Rsnolloyd Jones - Delius: On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring / The Walk to the Paradise Garden / Spring Morning [CD]

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Frederick Delius (1862-1934)On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring and other orchestralworksThe ten orchestral works by Frederick Delius that areperformed in chronological order on this disc span the whole of his creativelife. They also illustrate the cosmopolitan aspect of his art and his love ofthe four countries that most inspired him, England, America, Norway and France.Marche Caprice, which can now be heard with its extra fluteand cornet parts, was composed in Paris in 1889 when Delius was 27, and revisedin the following year. Although clearly influenced by such works as Bizet'sJeux d'enfants, its middle section already shows some typically Deliancharacteristics, with its wistful harmonies and haunting oboe solo. Afterside-tracking himself, Delius remembers just in time that he is writing amarch, however capricious it may be. It would seem logical that the Three Small Tone Poems(1888-90), presented here as a group for the first time, were originally fourin number. Three of the four seasons are represented and there is documentationto confirm that a piece called Autumn (Tone Poem) once existed, though this hasyet to be found. All three pieces display Delius's instinctive affinity withnature and the open air. Summer Evening breathes the requisite relaxedsensuousness, though towards the end it reaches a surprisingly full and impassionedclimax. Winter Night, which is also known under its original title Sleigh Ride,originated as a piano piece that Delius composed in 1887 while a student atLeipzig and first played at a party on Christmas Eve given by Grieg. Thejingles of the sleigh are characterful and the music crisp, but one cannot helpfeeling that the two slower sections, depicting the quiet that falls over themoonlit landscape after the sleigh passes, are even closer to Delius's heart.The atmospheric Spring Morning, a companion piece to Idylle de printemps of theprevious year, remained unpublished until 1989.Delius spent from March 1884 to June 1886 in America, firstmanaging a citrus plantation in North Florida and later giving violin and pianolessons in Virginia. The improvised harmonies of the singing of Negro workersin both places were a lasting influence on his art. American Rhapsody of 1896is an early, much shorter, version of the extended orchestral and choral workthat in 1902 became Appalachia, and features the haunting old Negro slave songwhich served as the theme for variations in that work. Scored for a largeorchestra, it opens in typically ruminative Delian fashion. The Negro theme isthen announced in a dance-like section over a lively banjo (harp and pizzicatocello) accompaniment, and then restated in a slower tempo in the minor bystrings and wind in the most expressive chromatic harmonization. Soon theminstrel-show song Dixie and Yankee Doodle make their appearance, and suddenlyit seems as if we are watching and hearing a procession of American marchingbands in all their raucous glory, complete with random thwacks on the bassdrum.

Marche Caprice

I. Summer Evening

II. Winter Night (Sleigh Ride)

III. Spring Morning

American Rhapsody

The Walk To The Paradise Garden

I. On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring

II. Summer Night On The River

A Song Before Sunrise

Fantastic Dance