London
Philharmonic Orchestra,
Conductor: Thomas Beecham
London Select Choir
Heddle Nash, Gerald Moore Originally
released as Columbia SDX1 - SDX7 Recording dates: (1) 9.4.34, (2) 14.11.34, (3) 4 & 11.12.34,
(4) 11.12.34, (5/6) 7.12.34
Matrix numbers: CAX7120-2, CAX7121-5, CAX71`22-1, CAX7123-2, CAX7124-2,
CAX7125-1, CAX7356-2, CAX7357-2, CAX7358-2, CAX7359-2, CAX7375-2,
CAX7376-5, CAX7377-4, CAX7380-1
Download ID: 131311/432802
Duration 53'51"
Paris
(Ein Nachtstück) - The Song of a Great City (1899)
Eventyr
("Once Upon A Time") (1917)
Koanga
(Closing Scene) (1895-7)
Serenade
from "Hassan" (1920)
To
The Queen Of My Heart (1891)
Love's
Philosophy (1891)
Play
sample:
It's
amazing the atmosphere that Beecham captured and which still emerges
freshly 71 years after these recordings were made. And what lovely
playing - the individual instruments emerging from and then receding
into the textures to astonishing effect...
James Jolly, The Gramophone, Awards Issue 2005
When
Delius died in 1934 there was little of his music available on record
- what could be heard was generally his most recent compositions with
little sense of his full artistic personality. In November 1934, Columbia
Records in the UK formed The Delius Society, with Sir Thomas Beecham as
its Artistic Director, and shortly afterwards released the first of three
volumes of recordings.
This
first retrospective contained two major single-movement orchestral pieces,
Paris and Eventyr, together with the closing scene from
the opera Koanga, the Serenade from incidental music Delius
wrote in 1920 for James Elroy Flecker's play "Hassan",
and two short songs from the 1890s set to words by Shelley.
These
excellent recordings could hardly be more contemporary to their composer,
and Beecham had long been a powerful advocate of Delius' music. Here we
present the Society recordings in precisely the order they were originally
issued for perhaps the first time, in a newly remastered edition.
It's
amazing the atmosphere that Beecham captured and which still emerges
freshly 71 years after these recordings were made. And what lovely
playing - the individual instruments emerging from and then receding
into the textures to astonishing effect...
