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4.5
Recorded August 1990, this was issued on CD on the Unicorn-Kanchana label. The contents were later rolled out in a 7-CD series on the same label, "The Delius Collection" about 1995 -- that series contained many of the finest performances performances ever made of of the works of Frederick Delius, many directed by Eric Fenby, and included many works which were not commonly included in Delius collections, all done with gorgeous sound. This was a near perfect compliment to collections of the more famous works as presented by Beecham Beecham Conducts Delius: The Complete Stereo Recordings and Barbirolli Orchestral Works . This present disc features conductor Norman Del Mar who made a number of excellent Delius recordings, including some premiers Delius: The Magic Fountain / Margot La Rouge ."Paris -- The Song of a Great City; Nocturne for Orchestra" of 1899 is one of the composer's first important compositions and one of his better orchestral works. There are several recordings out there of it (Beecham made two; neither in stereo, neither with very good audio quality), but this rendition is near perfect."Life's Dance" ("Lebenstanz") is another matter. Developed over time in at least three versions (1899, 1901, and 1912), Delius thought highly of it, but few others ever did. Del Mar gets as most out of it as he can, so here it is in probably the best recording of it one is likely to hear -- but don't expect too much, not that fine of a piece (another's taste in this matter may vary)."Dance Rhapsody No. 1" is a better work from 1908, done very nicely on this disc. A Beecham recording exits from 1952, and there are several others to be had."Piano Concerto", here with Philip Fowke, piano. This work is problematic. The recording here is of the second, one movement version from 1906. And, it is not even pure Delius; the composer reportedly had problems writing passages for a piano virtuoso, so he had the work's dedicatee Theodor Szanto spice things up a bit. But, the work never really caught on, and what popularity it may have had faded. This recording, again, gets about as much out of the piece as one is going to hear. It does have its good parts and makes for some pleasant listening. Beecham made three recordings of it, all with his wife Betty Humby, only allowing the last to ever be released, and reportedly was not very happy even with that one (1946) Piano Concerto Violin Concert . The original version of this Piano Concerto had been in the standard 3-movement format, composed 1897 -- there is a recording of that one out there with Piers Lane and it is, in my opinion, a far better work The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol.39 ; he should have let well enough alone.
