iTunes 572861-62 bk Delius_iTunes 572861-62 bk Delius 17/04/2012 12:20 Page 1 2 CDs DELIUS A Mass of Life Prelude and Idyll Watson • Wyn-Rogers • Kennedy • Opie The Bach Choir • Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra David Hill iTunes 572861-62 bk Delius_iTunes 572861-62 bk Delius 17/04/2012 12:20 Page 2 Frederick Frederick Delius (1862-1934) DELIUS A Mass of Life Zarathustra (‘Thus spake Zarathustra’) that Delius felt (1862-1934) impelled to pour his admiration for its author into music. Although A Mass of Life in its entirety dates from 1904-5, He had no time for religions or creeds, and scorned CD 1 47:31 most of the concluding section was written earlier and Christianity with what he saw as its hopeful promises of performed on its own at an all-Delius concert in London in ‘life-eternal’; he was as devoted as his hero to the concept A Mass of Life (First Part) 1899. After the score’s completion a substantial portion of man as superman, energetic, strong, fearless and 1 I. ‘O Du mein Wille!’ (Animato, con fervore) 5:27 was heard at Munich in 1908, but it was not until the ultimately capable of domination. 2 II. ‘Erhebt eure Herzen’ (Recit: Animoso, con alcuna licenza) 2:02 following year that the whole work was given for the first All the same, his instinct was always for Nietzsche 3 III. ‘In dein Auge schaute ich jüngst’ (Andante tranquillo con dolcezza) 13:50 time when Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) conducted it in the poet rather than the philosopher, and he chose only London at Queen’s Hall on 7 June, 1909. such passages as suited his musical conception. Four 4 IV. ‘Wehe mir!’ (Agitato ma moderato) 2:39 During that conductor’s lifetime, apart from two soloists and large choral and orchestral forces are 5 V. ‘Nacht ist es’ (Andante molto tranquillo) 8:47 performances by Hamilton Harty in the 1930s, three by employed in a sequence of eleven movements divided A Mass of Life (Second Part) Malcolm Sargent between 1944 and 1954 and a handful into two parts. The singers share Zarathustra’s words, of single performances by others, all the work’s hearings though he himself is embodied in the baritone soloist, who 6 Auf den Bergen (Orchestra) (Andante) – 5:36 were at Beecham’s hands. Notable among them were has by far the largest share of the work. The text, biblical 7 I. ‘Herauf! nun herauf’ (Con elevazione e vigore) 4:21 those at the Delius festivals he organised in 1929 and in style and mingling poetry, metaphor and irony 8 II. ‘Süße Leier!’ (Andante) 4:49 1946 and his last, in 1951, for which he brought from declaims, meditates but always blends into the orchestral Germany the 23-year old baritone Dietrich Fischer- texture, Delius’s favoured composing style. CD 2 70:48 Dieskau to make his English début. Beecham made the first-ever recording of the work in 1952-3. Prelude and Idyll A Mass of Life (Second Part, contd.) At all these performances, except for the last and in 1 III. Lento (Orchestra) – La-la-la – Laßt vom Tanze nicht ab (Moderato) 18:28 his recording, the Mass was sung in the English In 1902 Delius completed a one-act opera, Margot la translation of the German which Beecham himself had Rouge, hoping to win with it the Concorso 2 IV. ‘Heißer Mittag schläft’ (Lento molto) 14:37 commissioned for the 1909 première to replace the Melodrammatico Internazionale, a competition for new 3 V. ‘Gottes Weh ist tiefer’ (Allegro ma non troppo, con gravità) 4:32 hopelessly unidiomatic text by John Bernhoff printed in opera sponsored by the Italian publisher Sonzogno. 4 VI. ‘Kommt! Laßt uns jetzo wandeln!’ (Largo, con solennità) 13:16 the original score. Beecham said he needed something When it failed to do so he put it away, and it was destined that could be sung before an English audience ‘without never to be heard in his lifetime. In 1932, however, during Prelude and Idyll creating either amazement or hilarity’, and he asked the the Indian summer of composition made possible through 5 Prelude (Orchestra) – 3:18 composer and writer on music William Wallace (1860- the assistance of his amanuensis Eric Fenby (1906-97) 6 Once I pass’d through a populous city (Andante moderato) 16:37 1940) to provide it. In recent years, A Mass of Life has he decided to see whether any of its music might be increasingly come to be sung in the original language. adapted to another purpose. Discarding the opera‘s Janice Watson, Soprano (CD 1 37, CD 2 2 4 6) Wallace’s translation is printed here, alongside the libretto (which told of a love-triangle set in 1899 Paris that German. ended in the deaths of both men involved, one avenged Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Mezzo-soprano (CD 1 37, CD 2 2 4) At the time he composed the work Delius was at the by Margot la Rouge herself) and retaining only those Andrew Kennedy, Tenor (CD 1 37, CD 2 2 4) height of his powers. He had long been in thrall to the musical passages that particularly appealed to him, he 2 58 1 46 writings of the poet and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche produced an entirely different composition, a vocal work Alan Opie, Baritone (CD 1 - , CD 2 - ) (1844-1900), but it was when the conductor Fritz Cassirer for the concert hall involving soprano and baritone solo The Bach Choir (CD 1 1 3-5 7, CD 2 1-4) (a champion of his music who had premièred his operas singers and orchestra. The new words came from the Koanga and A Village Romeo and Juliet) assembled a poems of Walt Whitman, compiled for him by his friend, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra • David Hill selection of passages from Nietzsche’s Also Sprach the poet Robert Nichols (1893-1944). iTunes 572861-62 bk Delius_iTunes 572861-62 bk Delius 17/04/2012 12:20 Page 4 At its first performance the new work was simply Producer’s Note Catherine Wyn-Rogers entitled Idyll, but subsequently Delius decided to use the prelude to Margot la Rouge as a new orchestral The question of where the interval should be taken Catherine Wyn-Rogers graduated from the Royal College of Music and works with introduction. The Whitman poem ‘Once I pass’d through a between the two parts of the Mass of Life has long been Diane Forlano. She has sung for the Scottish Opera, the Welsh National Opera, populous city’ (No. 13 of a collection entitled Children of an arbitrary one. Both Sir Thomas Beecham and Sir Opera North, the Netherlands Opera, and at the opera houses of Dresden, Madrid, Adam dating from 1860) sung by the baritone provided Malcolm Sargent made the break between movements II Valencia, Chicago and Houston. She has also appeared with the Salzburg and the opening lines, telling of the woman he casually met and III of Part 2, and it is that tradition that is followed in Edinburgh festivals, and at the BBC Proms. She is a regular guest of English ‘who detained me for love of me’. His thoughts are echoed this recording. National Opera, the Royal Opera House and the Bavarian State Opera. In concert by hers ... ‘day by day, night by night, we were together’. she has performed with Slatkin, Haitink, Andrew Davis, Colin Davis, Their mutual feelings reach impassioned heights before Andrew Walton Rozhdestvensky, Mackerras, Norrington, Sondergard, Ticciati and Mehta. She Delius’s recurring theme of the transience of life and love makes her début with La Scala, Milan, in Peter Grimes in 2012. intrudes, and they part, their love becoming a memory. The work received its first performance at a Promenade Concert in London on 3 October 1933 when the singers were Dora Labbette and Roy Henderson with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood. Lyndon Jenkins Photo: Paul Foster-Williams Andrew Kennedy Janice Watson Andrew Kennedy studied at King’s College, Cambridge, and the Royal College of A regular guest with the English National Opera and the Welsh National Opera, Music in London. His operatic rôles include Tamino (English National Opera), Janice Watson has sung with the opera houses of Lyon, Amsterdam, Munich, Berlin, Ferrando (Glyndebourne Touring Opera), Tom Rakewell (La Scala, La Monnaie, Hamburg, Oviedo, Naples, Turin, Milan, Santa Fe, San Francisco and Chicago, and Opéra de Lyon), Captain Vere and Peter Quint (Houston Grand Opera), Tito in La for Opera Australia, the Vienna State Opera, Theater an der Wien, the Royal Opera, Clemenza di Tito, and Don Ottavio (Opéra de Lyon). In concert his extensive Covent Garden and at the Metropolitan Opera. She has recorded extensively for repertoire includes Mozart’s Requiem (London Symphony Orchestra/Davis), Finzi’s Virgin Classics, Chandos and Philips Classics, appears on the LSO Live label with Intimations of Immortality (BBC Symphony Orchestra/Daniel), Bach’s St Matthew Photo: Mark Douet Sir Colin Davis, and received a GRAMMY® Award for the Chandos Peter Grimes. Passion (Netherlands Philharmonic/Davis), and Britten’s Les Illuminations Janice Watson returned to the Vienna State Opera for the title rôle in Kát’a Kabanová Photo: Benjamin Ealovega (Edinburgh Festival). Andrew Kennedy gives numerous recitals in Europe and the in 2011. United Kingdom. iTunes 572861-62 bk Delius_iTunes 572861-62 bk Delius 17/04/2012 12:20 Page 6 Alan Opie Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Baritone Alan Opie has been a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Founded in 1893, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Scala, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Santa has worked with many famous composers, conductors Fe Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English National Opera and the Royal Opera and musicians including Elgar, Sibelius, Holst, Stravinsky, House Covent Garden.