English, not the 1899 London concert of excerpts conducted by completing a definitive text until 1899. By this time he Alfred Hertz, but this was the first of Delius’s operas had the considerable advantage of having heard to be staged complete in 1904 at Elberfeld under the Hassan: Intermezzo and Serenade 4:05 concert excerpts from Koanga in London, the first direction of Fritz Cassirer, who also conducted the 3 Intermezzo 1:57 time he had been able to assess his mature operatic première of A Village Romeo and Juliet. Beecham 4 Serenade 2:08 style and orchestration in live performance. The result eventually gave the British première of this opera as Recorded on 29th October 1952. Matrix No. 2EA 16983-2A. First issued on HMV DB 9785 was a surge of confidence and inspiration that well, but not until 1935 at Covent Garden with John prompted completion of the music in early 1901, the Brownlee and Oda Slobodskaya in the principal rôles. A Village Romeo and Juliet change of title and a transformation into an extended The production was immediately taken on tour to through-composed lyric drama in six scenes. Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford and (Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra listed on the following page) Paradoxically the work’s most famous passage, The Leeds, and Beecham regularly performed his own 5 Scene 1 16:19 Walk to the Paradise Garden, was composed much compilation of the closing scene as a concert item. 6 Scene 2 9:44 later in 1906 to replace a considerably shorter 45-bar Hills and mountains were abiding places of 7 Scene 3 12:28 interlude that would not have been long enough to fascination for Delius. As part of his Pantheist ethic, accommodate a substantial scene-change for the their changing climate, isolation and awesome CD 2 71:47 première of the opera in Berlin in February 1907. grandeur were perfect sounding-boards for pondering A Village Romeo and Juliet (continued) Beecham met Delius for the first time later the the advantages of non-human presence. No other same year. Although he had not attended the première, composer has captured their silent wonder and 1 Scene 4 24:40 he was eager to stage the work for the first time in imposing endurance in quite the same way. The early 2 Scene 5a 8:14 England, an event that duly took place at Covent and amazingly assured orchestral work On the 3 Scene 5b: The Walk to The Paradise Garden 8:36 Garden three years later on 22nd February 1910 with Mountains, the Ibsen melodrama Paa Vidderne, Over 4 Scene 6 21:10 Walter Hyde, Ruth Vincent and Robert Maitland in the Hills and Far Away, On Craig Ddu, Appalachia Matrix Nos. 2EA 12990-2, 12991-2, 12992-1 recorded on 1st May, 1948 the leading rôles. It was this work more than any other and In den Bergen, the second part of A Mass of Life, Matrix Nos. 2EA 12993-3, 12998-2, 12999-2, 13000-2 recorded on 3rd May 1948 that cemented their friendship and Beecham always had all previously visited the upper regions, but Delius Matrix Nos.