Fixed attitudes in my advanced age have made me rather suspicious
of anything outside the norm, so that news of this disc made
me fearful. After all, I thought, how could such transcriptions
maintain the subtle magic colours of Delius’s orchestrations?
After hearing it, and with just quite minor qualifications,
I had to admit that the arrangers had captured the essence of
Delius’s music remarkably well. After all, the arrangers
were committed Delians and the album is supported by luminaries:
The Delius Society, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Nicolas Bell of
the British Library, Barry Peter Ould of the Percy Grainger
Society and Roger Fenby.
Arrangers of orchestral scores for two pianos must show sensitivity
to the composer’s music and its style and colouring. This
necessitates demonstrating intelligence and imagination beyond
merely sharing bass and treble notes between the two pianos.
There’s also the distribution of the main theme and material
between the two players and blending the parts to achieve not
only transparency and balance but also a satisfying musicality,
subtlety and poetry. As Martin Lee-Browne suggests in his notes,
“Two pianos [can] produce a marvellously warm sonority,
and the medium allows, of course, many more of the inner strands
of the orchestral texture to be heard in duets.”
Of the two better-known popular short pieces here, Joan Trimble’s
arrangement is more successful. Her take on La Calinda
is captivatingly joyous and extrovert. It sounds large and spacious
with its runs and arpeggios glistening across the soundstage
contrasting with its warm nostalgic slower sections. It lasts
just 3.39 not 9.21 as printed. I was just a little disconcerted
by a rather heavy bass tread through the final bars from the
left hand piano. I wish I could have been as enthusiastic about
the On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring arrangement.
I was not moved nearly as muchOn Hearing the First Cuckoo
in Spring. I was hoping for rapt beauty but to my ears this
cuckoo - the call at any rate - was somewhat wooden and lacking
in spontaneity.
Turning to the lesser-known Delius, the Philip Heseltine arrangement
of Brigg Fair was magical. Its gentle pastoral atmosphere
was magically caught. That lovely second variation was simply
gorgeous. Those first notes of the tune are exquisitely elongated,
with the decorations suggesting birdsong, distant bells and
quietly flowing brooks. Percy Grainger’s arrangement of
Dance Rhapsody No. 1 is equally successful. After the
meditative, mournful opening, the dance proper emphatically
breaks through, cheerful and cocky. The pianists rollick their
way forward until they are slowed by the more wistful and dreamier
material which halts their hedonism, although not for long.
A Song of Summer is nicely evocative, too, with the two
pianos subtly capturing the colours and shimmerings of a hazy
afternoon. You can imagine insects, butterflies and gently dripping
waters. The nostalgic central section is most affecting before
passing clouds threaten the peace until the music fades into
evening tranquillity.
The most substantial work here is Delius’s A Poem of
Life and Love. This is very rarely heard and there are few
recordings in its orchestral dress. It makes demands not only
on its performers but also on its listeners. This skilful arrangement
by Eric Fenby and Balfour Gardiner might help to redress the
balance. After a dark opening we hear drama and the alternation
of material representing “Heroism (Life) and a passionate
feeling for nature (Love)” This is a deeply felt reading
with an urgency of life-affirming love and pity for its transience.
Minor reservations cannot discourage Recording of the Month
status for this splendid Delius recording.
Ian Lace
see also review by Nick
Barnard
Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki Takenouchi (pianos)