Frederick Delius - 1862-1934 - An English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce. He was sent to Florida in the United States in 1884 to manage an orange plantation. There he soon neglected his managerial duties, and in 1886 returned to Europe. Having been influenced by African-American music during his short stay in Florida, he began composing. After a brief period of formal musical study in Germany beginning in 1886, he embarked on a full-time career as a composer in Paris and then in nearby Grez-sur-Loing, where he and his wife Jelka lived for the rest of their lives, except during the First World War.
In his later years Delius became blind and severely disabled, unable to complete his life's work. In 1928 a music teacher and fellow Yorkshireman from Scarborough offered his services as an amanuensis to the blind and paralyzed composer. This was to allow a radiant Indian Summer in the final years at Grez.. Composing continued with the aid of Eric Fenby taking down the notes, offering his complete devotion to Delius. Fenby also enabled the completing, reshaping and promoting of so much of Delius' previous work. The story has been beautifully told in Ken Russell's iconic film 'A Song of Summer' available on this channel.
Delius composed his string quartet during 1916, He must have been yearning for his home at Grez-sur-Loing at this time. During the the First World War Sir Thomas Beecham arranged for him to stay in comparative safety in England while the fighting continued in France. Perhaps of all things he missed most was the swallows that every year nested in buildings around the garden at Grez. The joy of memorizing seeing these avian visitors swooping and diving above the trees down towards the river must have been in his mind as he wrote this piece which much later Eric Fenby would transcribe for an orchestra as a stand-alone work 'Late Swallows'.
The countryside graying and misty, seems empty without these delightful aerial acrobats that nest so close to the dwellings of man. It gives Autumn an added poignancy as the days shorten into Winter. The gathering of these birds on telegraph wires and fences marks the heralding of the fall, not long before there had been twittering with joy in the air above, as they fed in flight hardly ever touching the ground. Another year passes and we await their return home as the seasons turn, on their perilous journey from faraway places.
Album Info:-
The Delius Edition.
String Quartet no 3.
Fitzwilliam Quartet.
2011 - Decca Music Group.
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16 сен 2024
