A unique concert of chamber music to mark The Delius Society's 60th anniversary this year. To be performed alongside recently re-discovered works by Delius are three new works specially commissioned by the Society for the occasion, from leading contemporary composers Bo Holten, Ian Venables and Roderick Williams. Combined forces range from a cappella to soprano, viola and piano, and string quartet and baritone.
Bo Holten is a prolific composer and conductor of a cappella and choral music. He says his new work, The Delian Madrigal, is a composition that expands and elaborates one of Delius’s Two Songs for Children. "Performances are rare, and my recomposition/arrangement is a way to have this charming piece more often performed by madrigal groups or choirs.” The Carice Singers will perform it, and will complete their programme with Delius’s early Part Songs, alongside the original inspiration for the new work.
Ian Venables’s première ends the first half. Milly Forrest, Timothy Ridout and Graham J Lloyd perform his Scena for soprano, viola and piano, Hermes Trismegistus, which sets a text by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Evoking the ancient mythical sage of the title, the narrator asks, “But where are the old Egyptian Demi-gods and kings?” something the composer feels might have piqued Delius’s interest. Delius wrote a symphonic poem inspired by Longfellow, Hiawatha. The music vividly transports the listener back to the land of the Pharaohs and to the image of the Sphinx staring “with mysterious, solemn, stony eyes”.
Roderick Williams is well known as one of Britain’s most outstanding and best-loved baritone soloists, and his reputation as a composer is growing steadily. His new piece, To be sung on a winter night on frozen water, is a work of two contrasting halves, born out of lockdown while the composer was holed up in Amsterdam and when a cold snap caused the canals to freeze over. “In paying tribute to Delius’s choral work, To be sung on a summer night on the water, my companion piece is also wordless, also in two parts, slow and wistful followed by an energetic, nonchalant folk dance, and also influenced by Delius’s French harmonies”, says Williams. “It’s a lot of fun”, he adds, "and a little bit naughty here and there!” Roderick Williams will also be performing his own arrangements of Delius’s songs for baritone and string quartet, which he has recently recorded with the Coull Quartet.
Returning to the stage to perform Delius’s Violin Sonata in the arrangement for viola by Lionel Tertis, will be Timothy Ridout with the pianist Chiao-Ying Chang, who is also to play the rediscovered set of Six Piano Pieces which provide “strikingly beautiful insights into the distinctive harmonic idiom and style of Delius’s later music”, according to the Delius authority Professor Daniel Grimley. Milly Forrest will perform two lost songs which were recently acquired in New York by the Delius Trust along with an accompanying letter written by Eric Fenby. Completing the programme will be the first movement from the early String Quartet of 1889, in only its second live performance, performed by the Coull Quartet.
Paul Guinery will compère the programme, inviting each of the composers to introduce their new work.
The Delius Society was founded in 1962 under its first President, Eric Fenby, who acted as amanuensis to Delius in the final years of his life. With the aim of encouraging the study of Delius’s life and works, the Society arranges recitals and talks for members, who also receive informative journals and newsletters. Encouraging young musicians to investigate the composer’s music is an important part of the Society’s role, and for this purpose an annual Delius Prize competition is held at a music academy. The newly launched ClubDelius, which offers a range of benefits, is designed to reach those members under 25.