It seems such a pity that Delius’s chamber music, including
his four sonatas for violin and piano, are so often ignored in
favour of his larger-scale orchestral works. They are in fact
quintessential Delius: dreamy, rhapsodic, sensual and subtly
impressionistic.
Susanne Stanzeleit studied with such luminaries as Kogan, Milstein
and Neaman. Gustáv Fenyö is a descendant of Joseph
Joachim and one of Scotland’s leading musicians. Together
they offer the four sonatas in competition to Tasmin Little and
Piers Lane’s admired 1997 recording originally on the now
defunct Conifer label but reissued on RCA Red Seal (74321
987082 with works for orchestra by Frank
Bridge).
Michael Cookson in his MusicWeb International
review of this
recording wrote: “Tasmin Little’s and Piers Lane’s
expressive playing is of the highest quality giving a sense of ‘time
suspended‘. Little’s violin has a really beautiful
tone and Lane plays most sympathetically. It is hard to imagine
these works played better.” I would entirely agree.
The Naxos artists offer a forceful reading of the first movement
of the 1892 (Op. posth.) Violin Sonata in B major its brio first
pages sturdily stated. Little and Lane are faster (7:42 as against
the Naxos 8:26) bringing more of a sense of
joie de vivre to
the music and a more romantic feel to the more lyrical pages
that include a quote from Delius’s just-completed first
opera,
Irmelin. The second movement begins and progresses
introspectively and intimately until the central processional
episode. Stanzeleit and Fenyö are considerably slower (9:45
against 8:06) and plodding. Little and Lane are much more poetic
and convincing; their beautifully nuanced reading offering far
more light and shade.
Delius’s Violin Sonata No. 1 was begun in 1905 when its
first two movements were completed but it remained unfinished
until 1915. Its predominant mood is of sweet reveries and nostalgia.
The music is dance-like with snatches of bird-song melody and
the odd passing cloud. Tasmin Little has written that this work
has become one of her favourite sonatas to play. She is a dedicated
Delian; a keen member of the Delius Society. This shows in her
heart-rending reading and the music does dance along so much
more joyfully than their new competition. Having said that the
newcomers’ reading, although somewhat cooler, is quite
moving.
The Second one-movement Violin Sonata, Delius’s shortest,
was written only five years after the end of the Great War yet
its prevalent character is one of optimism. Its cheerfulness
and calm introspection is joyfully conveyed by Little and Lane
who inject just the apposite amount of nostalgic regret at the
sonata’s heart. The work is amazingly confident and firm
considering the advance of the malady that was to cripple Delius’s
remaining years. The last third or so of the work was apparently
written down for him by his wife Jelka. Susanne Stanzeleit brings
an engaging sweetness and sensitivity to the Naxos equivalent.
Delius’s Third Sonata was set down in 1930 four years before
the composer’s death by his amanuensis, Eric Fenby, although
some of the work had already been written down by Jelka. The
first performance in London, in November 1930 was by Arnold Bax
and May Harrison. Tasmin Little in her notes to the original
Conifer release wrote - “I have known and played [it] the
longest. Fenby gave me a great deal of help on it while I was
a thirteen-year-old student and his warm words of advice and
on style and interpretation were invaluable … It was therefore
with great sadness that I learned that Eric passed away on the
day that Piers and I began to make this recording. I will always
cherish the memory of this dear man, without whom some of Delius’s
greatest works would never have come to life.” This special
insight is clear in every page of this glorious reading. A burden
that the Naxos duo simply cannot compete with.
This new recording simply cannot compete with the ravishingly
beautiful readings of the same works by Tasmin Little and Piers
Lane.
Ian Lace
Susanne Stanzeleit (violin); Gustáv
Fenyő (piano) 
