What are you listening to?

[bombasticDarren]

Tchaikovsky - Symphony No.2 Little Russian (Andrew Litton, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Virgin Classics)

[bombasticDarren]

Delius - Violin Concerto (Tasmin Little/Andrew Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chandos) & Cello Concerto (Paul Watkins/Andrew Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chandos)

Darren, I'm sure the performances speak for themselves, but what do you think of the quality of the works?

Although I do like Brigg Fair, I have to say that I struggle to 'get' Delius...a work in progress for me then....

[bombasticDarren]

Vaughan Williams - Overture The Wasps, Fantasia on 'Greensleeves' & Toward the Unknown Region (Malcolm Sargent, London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, EMI)

[bombasticDarren]

Rawsthorne - Symphony No.2 A Pastoral Symphony (Charlotte Ellett/David Lloyd-Jones, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Naxos)

[ravel30]

Happy Saint-Patrick to all my favorite Irish man. A priviledge to count a friends.

Matt.

[bombasticDarren]

Sibelius - Symphony No.6, No.7 & Finlandia (Pietari Inkinen, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Naxos)

[mcq]

Delius - Violin Concerto (Tasmin Little/Andrew Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chandos) & Cello Concerto (Paul Watkins/Andrew Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chandos)

Darren, I'm sure the performances speak for themselves, but what do you think of the quality of the works?

Although I do like Brigg Fair, I have to say that I struggle to 'get' Delius...a work in progress for me then....

The single best Delius CD I've heard is this one, conducted by Thomas Beecham with the RPO:



Beautiful performances of On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring, Brigg Fair and A Song Before Sunrise in particular. Your heart would have to be made of stone not to respond to this lovely music. I also highly recommend Ken Russell's film about Delius, Song of Summer:

[Jared]

The single best Delius CD I've heard is this one, conducted by Thomas Beecham with the RPO:



Beautiful performances of On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring, Brigg Fair and A Song Before Sunrise in particular. Your heart would have to be made of stone not to respond to this lovely music.

Paul, you are absolutely spot on with this recommendation; I think it remains arguably the finest interpretation of Delius' Orchestral works, and is always the one I recommend to people who wish to be introduced to his work. I feel that Delius' work is particularly difficult to get right, because of the many different and subtle shades of tone -colour required; something which I have long felt Beecham understood. Failure to do this can sometimes render these works as an insipid, bland soup which they are clearly not.

[Jared]

Happy St. Patrick´s Day to all!!!!

Thanks Pepe, and a happy musical weekend to you too.

Oh, my good gosh... please accept my apologies to all my Irish friends on this site... what an oversite!!

I hope you all had a great day yesterday, rugby score notwithstanding... ;-)

[bombasticDarren]

Vaughan Williams - Oboe Concerto (John Williams/Paavo Berglund, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, EMI) & Symphony No.4 (Paavo Berglund, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, EMI)