Delius: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (1928, 1938)
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FREDERICK DELIUS
Delius: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (1928, 1938)
London Select Choir / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Thomas Beecham
[ Naxos Historical Great Conductors / CD ]
Release Date: Sunday 13 January 2002
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
At his home at Grez-sur-Loing in France the 71-year old composer, blind and paralysed and with his health gradually deteriorating, was soon pinning his hopes on these records. "Whatever should I do without Beecham", he would say, when the conductor broadcast one of his works. "I should be content with a few superlative performances like these each year, rather than the mediocre ones I too often hear."
"Classic and mostly pioneering recordings of Delius by his finest ever interpreter, Sir Thomas Beecham."
- Classic FM (Robert Layton), August, 2000
"Delians who have clung on to their old LP versions [of these recordings] will find the Naxos re-issue a revelation: the sound has been greatly improved and surface noise reduced, without any loss of detail or overall character.
"The link between all three CDs is Beecham's ability to let the music breathe without it becoming flabby. He's not ashamed of the sultry, swoony side of Delius, and is completely in tune with the quiet, lyrical rapture of music like the Koanga closing scene: this performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and London Select Choir comes from a music never-never land.
"Thanks to Naxos, Beecham's early Delius is now easier to track down that his postwar recordings of North Country Sketches and A Mass of Life."
- The Financial Times (Andrew Clark), June 10, 2000
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"Of all champions of Delius's music, Sir Thomas Beecham was the most loyal and passionate, and this first disc in a new series on Naxos's 'Historical' label brings together several of the classic recordings Beecham made with the Royal Philharmonic and London Philharmonic Orchestras in the years 1927-34.
A digital noise reduction system has eradicated hiss and crackle, but it is good that the acoustics retain that confined atmosphere authentic to the recordings' age. Beecham brings both languor and life to Summer Night on the River and On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, and illuminates the textures with an acute ear for balance and for individual instrumental timbres. The way Beecham generates such excitement in Eventyr is an object lesson in how the piece works. In excerpts from Koanga and Hassan, and in Paris: the Song of a Great City, his love the music is unmistakable."
- The Telegraph (Geoffrey Norris), May 20, 2000
Tracks:
Two Pieces for Orchestra
Eventyr ('Once upon a time')
Koanga: Closing Scene
Hassan: Incidental Music
Paris ('Ein Nachtstuck')
