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142-644: In October 2000, the choir changed its name to The London Chorus, performing its inaugural concert, Delius 's A Mass of Life , at the Royal Festival Hall . Comprising around 130 members, the choir rehearses on Tuesday nights at Baden-Powell House in South Kensington , London. As well as promoting its own concerts, The London Chorus works with major orchestras and promoters, both in London and abroad. This London -related article

284-572: A Delius concert in St. James's Hall in London, which included Over the Hills and Far Away , a choral piece, Mitternachtslied , and excerpts from the opera Koanga . This occasion was an unusual opportunity for an unknown composer at a time when any sort of orchestral concert was a rare event in London. In spite of encouraging reviews, Delius's orchestral music was not heard again in an English concert hall until 1907. The orchestral work Paris: The Song of

426-441: A Great City was composed in 1899 and dedicated to Haym. He gave the premiere at Elberfeld on 14 December 1901. It provoked some critical comment from the local newspaper, which complained that the composer put his listeners on a bus and shuttled them from one Parisian night-spot to another, "but he does not let us hear the tuneful gypsy melodies in the boulevard cafés, always just cymbals and tambourine and mostly from two cabarets at

568-582: A brief return visit to Florida, he moved in with her. In 1903 they married, and, apart from a short period when the area was threatened by the advancing German army during the First World War , Delius lived in Grez for the rest of his life. The marriage was not conventional: Jelka was, at first, the principal earner; there were no children; and Delius was not a faithful husband. Jelka was often distressed by his affairs, but her devotion did not waver. In

710-669: A circle of young avant-garde disciples, vocally opposed to the conservatism of the Leipzig circle. Joachim was amongst the first of these. He served Liszt as concertmaster, and for several years enthusiastically embraced the new "psychological music," as he called it. In 1852 he moved to Hanover , at the same time dissociating himself from the musical ideals of the 'New German School' (Liszt, Richard Wagner , Hector Berlioz , and their followers, as defined by journalist Franz Brendel). "The worship of Wagner's music permeating musical taste in Weimar

852-632: A committee headed by Schumann invited Joachim to the Lower Rhine Music Festival. At the Festival, Joachim again soloed in the Beethoven violin concerto. His success made him, it is said, "the most renowned artist of Germany". Robert Schumann and his wife Clara were deeply impressed, and formed a "close connection" with Joachim. Joachim met the then publicly unknown 20-year-old Brahms , and wrote of him that his playing "shows

994-407: A composer was unique, both in his technique and in his emotionalism. Although he eschewed classical formalism, it was wrong, Cardus believed, to regard Delius merely as "a tone-painter, an impressionist or a maker of programme music". His music's abiding feature is, Cardus wrote, that it "recollects emotion in tranquillity ... Delius is always reminding us that beauty is born by contemplation after

1136-463: A concert on 16 March 1901, wrote: "They are very sweet, very pale – music to soothe convalescents in well-to-do neighbourhoods". Delius admired the French composer's orchestration, but thought his works lacking in melody – the latter a comment frequently directed against Delius's own music. Fenby, however, draws attention to Delius's "flights of melodic poetic-prose", while conceding that the composer

1278-410: A critic had said it "might have been written by any third or fourth rate composer." But Joachim was very well prepared to play Beethoven's concerto, having written his own cadenzas for it and memorized the piece. The audience anticipated great things, having got word from the rehearsal, and so, Mendelssohn wrote, "frenetic applause began" as soon as Joachim stepped in front of the orchestra. The beginning

1420-529: A double choir, and a large orchestra. Although the work was based on the same Nietzsche work as Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra , Delius distanced himself from the Strauss work, which he considered a complete failure. Nor was Strauss an admirer of Delius, as he was of Elgar ; he told Delius that he did not wish to conduct Paris – "the symphonic development seems to me to be too scant, and it seems moreover to be an imitation of Charpentier ". In

1562-401: A fascinating and valuable source of information about 19th-century styles of violin playing. He is the earliest violinist of distinction known to have recorded, only to be followed soon thereafter when Sarasate made some recordings the following year. Joachim's portrait was twice painted by Philip de László . A portrait of Joachim was painted by John Singer Sargent and presented to him at

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1704-630: A friend of Auguste Rodin , and a regular exhibitor at the Salon des Indépendants . Jelka quickly declared her admiration for the young composer's music, and the couple were drawn closer together by a shared passion for the works of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the music of Grieg. Jelka bought a house in Grez-sur-Loing , a village 40 miles (64 km) outside Paris on the edge of Fontainebleau . Delius visited her there, and after

1846-624: A friend." Later in the composition of the concerto, which took four years, Brahms wrote to Joachim "I am sending you the rondo once more. And just like the last time, I beg for some really severe criticism." The final manuscript of the concerto "shows many alterations in the handwriting of Joachim". Joachim's time in Hanover was his most prolific period of composition. Then and during the rest of his career, he frequently performed with Clara Schumann. For example, in October–November 1857 they took

1988-492: A limited advance in technique, Fenby identifies one orchestral passage as the first expression of Delius's idea of "the transitoriness of all mortal things mirrored in nature". Hereafter, whole works rather than brief passages would be informed by this idea. The transitional phase of the composer's career concludes with three further vocal pieces: Sea Drift (1903), A Mass of Life (1904–05), and Songs of Sunset (1906–07). Payne salutes each of these as masterpieces, in which

2130-723: A manifesto against the "progressive" music of the 'New German' School, in reaction to the polemics of Brendel's Neue Zeitschrift für Musik . This manifesto, a volley in the War of the Romantics , had originally few (four ) signers (more later) and met with a mixed reception, being heavily derided by followers of Wagner. On 10 May 1863 Joachim married the contralto Amalie Schneeweiss (stage name: Amalie Weiss) (1839–99). Amalie gave up her own promising career as an opera singer and gave birth to six children. She continued to perform in oratorios and to give lieder recitals . In 1865 Joachim quit

2272-446: A marked hostility toward" the late quartets. But Joachim's teacher Böhm had an appreciation of the late quartets, which he communicated to Joachim. At the age of 18, "in the whole of Germany" Joachim had no equal, either in the rendering of Bach or in the concertos of Beethoven and Mendelssohn; while as quartet player, "he had no cause to fear rivalry." Following Mendelssohn's death in 1847, Joachim stayed briefly in Leipzig, teaching at

2414-608: A musical poet, with the influences of Wagner and Grieg almost entirely absent. The work was followed in the next few years by In a Summer Garden (1908), Life's Dance , Summer Night on the River (both 1911) and On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (1912). The critic R. W. S. Mendl described this sequence as "exquisite nature studies", with a unity and shape lacking in the earlier formal tone poems. These works became part of

2556-588: A noticeable Yorkshire accent as he dismissed most English music as paper music that should never be heard, written by people "afraid of their feelin's". A young English admirer, Eric Fenby , learning that Delius was trying to compose by dictating to Jelka, volunteered his services as an unpaid amanuensis. For five years, from 1928, he worked with Delius, taking down his new compositions from dictation, and helping him revise earlier works. Together they produced Cynara (a setting of words by Ernest Dowson ), A Late Lark (a setting of W. E. Henley ), A Song of Summer ,

2698-459: A number of other composers' concerti (including the Beethoven and Brahms concerti). His most highly regarded composition is his Hungarian concerto (Violin Concerto No 2 in D minor, Op. 11). Fuller-Maitland, p. 56, lists the 14 pieces with opus numbers, not necessarily with the same details as below. On p. 57 he lists 6 of the 14 pieces given here as WoO, plus the orchestration of

2840-587: A pantheistic renewal of Nature. When Albert Coates presented the work in London in 1922, its atheism offended some believers. This attitude persisted long after Delius's death, as the Requiem did not receive another performance in the UK until 1965, and by 1980 had still had only seven performances world-wide. In Germany, the regular presentation of Delius's works ceased at the outbreak of the war, and never resumed. Nevertheless, his standing with some continental musicians

2982-584: A poem by Walt Whitman ) was premiered at Essen in 1906, and the opera A Village Romeo and Juliet in Berlin in 1907. Delius's reputation in Germany remained high until the First World War; in 1910 his rhapsody Brigg Fair was performed by 36 different German orchestras. By 1907, thanks to performances of his works in many German cities, Delius was, as Thomas Beecham said, "floating safely on

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3124-423: A prayer: "May the souls of the departed through the mercy of God rest in peace." Jelka died two days later, on 28 May. She was buried in the same grave as Delius. After the 1929 London festival The Times music critic wrote that Delius "belongs to no school, follows no tradition and is like no other composer in the form, content or style of his music". This "extremely individual and personal idiom" was, however,

3266-563: A pupil he was neither especially quick nor diligent, but the college was conveniently close to the city for Delius to be able to attend concerts and opera. Julius Delius assumed that his son would play a part in the family wool business, and for the next three years he tried hard to persuade him to do so. Delius's first job was as the firm's representative in Stroud in Gloucestershire , where he did moderately well. After being sent in

3408-672: A pupil of Joachim, Heinrich de Ahna (1871–1892), and Wilhelm Muller (1869–1879). Schiever resigned after their second season with de Ahna taking the second violin part and Eduard Rappoldi (1871–1877) on viola. Later members of the Quartet were Johann Kruse (1892–1897) followed by Karel Halíř (2nd violin) from 1897 on; Emanuel Wirth (viola) from 1877 on (occasionally replaced by Karl Klingler ); and Robert Hausmann (cello), from 1879 on. In 1878 while writing his violin concerto , Brahms consulted Joachim, who "freely gave him encouragement and technical advice". Brahms asked Joachim to write

3550-611: A reburial in England. She chose St Peter's church, Limpsfield , Surrey as the site for the grave. She sailed to England for the service, but became ill en route , and on arrival was taken to hospital in Dover and then Kensington in London, missing the reburial on 26 May. The ceremony took place at midnight; the headline in the Sunday Dispatch was "Sixty People Under Flickering Lamps In A Surrey Churchyard". The vicar offered

3692-576: A recital tour together to Dresden, Leipzig, and Munich. St. James's Hall , London, which opened in 1858, hosted a series of " Popular Concerts " of chamber music, of which programmes from 1867 through 1904 are preserved. Joachim appears a great many times. He visited London each year from 1866 on. In March 1898 and in 1901–1904 Joachim appeared in his own quartet of players, but otherwise far more often he appeared with resident Popular Concerts artists Louis Ries, second violin, J. B. Zerbini, first viola, and Alfredo Piatti , first cello, reputed to be "one of

3834-568: A second festival was held in 1946, and a third (after Beecham's death) at Bradford in 1962, to celebrate the centenary of Delius's birth. These occasions were in the face of a general indifference to the music; writing in the centenary year, the musicologist Deryck Cooke opined that at that time, "to declare oneself a confirmed Delian is hardly less self-defamatory than to admit to being an addict of cocaine and marihuana". Beecham had died in 1961, and Fenby writes that it "seemed to many then that nothing could save Delius's music from extinction", such

3976-422: A setting of Walt Whitman poems with the title Songs of Farewell , was an even more alarming prospect to Fenby: "the complexity of thinking in so many strands, often all at once; the problems of orchestral and vocal balance; the wider area of possible misunderstandings ..." combined to leave Delius and his helper exhausted after each session of work – yet both these works were ready for performance in 1932. Of

4118-572: A significant influence in the tone of his works thereafter. In 1886, Julius Delius finally agreed to allow his son to pursue a musical career, and paid for him to study music formally. Delius left Danville and returned to Europe via New York, where he paused briefly to give a few lessons. Back in Europe he enrolled at the conservatoire in Leipzig , Germany. Leipzig was a major musical centre, where Arthur Nikisch and Gustav Mahler were conductors at

4260-506: A similar capacity to Chemnitz , he neglected his duties in favour of trips to the major musical centres of Germany, and musical studies with Hans Sitt . His father sent him to Sweden, where he again put his artistic interests ahead of commerce, coming under the influence of the Norwegian dramatists Henrik Ibsen and Gunnar Heiberg . Ibsen's denunciations of social conventions further alienated Delius from his commercial background. Delius

4402-508: A simple melody". Fenby later wrote a book about his experiences of working with Delius. Among other details, Fenby reveals Delius's love of cricket. The pair followed the 1930 Test series between England and Australia with great interest, and regaled a bemused Jelka with accounts of their boyhood exploits in the game. In 1932, Delius was awarded the Freedom of the City of Bradford. In 1933,

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4544-526: A sound "not heard before in the orchestra, and seldom since". Delius's familiarity with "black" music possibly predates his American adventures; during the 1870s a popular singing group, the Fisk Jubilee Singers from Nashville, Tennessee , toured Britain and Europe, giving several well-received concerts in Bradford. When Delius wrote to Elgar in 1933 of the "beautiful four-part harmonies" of

4686-474: A third violin sonata, the Irmelin prelude, and Idyll (1932), which reused music from Delius's short opera Margot la rouge , composed thirty years earlier. McVeagh rates their greatest joint production as The Songs of Farewell , settings of Whitman poems for chorus and orchestra, which were dedicated to Jelka. Other works produced in this period include a Caprice and Elegy for cello and orchestra written for

4828-652: A tour to Edinburgh and Glasgow , Scotland , by Joachim, Clara, her oldest daughter Marie, Ries, Zerbini, Piatti, two English sisters "Miss Pyne," one a singer, and a Mr. Saunders who managed all the arrangements. Marie Schumann wrote home from Manchester that in Edinburgh Clara "was received with tempestuous applause and had to give an encore, so had Joachim. Piatti, too, is always tremendously liked." Joachim had extensive correspondence with both Clara and Brahms, as Brahms greatly valued Joachim's opinion of his new compositions. In 1860 Brahms and Joachim jointly wrote

4970-529: A violinist to set up as a violin teacher in later years, his chief musical joy was to improvise at the piano, and it was a piano piece, a waltz by Chopin, that gave him his first ecstatic encounter with music. From 1874 to 1878 he was educated at Bradford Grammar School , where the singer John Coates was his slightly older contemporary; Delius then attended the International College at Isleworth (just west of London) between 1878 and 1880. As

5112-407: A wave of prosperity which increased as the year went on". Henry Wood premiered the revised version of Delius's Piano Concerto that year. Also in 1907, Cassirer conducted some concerts in London, at one of which, with Beecham's New Symphony Orchestra , he presented Appalachia . Beecham, who had until then heard not a note of Delius's music, expressed his "wonderment" and became a lifelong devotee of

5254-526: A wholly musical career. An advertisement in the local paper announced, "Fritz Delius will begin at once giving instruction in Piano, Violin, Theory and Composition. He will give lessons at the residences of his pupils. Terms reasonable." Delius also offered lessons in French and German. Danville had a thriving musical life, and early works of his were publicly performed there. During his time in Florida, Delius

5396-561: Is "an expertly crafted synthesis of Grieg and Negroid Americana", while Delius's first opera Irmelin (1890–1892) lacks any identifiably Delian passages. Its harmony and modulation are conventional, and the work bears the clear fingerprints of Wagner and Grieg. Payne asserts that none of the works prior to 1895 are of lasting interest. The first noticeable stylistic advance is evident in Koanga (1895–1897), with richer chords and faster harmonic rhythms; here we find Delius "feeling his way towards

5538-464: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Frederick Delius Frederick Theodore Albert Delius CH (born Fritz Theodor Albert Delius ; / ˈ d iː l i ə s / ; 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934) was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce. He was sent to Florida in

5680-509: Is alleged to have fathered a son with a local African-American woman named Chloe. Upon Delius's return to Florida some years later to sell the plantation, it was suggested that Chloe, fearing that he had come to take her son away from her, fled with the child and disappeared. In the 1990s the violinist Tasmin Little embarked on a search for descendants of Delius's alleged love-child. Little believes that his failure to track down his son had been

5822-462: Is also listed.) A favorite piece of Clara's was Brahms's Piano Quartet in A major . She wrote to Brahms 27 February 1882 from London that the piece had received "much applause". About a performance of it in Liverpool 11 February she had written in her diary that it was "warmly received, much to my surprise as the public here is far less receptive than that in London." In January 1867 there had been

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5964-551: Is generally believed that during this period he contracted the syphilis that caused the collapse of his health in later years. Delius's Paris years were musically productive. His symphonic poem Paa Vidderne was performed in Christiania in 1891 and in Monte Carlo in 1894; Gunnar Heiberg commissioned Delius to provide incidental music for his play Folkeraadet in 1897; and Delius's second opera, The Magic Fountain ,

6106-516: Is not an acquired taste. One either likes it the moment one first hears it, or the sound of it is once and for ever distasteful to one. It is an art which will never enjoy an appeal to the many, but one which will always be loved, and dearly loved, by the few." Writing in 2004 on the 70th anniversary of Delius's death, the Guardian journalist Martin Kettle recalls Cardus arguing in 1934 that Delius as

6248-456: Is there abundantly, "floating and weaving itself into the texture of shifting harmony" – a characteristic which Cardus believes is shared only by Debussy. Delius's next work, Appalachia , introduces a further feature that recurred in later pieces – the use of the voice instrumentally in wordless singing, in this case depicting the distant plantation songs that had inspired Delius at Solano Grove. Although Payne argues that Appalachia shows only

6390-400: Is unknown. A leading Florida property firm had branches in several English cities including Bradford; in an article on Delius's time in Florida, William Randel conjectures that either Julius Delius visited the Bradford office and conceived the notion of sending his wayward son to grow oranges in Florida, or that Fritz himself saw it as a way to escape the hated family wool business and suggested

6532-531: The Dance Rhapsody No. 2 in 1923. Delius had a financial and artistic success with his incidental music for James Elroy Flecker 's play Hassan (1923), with 281 performances at His Majesty's Theatre . With Beecham's return the composer became, in Hadley's words, "what his most fervent admirers had never envisaged – a genuine popular success". Hadley cites, in particular, the six-day Delius festival at

6674-693: The New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Walter Damrosch . In November 1915 Grainger gave the first American performance of the Piano Concerto, again with the New York Philharmonic. The New York Times critic described the work as uneven; richly harmonious, but combining colour and beauty with effects "of an almost crass unskillfulness and ugliness". For the rest of his lifetime Delius's more popular pieces were performed in England and abroad, often under

6816-712: The North Country Sketches of 1913–14, Delius divides the strings into 12 parts, and harps, horns, clarinets and bassoons evoke a lifeless winter scene. In Payne's view, the Sketches are the high-water mark of Delius's compositional skill, although Fenby awards the accolade to the later Eventyr (Once Upon a Time) (1917). During this period Delius did not confine himself to purely orchestral works; he produced his final opera, Fennimore and Gerda (1908–1910), like A Village Romeo and Juliet written in tableau form, but in his mature style. His choral works of

6958-641: The Opera House , and Brahms and Tchaikovsky conducted their works at the Gewandhaus . At the conservatoire, Delius made little progress in his piano studies under Carl Reinecke , but Salomon Jadassohn praised his hard work and grasp of counterpoint; Delius also resumed studies under Hans Sitt. Delius's early biographer, the composer Patrick Hadley , observed that no trace of his academic tuition can be found in Delius's mature music "except in certain of

7100-477: The Oxford University Press 's musical editor during the 1920s and 1930s, writes that rather than creating his music from the known possibilities of instruments, Delius "thought the sounds first" and then sought the means for producing these particular sounds. Delius's full stylistic maturity dates from around 1907, when he began to write the series of works on which his main reputation rests. In

7242-534: The Royal Opera House in London. Having access to the Beecham family's considerable fortune, he ignored commercial considerations and programmed several works of limited box-office appeal, including A Village Romeo and Juliet . The reviews were polite, but The Times , having praised the orchestral aspects of the score, commented, "Mr. Delius seems to have remarkably little sense of dramatic writing for

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7384-468: The Vienna Conservatory (briefly with Miska Hauser and Georg Hellmesberger, Sr. ; finally – and most significantly – with Joseph Böhm , who introduced him to the world of chamber music). In 1843 he was taken by his cousin, Fanny Figdor, who later married "a Leipzig merchant" named Wittgenstein, to live and study in Leipzig . In the journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik Robert Schumann

7526-476: The cadenza for the concerto, as he did. In 1884, Joachim and his wife separated after he became convinced that she was having an affair with the publisher Fritz Simrock . Brahms, certain that Joachim's suspicions were groundless, wrote a sympathetic letter to Amalie, which she later produced as evidence in Joachim's divorce proceeding against her. This led to a cooling of Brahms' and Joachim's friendship, which

7668-424: The 'Illustrated London News', wrote that Joachim "is perhaps the first violin player, not only of his age, but of his siècle" [century]. "He performed Beethoven's solitary concerto, which we have heard all the great performers of the last twenty years attempt, and invariably fail in ... its performance was an eloquent vindication of the master-spirit who imagined it." A third reviewer, for the 'Morning Post', wrote that

7810-469: The 1904 "Diamond Jubilee" celebration of his sixtieth anniversary of his first appearance in London. Joachim remained in Berlin until his death in 1907. At his 75th birthday observance in June 1906, Joachim said The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven's. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But

7952-647: The Chaconne from the Partita No. 2, BWV 1004, and of Beethoven's late string quartets . Joachim was the second violinist, after Ferdinand David , to play Mendelssohn 's Violin Concerto in E ;minor , which he studied with the composer. Joachim played a pivotal role in the career of Brahms , and remained a tireless advocate of Brahms's compositions through all the vicissitudes of their friendship. He conducted

8094-661: The Conservatorium and playing on the first desk of the Gewandhaus Orchestra with Ferdinand David , whom Mendelssohn had appointed as concertmaster on taking up the conductorship in 1835. In 1848, the pianist and composer Franz Liszt took up residence in Weimar , where Goethe and Schiller had lived. Liszt was determined to re-establish the town's reputation as the Athens of Germany. There, he gathered

8236-464: The Delian style struggles to emerge in its full ripeness. Fenby describes A Mass of Life as standing outside the general progression of Delius's work, "a vast parenthesis", unlike anything else he wrote, but nevertheless an essential ingredient in his development. Brigg Fair (1907) announced the composer's full stylistic maturity, the first of the pieces for orchestra that confirm Delius's status as

8378-722: The English premiere of Brahms's Symphony No. 1 in C minor at Cambridge on 8 March 1877, on the same day that he received a D. Mus. degree there (Brahms had declined an invitation to go to England himself). A number of Joachim's composer colleagues, including Schumann , Brahms, Bruch , and Dvořák , composed concerti with Joachim in mind, many of which entered the standard repertory. Nevertheless, Joachim's solo repertoire remained relatively restricted. He never performed Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor , which Schumann wrote especially for him, or Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor , although Dvořák had earnestly solicited his advice about

8520-467: The French authorities forbade it. His alternative wish, despite his atheism, was to be buried "in some country churchyard in the south of England, where people could place wild flowers". At this time Jelka was too ill to make the journey across the Channel , and Delius was temporarily buried in the local cemetery at Grez. By May 1935, Jelka felt she had enough strength to undertake the crossing to attend

8662-619: The Gewandhaus Joachim played the Otello Fantasy by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst . On 27 May 1844 Joachim, not quite 13, in his London debut with Mendelssohn conducting at a concert of the Philharmonic Society , played the solo part in Beethoven's Violin Concerto . This was a triumph in several respects, as described by R. W. Eshbach. The Philharmonic had a policy against performers so young, but an exception

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8804-786: The Leipzig Conservatory and playing as principal violinist of the Gewandhausorchester , he moved to Weimar in 1848, where Franz Liszt established cultural life. From 1852, Joachim served at the court of Hanover, playing principal violin in the opera and conducting concerts, with months of free time in summer for concert tours. In 1853, he was invited by Robert Schumann to the Lower Rhine Music Festival, where he met Clara Schumann and Brahms, with whom he performed for years to come. In 1879, he premiered Brahms' violin concerto with Brahms as conductor. He married Amalie , an opera singer, in 1863, who gave up her career;

8946-474: The Paradise Garden" is described by Heseltine as showing "all the tragic beauty of mortality ... concentrated and poured forth in music of overwhelming, almost intolerable poignancy". In this work Delius begins to achieve the texture of sound that characterised all his later compositions. Delius's music is often assumed to lack melody and form. Cardus argues that melody, while not a primary factor,

9088-483: The Piano and Violin Concertos, and premières of Cynara and A Late Lark , concluding with A Mass of Life . The Manchester Guardian 's music critic, Neville Cardus , met Delius during the festival. He describes the wreck of the composer's physique, yet "there was nothing pitiable about him ... his face was strong and disdainful, every line graven on it by intrepid living". Delius, Cardus says, spoke with

9230-567: The Polish violinist Stanisław Serwaczyński, the concertmaster of the opera in Pest, said to be the best violinist in Pest. Although Joachim's parents were "not particularly well off", they had been well advised to choose not just an "ordinary" violin teacher. Joachim's first public performance was 17 March 1839 when he was of age 7. (Serwaczyński later moved back to Lublin, Poland, where he taught Wieniawski .) In 1839, Joachim continued his studies at

9372-519: The Queen's Hall in 1929 under Beecham's general direction, in the presence of the composer in his bath-chair . "[T]he cream of his orchestral output with and without soli and chorus was included", and the hall was filled. Beecham was assisted in the organisation of the festival by Philip Heseltine, who wrote the detailed programme notes for three of the six concerts. The festival included chamber music and songs, an excerpt from A Village Romeo and Juliet ,

9514-412: The Queen's Hall was praised for the brilliance of the soloist, Theodor Szántó , and for the power of the music itself. From that point onwards the music of Delius became increasingly familiar to both British and European audiences, as performances of his works proliferated. Beecham's presentation of A Mass of Life at the Queen's Hall in June 1909 did not inspire Hans Haym, who had come from Elberfeld for

9656-523: The Rhine but was originally Dutch. Julius's father, Ernst Friedrich Delius, had served under Blücher in the Napoleonic Wars . Julius moved to England to further his career as a wool merchant, and became a naturalised British subject in 1850. He married Elise in 1856. The Delius household was musical; famous musicians such as Joseph Joachim and Carlo Alfredo Piatti were guests, and played for

9798-527: The Schubert Grand Duo and the Beethoven and Brahms concerto cadenzas. Original pressings are single-sided and have a flat red G&T label. Later reeditions have a black G&T label (or, from 1909, a label showing the ' His Master's Voice ' trade-mark), and those made for the German market are double-sided. A letter preserved in the EMI archives records the stringent conditions Joachim expected for

9940-561: The United States in 1884 to manage an orange plantation. 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

10082-529: The Violin Concerto (1916), as an example of how, writing in unfamiliar genres, Delius remained stylistically true to himself; and the Cello Sonata of 1917, which, lacking the familiarity of an orchestral palate, becomes a melodic triumph. Cardus's verdict, however, is that Delius's chamber and concerto works are largely failures. After 1917, according to Payne, there was a general deterioration in

10224-496: The Wagnerian load". Early in his career Delius drew inspiration from Chopin, later from his own contemporaries Ravel and Richard Strauss, and from the much younger Percy Grainger , who first brought the tune of Brigg Fair to Delius's notice. According to Palmer, it is arguable that Delius gained his sense of direction as a composer from his French contemporary Claude Debussy . Palmer identifies aesthetic similarities between

10366-596: The aid of an amanuensis , Eric Fenby . The lyricism in Delius's early compositions reflected the music he had heard in America and the influences of European composers such as Grieg and Wagner . As his skills matured, he developed a style uniquely his own, characterised by his individual orchestration and his uses of chromatic harmony . Delius's music has been only intermittently popular, and often subject to critical attacks. The Delius Society, formed in 1962 by his more dedicated followers, continues to promote knowledge of

10508-490: The appearance of the six String Quartets (Op. 18) Beethoven had complete command of the field of chamber-music", although in the later quartets he "makes many exacting demands" of string players. Moser (p. 29) further writes that "at the time of Beethoven's death", such people as Spohr and Hauptmann did not necessarily esteem the late quartets above the earliest ones. Moser, p. 30 writes that in Vienna "the public showed

10650-562: The black plantation workers, he may have been unconsciously alluding to the spirituals sung by the Fisk group. At Leipzig , Delius became a fervent disciple of Wagner , whose technique of continuous music he sought to master. An ability to construct long musical paragraphs is, according to the Delius scholar Christopher Palmer , Delius's lasting debt to Wagner, from whom he also acquired a knowledge of chromatic harmonic technique, "an endlessly proliferating sensuousness of sound". Grieg, however,

10792-656: The composer's life and works, and sponsors the annual Delius Prize competition for young musicians. Delius was born in Bradford in Yorkshire . He was baptised as Fritz Theodor Albert Delius, and used the forename Fritz until he was about 40. He was the second of four sons – there were also ten daughters – born to Julius Delius (1822–1901) and his wife Elise Pauline, née Krönig (1838–1929). Delius's parents were born in Bielefeld , Westphalia , and Julius's family had already lived for several generations in German lands near

10934-461: The composer's works. In January 1908, he conducted the British premiere of Paris: The Song of a Great City . Later that year, Beecham introduced Brigg Fair to London audiences, and Enrique Fernández Arbós presented Lebenstanz . In 1909, Beecham conducted the first complete performance of A Mass of Life , the largest and most ambitious of Delius's concert works, written for four soloists,

11076-496: The concert, though Beecham says that many professional and amateur musicians thought it "the most impressive and original achievement of its genre written in the last fifty years" Some reviewers continued to doubt the popular appeal of Delius's music, while others were more specifically hostile. From 1910, Delius's works began to be heard in America: Brigg Fair and In a Summer Garden were performed in 1910–11 by

11218-524: The concerto "has been generally regarded by violin-players as not a proper and effective development of the powers of their instrument" but that Joachim's performance "is beyond all praise, and defies all description" and "was altogether unprecedented." Joachim remained a favorite with the English public for the rest of his career. He visited England in each year 1858, 1859, 1862 largely at the behest of his friend William Sterndale Bennett , and for several decades thereafter. Moser (p. 28 ff.) writes "After

11360-631: The couple had six children. Joachim quit service in Hanover in 1865, and the family moved to Berlin, where he was entrusted with founding and directing a new department at the Royal Conservatory, for performing music. He formed a string quartet, and kept performing chamber music on tours. His playing was recorded in 1903. Joachim was born in Köpcsény, Moson County , Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Kittsee in Burgenland , Austria). He

11502-429: The distinguished British cellist Beatrice Harrison , and a short orchestral piece, Fantastic Dance , which Delius dedicated to Fenby. The violin sonata incorporates the first, incomprehensible, melody that Delius had attempted to dictate to Fenby before their modus operandi had been worked out. Fenby's initial failure to pick up the tune led Delius to the view that "[the] boy is no good ... he cannot even take down

11644-446: The early years of the 20th century, Delius composed some of his most popular works, including Brigg Fair (1907), In a Summer Garden (1908, revised 1911), Summer Night on the River (1911), and On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (1912), of which McVeagh comments, "These exquisite idylls, for all their composer's German descent and French domicile, spell 'England' for most listeners." In 1910, Beecham put on an opera season at

11786-743: The event". Joseph Joachim Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms , he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century. Joachim studied violin early, beginning in Buda at age five, then in Vienna and Leipzig . He made his debut in London in 1844, playing Ludwig van Beethoven 's Violin Concerto , with Felix Mendelssohn conducting. He returned to London many times throughout life. After years of teaching at

11928-541: The family. Despite his German parentage, the young Fritz was drawn to the music of Chopin and Grieg rather than the Austro-German music of Mozart and Beethoven , a preference that endured all his life. The young Delius was first taught the violin by Rudolph Bauerkeller of the Hallé Orchestra , and had more advanced studies under George Haddock of Leeds . Although Delius achieved enough skill as

12070-688: The first director of, a new department of the Royal Academy of Music, concerned with musical performance and called the Hochschule für ausübende Tonkunst. On Good Friday, 10 April 1868, Joachim and his wife joined their friend, Johannes Brahms, in the celebration of one of Brahms' greatest triumphs, the first complete performance of his German Requiem at the Bremen Cathedral . Amalie Joachim sang "I Know that My Redeemer Liveth" and Joseph Joachim played Robert Schumann's Abendlied . It

12212-431: The grandmother of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the pianist Paul Wittgenstein . His niece Maud Joachim (through his brother Henry) was one of the first British suffragettes to go on hunger strike in prison in protest at not being treated as a political prisoner. In 1833 his family moved to Pest , which in 1873 was united with Buda and Óbuda to form Budapest . There from 1836 (age 5) he studied violin with

12354-649: The house at Grez and allowed Delius and Jelka to live there rent-free. Beecham was temporarily absent from the concert hall and opera house between 1920 and 1923, but Coates gave the first performance of A Song of the High Hills in 1920, and Henry Wood and Hamilton Harty programmed Delius's music with the Queen's Hall and Hallé Orchestras. Wood gave the British première of the Double Concerto for violin and cello in 1920, and of A Song Before Sunrise and

12496-579: The house was an agreeable place to live in. Delius paid little attention to the business of growing oranges, and continued to pursue his musical interests. Jacksonville had a rich, though to a European, unorthodox musical life. Randel notes that in local hotels, the African-American waiters doubled as singers, with daily vocal concerts for patrons and passers-by, giving Delius his introduction to spirituals . Additionally, ship owners encouraged their deckhands to sing as they worked. "Delius never forgot

12638-527: The idea to his father. Delius was in Florida from the spring of 1884 to the autumn of 1885, living on a plantation at Solano Grove on the Saint Johns River , about 35 miles (55 kilometres) south of Jacksonville . He continued to be engrossed in music, and in Jacksonville he met Thomas Ward, who became his teacher in counterpoint and composition . Delius later said that Ward's teaching was

12780-492: The impetus it gave to future performances of Delius's work the event might never have happened; none of the music was heard again in England for many years. Delius was much better received in Germany, where a series of successful performances of his works led to what Beecham describes as a Delius vogue there, "second only to that of Richard Strauss". In England, a performance of the Piano Concerto on 22 October 1907 at

12922-479: The intense fire...which predicts the artist" and "his compositions already betoken such power as I have seen in no other musician of his age". Joachim strongly recommended Brahms to Robert. Brahms was received by the Schumanns with great enthusiasm. After Robert's mental breakdown in 1854 and death in 1856, Joachim, Clara, and Brahms remained lifelong friends and shared musical views. Joachim's performing style with

13064-539: The more mature works Foss observes Delius's increasing rejection of conventional forms such as sonata or concerto; Delius's music, he comments, is "certainly not architectural; nearer to painting, especially to the pointilliste style of design". The painting analogy is echoed by Cardus. Delius's first orchestral compositions were, in Christopher Palmer's words, the work of "an insipid if charming water-colourist". The Florida Suite (1887, revised 1889)

13206-642: The most celebrated cellists" of the time. George Bernard Shaw wrote that the Popular Concerts had helped greatly to spread and enlighten musical taste in England. Joachim had been a mainstay of the chamber music Popular Concerts. At 18 of the Popular Concerts at least, Clara Schumann performed along with Joachim, Zerbini and Piatti, presumably playing piano quartets (without second violin), or sometimes piano trios (for piano, violin, and cello). (The programs of those concerts very likely also included string quartets in which she of course did not play, as Ries

13348-473: The most inward, the heart's jewel, is Mendelssohn's . Bruch wrote three violin concertos. Joachim was presumably referring to his Concerto No. 1 , which is the most well-known and frequently performed. Joachim had assisted Bruch in revising that concerto. Among the most notable of Joachim's achievements were his revival of Beethoven's violin concerto already mentioned, the revival of Bach 's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin , BWV 1001–1006, especially

13490-411: The music in this final choral work, Beecham wrote of its "hard, masculine vigour, reminiscent in mood and fibre of some of the great choral passages in A Mass of Life ". Payne describes the work as "bracing and exultant, with in places an almost Holstian clarity". Recognition came late to Delius; before 1899, when he was already 37, his works were largely unpublished and unknown to the public. When

13632-473: The musical life of the country [i.e. Britain]; he does not teach in any of the academies, he is not even an honorary professor or doctor of music. He never gives concerts or makes propaganda for his music; he never conducts an orchestra, or plays an instrument in public (even Berlioz played the tambourine!) Heseltine depicted Delius as a composer uncompromisingly focused on his own music. "There can be no superficial view of Delius's music: either one feels it in

13774-624: The next eight years, Delius befriended many writers and artists, including August Strindberg , Edvard Munch and Paul Gauguin . He mixed very little with French musicians, although Florent Schmitt arranged the piano scores of Delius's first two operas, Irmelin and The Magic Fountain ( Ravel later did the same for his verismo opera Margot la rouge ). As a result, his music never became widely known in France. Delius's biographer Diana McVeagh says of these years that Delius "was found to be attractive, warm-hearted, spontaneous, and amorous". It

13916-411: The only useful music instruction he ever had. Delius later liked to represent his house at Solano Grove as "a shanty", but it was a substantial cottage of four rooms, with plenty of space for Delius to entertain guests. Ward sometimes stayed there, as did an old Bradford friend, Charles Douglas, and Delius's brother Ernest. Protected from excessive summer heat by river breezes and a canopy of oak trees,

14058-404: The opera A Village Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden in 1910; and he mounted a six-day Delius festival in London in 1929, as well as making gramophone recordings of many of the composer's works. After 1918, Delius began to suffer the effects of syphilis , contracted during his earlier years in Paris. He became paralysed and blind, but completed some late compositions between 1928 and 1932 with

14200-485: The period, notably An Arabesque and A Song of the High Hills (both 1911) are among the most radical of Delius's writings in their juxtapositions of unrelated chords. The latter work, entirely wordless, contains some of the most difficult choral music in existence, according to Heseltine. After 1915, Delius turned his attention to traditional sonata, chamber and concerto forms, which he had largely left alone since his apprentice days. Of these pieces Payne highlights two:

14342-476: The piece, dedicated it to him, and would have liked him to premiere it. The most unusual work written for Joachim was the F-A-E Sonata , a collaboration between Schumann, Brahms, and Albert Dietrich , based upon the initials of Joachim's motto, Frei aber Einsam (which can be translated as "free but lonely", "free but alone", or "free but solitary"). Although the sonata is rarely performed in its entirety,

14484-523: The powers the composer undoubtedly possesses should not be turned to better account or undergo proper development at the hands of some musician competent to train them". Of the May 1899 concert at St. James's Hall , London, The Musical Times reviewer remarked on the rawness of some of the music, but praised the "boldness of conception and virile strength that command and hold attention". Beecham, however, records that despite this "fair show of acclaim", for all

14626-471: The product of a long musical apprenticeship, during which the composer absorbed many influences. The earliest significant experiences in his artistic development came, Delius later asserted, from the sounds of the plantation songs carried down the river to him at Solano Grove. It was this singing, he told Fenby, that first gave him the urge to express himself in music; thus, writes Fenby, many of Delius's early works are "redolent of Negro hymnology and folk-song",

14768-405: The publicity for his recordings: sensational adverts were to be avoided, with no comparisons between his art and that of other violinists. The letter also stated that "it was only with the greatest difficulty that Professor Joachim was induced to play". Other pupils may be mentioned by Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski in his "Die Violine und Ihre Meister". • Karl Scheurer Most, but not all, of

14910-400: The quantity and quality of Delius's output as illness took hold, although Payne exempts the incidental music to Hassan (1920–1923) from condemnation, believing it to contain some of Delius's best work. The four-year association with Fenby from 1929 produced two major works, and several smaller pieces often drawn from unpublished music from Delius's early career. The first of the major works

15052-457: The rest of their lives, except during the First World War . Delius's first successes came in Germany, where Hans Haym and other conductors promoted his music from the late 1890s. In Delius's native Britain, his music did not make regular appearances in concert programmes until 1907, after Thomas Beecham took it up. Beecham conducted the full premiere of A Mass of Life in London in 1909 (he had premiered Part II in Germany in 1908); he staged

15194-601: The same time at that". The work was given under Busoni in Berlin less than a year later. Most of Delius's premieres of this period were given by Haym and his fellow German conductors. In 1904 Cassirer premiered Koanga , and in the same year the Piano Concerto was given in Elberfeld, and Lebenstanz in Düsseldorf. Appalachia (choral orchestral variations on an old slave song, also inspired by Florida) followed there in 1905. Sea Drift (a cantata with words taken from

15336-426: The same year, Delius began a fruitful association with German supporters of his music, the conductors Hans Haym , Fritz Cassirer and Alfred Hertz at Elberfeld , and Julius Buths at Düsseldorf . Haym conducted Over the Hills and Far Away , which he gave under its German title Über die Berge in die Ferne on 13 November 1897, believed to be the first time Delius's music was heard in Germany. In 1899 Hertz gave

15478-638: The service of the King of Hanover in protest, when the Intendant (artistic director) of the Opera refused to advance one of the orchestral players ( Jakob Grün ) because of the latter's Jewish birth. In 1866, as a result of the Austro-Prussian war , in which Prussia and its capital Berlin became the dominant German state and city, Joachim moved to Berlin, where he was invited to help found, and to become

15620-474: The singing as he heard it, day or night, carried sweet and clear across the water to his verandah at Solano Grove, whenever a steam-ship passed; it is hard to imagine conditions less conducive to cultivating oranges – or more conducive to composing." While in Florida, Delius had his first composition published, a polka for piano called Zum Carnival . In late 1885 he left a caretaker in charge of Solano Grove and moved to Danville, Virginia . Thereafter he pursued

15762-414: The sponsorship of Beecham, who was primarily responsible for the Delius festival in October–November 1929. In a retrospective comment on the festival The Times critic wrote of full houses and an apparent enthusiasm for "music which hitherto has enjoyed no exceptional vogue", but wondered whether this new acceptance was based on a solid foundation. After Delius's death Beecham continued to promote his works;

15904-469: The standard English concert repertory, and helped to establish the character of Delius's music in the English concert-goer's mind, although according to Ernest Newman , the concentration on these works to the neglect of his wider output may have done Delius as much harm as good. The typical mature Delian orchestral sound is apparent in these works, through the division of the strings into ten or more sections, punctuated by woodwind comments and decorations. In

16046-686: The symphonic poem Paa Vidderne was performed at Monte Carlo on 25 February 1894 in a programme of works from British composers, The Musical Times listed the composers as "...  Balfe , Mackenzie , Oakeley, Sullivan  ... and one Delius, whoever he may be". The work was well received in Monte Carlo, and brought the composer a congratulatory letter from Princess Alice of Monaco , but this did not lead to demands for further performances of this or other Delius works. Some of his individual songs (he wrote more than 60) were occasionally included in vocal recitals; referring to "the strange songs of Fritz Delius", The Times critic expressed regret "that

16188-486: The third movement, the Scherzo in C minor , composed by Brahms, is still frequently played today. Joachim's own compositions are less well known. He gave opus numbers to 14 compositions and composed about an equal number of pieces without opus numbers. Among his compositions are various works for the violin (including three concerti) and overtures to Shakespeare 's Hamlet and Henry IV . He also wrote cadenzas for

16330-436: The two, and points to several parallel characteristics and enthusiasms. Both were inspired early in their careers by Grieg, both admired Chopin; they are also linked in their musical depictions of the sea, and in their uses of the wordless voice. The opening of Brigg Fair is described by Palmer as "perhaps the most Debussian moment in Delius". Debussy, in a review of Delius's Two Danish Songs for soprano and orchestra given in

16472-425: The vein that he was soon to tap so surely". In Paris (1899), the orchestration owes a debt to Richard Strauss ; its passages of quiet beauty, says Payne, nevertheless lack the deep personal involvement of the later works. Paris , the final work of Delius's apprentice years, is described by Foss as "one of the most complete, if not the greatest, of Delius's musical paintings". In each of the major works written in

16614-423: The very depths of one's being, or not at all. This may be a part of the reason why one so seldom hears a really first-rate performance of Delius's work, save under Mr. Beecham". One of Delius's major wartime works was his Requiem , dedicated "to the memory of all young Artists fallen in the war". The work owes nothing to the traditional Christian liturgy, eschewing notions of an afterlife and celebrating instead

16756-512: The violin, like Clara's at the piano, is said to have been "restrained, pure, antivirtuosic, expressing the music rather than the performer." In December 1854, Joachim visited Robert at the Endenich asylum where he had been since February, Joachim being his first visitor. Early on, Brahms already played and composed for the piano, which "he had mastered in a supreme fashion", but he felt deficient in orchestration. In 1854 he began composing what

16898-485: The voice". Other reviewers agreed that the score contained passages of great beauty, but was ineffective as drama. During the First World War, Delius and Jelka moved from Grez to avoid the hostilities. They took up temporary residence in the south of England, where Delius continued to compose. In 1915, The Musical Times published a profile of him by his admirer, the composer Philip Heseltine (known as "Peter Warlock"), who commented: [H]e holds no official position in

17040-716: The weaker passages". Much more important to Delius's development was meeting the composer Edvard Grieg in Leipzig. Grieg, like Ward before him, recognised Delius's potential. In the spring of 1888, Sitt conducted Delius's Florida Suite for an audience of three: Grieg, Christian Sinding and the composer. Grieg and Sinding were enthusiastic and became warm supporters of Delius. At a dinner party in London in April 1888, Grieg finally convinced Julius Delius that his son's future lay in music. After leaving Leipzig in 1888, Delius moved to Paris where his uncle, Theodore, took him under his wing and looked after him socially and financially. Over

17182-522: The year before both composers died, Elgar, who had flown to Paris to conduct a performance of his Violin Concerto , visited Delius at Grez. Delius was not on the whole an admirer of Elgar's music, but the two men took to each other, and there followed a warm correspondence until Elgar's death in February 1934. Elgar described Delius as "a poet and a visionary". Delius died at Grez on 10 June 1934, aged 72. He had wished to be buried in his own garden, but

17324-406: The years after Paris , Delius combined orchestral and vocal forces. The first of these works was A Village Romeo and Juliet , a music drama which departs from the normal operatic structure of acts and scenes and tells its story of tragic love in a series of tableaux. Musically it shows a considerable advance in style from the early operas of the apprentice years. The entr'acte known as "The Walk to

17466-624: Was a glorious occasion, after which about 100 of the composer's friends, the Joachims, Clara Schumann, Albert Dietrich and his wife, Max Bruch , and others gathered at the Bremen Rathskeller. In 1869, the Joachim String Quartet was formed, which quickly gained a reputation as Europe's finest. It continued to perform until Joachim's death in 1907. The first personnel of the quartet were: Ernst Schiever (1869–1871)

17608-422: Was accepted for staging at Prague , but the project fell through for unknown reasons. Other works of the period were the fantasy overture Over the Hills and Far Away (1895–1897) and orchestral variations, Appalachia: Variations on an Old Slave Song (1896, rewritten in 1904 for voices and orchestra). In 1897, Delius met the German artist Jelka Rosen , who later became his wife. She was a professional painter,

17750-471: Was applauded still more, and "cheers of the audience accompanied every ... part of the concerto." Reviewers also had high praise. One for 'The Musical World' wrote "The greatest violinists hold this concerto in awe ... Young Joachim ... attacked it with the vigour and determination of the most accomplished artist ... no master could have read it better," and the two cadenzas, written by Joachim, were "tremendous feats ... ingeniously composed". Another reviewer, for

17892-569: Was contemptuous of public taste, of "giving the public what they wanted" in the form of pretty tunes. From the conventional forms of his early music, over the course of his creative career Delius developed a style easily recognisable and "unlike the work of any other", according to Payne. As he gradually found his voice, Delius replaced the methods developed during his creative infancy with a more mature style in which Payne discerns "an increasing richness of chord structure, bearing with it its own subtle means of contrast and development". Hubert Foss ,

18034-611: Was highly enthusiastic about Felix Mendelssohn , on which Moser writes "Only in Haydn's admiration for Mozart does the history of music know a parallel case of such ungrudging veneration of one great artist for his equal." in 1835, Mendelssohn had become director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra. In 1843 Joachim became a protégé of Mendelssohn, who arranged for him to study theory and composition with Moritz Hauptmann and violin with Ferdinand David. In his début performance in

18176-431: Was honored by "friends and admirers in England" on 16 April 1889 who presented him with "an exceptionally fine" violin made in 1715 by Antonio Stradivari, called "Il Cremonese". About ten years later, for the sixtieth jubilee, a concert in honor of Joachim was given by his former students of violin and viola playing and cellists who had studied quartet playing with him, on 22 April 1899. The total of some 140 string players

18318-488: Was impressive, as were their instruments (made by Stradivari, Guarneri, Bergonzi, Amati, etc.). An honor such as that concert "had been accorded to no other musician during his lifetime". During 1899, Joachim was invited to become president of the newly established Oxford & Cambridge Musical Club in London. He remained club president until his death. In Berlin, on 17 August 1903, Joachim recorded five sides for The Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd (G&T), which remain

18460-431: Was made after auditions persuaded gatherings of distinguished musicians and music lovers that Joachim had mature capabilities. Despite Beethoven's recognition as one of the greatest composers, and the ranking nowadays of his violin concerto as among the greatest few, it was far from being so ranked before Joachim's performance. Ludwig Spohr had harshly criticized it, and after the London premiere by violinist Edward Eliason,

18602-514: Was not restored until some years later, when Brahms composed the Double Concerto in A minor for violin and cello, Op. 102, 1887, as a peace offering to his old friend. It was co-dedicated to the first performers, Joachim and Robert Hausmann. In late 1895 both Brahms and Joachim were present at the opening of the new Tonhalle at Zürich, Switzerland; Brahms conducted and Joachim was assistant conductor. But in April, two years later, Joachim

18744-399: Was perhaps the composer who influenced him more than any other. The Norwegian composer, like Delius, found his primary inspiration in nature and in folk-melodies, and was the stimulus for the Norwegian flavour that characterises much of Delius's early music. The music writer Anthony Payne observes that Grieg's "airy texture and non-developing use of chromaticism showed [Delius] how to lighten

18886-505: Was the conductor's unique mastery over the music. However, other conductors have continued to advocate Delius, and since the centenary year, the Delius Society has pursued the aim of "develop[ing] a greater knowledge of the life and works of Delius". The music has never become fashionable, a fact often acknowledged by promoters and critics. To suggestions that Delius's music is an "acquired taste", Fenby answers: "The music of Delius

19028-456: Was the orchestral A Song of Summer , based on sketches that Delius had previously collected under the title of A Poem of Life and Love . In dictating the new beginning of this work, Delius asked Fenby to "imagine that we are sitting on the cliffs in the heather, looking out over the sea". This does not, says Fenby, indicate that the dictation process was calm and leisurely; the mood was usually frenzied and nerve-wracking. The other major work,

19170-541: Was the seventh of eight children born to Julius, a wool merchant, and Fanny Joachim, who were of Hungarian-Jewish origin. He spent his childhood as a member of the Köpcsény Kehilla (Jewish community), one of Hungary's prominent Siebengemeinden ('Seven Communities') under the protectorate of the Esterházy family. He was a first cousin of Fanny Wittgenstein, née Figdor, the mother of Karl Wittgenstein and

19312-490: Was then sent to represent the firm in France, but he frequently absented himself from business for excursions to the French Riviera . After this, Julius Delius recognised that there was no prospect that his son would succeed in the family business, but he remained opposed to music as a profession, and instead sent him to America to manage an orange plantation. Whether the move to America was Julius's idea or his son's

19454-473: Was to Joachim inordinate and unacceptable." Joachim's break with Liszt became final in August 1857, when he wrote to his former mentor: "I am completely out of sympathy with your music; it contradicts everything which from early youth I have taken as mental nourishment from the spirit of our great masters." Hanover "was then an independent kingdom, later to be absorbed in the German empire." King Georg of Hanover

19596-453: Was to become his first piano concerto , his first orchestral piece. He sent a score of the first movement to Joachim, requesting his advice. After getting Joachim's response, Brahms wrote to him "A thousand thanks for having studied the first movement in such a sympathetic and careful manner. I have learned a great deal from your remarks. As a musician I really have no greater wish than to have more talent so that I can learn still more from such

19738-479: Was to lose forever this revered friend, as Johannes Brahms died at the age of 64 at Vienna. At Meiningen, in December 1899, it was Joachim who made the speech when a statue to Brahms was unveiled. In March 1877, Joachim received an honorary Doctorate of Music from Cambridge University. For the occasion he presented his Overture in honor of Kleist, Op. 13. Near the 50th anniversary of Joachim's debut recital, he

19880-476: Was totally blind and very fond of music; he paid Joachim a good salary and gave him considerable freedom. Joachim's duties in Hanover included playing the main violin part in opera performances and that or conducting state concerts. He had five summer months off, in which he made concert tours around Europe. In March 1853 he sent to Liszt a copy of the Overture to Hamlet he had recently composed. Also in 1853,

20022-452: Was unaffected; Beecham records that Bartók and Kodály were admirers of Delius, and the former grew into the habit of sending his compositions to Delius for comment and tried to interest him in both Hungarian and Romanian popular music. By the end of the war, Delius and Jelka had returned to Grez. He had begun to show symptoms of syphilis that he had probably contracted in the 1880s. He took treatment at clinics across Europe, but by 1922 he

20164-416: Was walking with two sticks, and by 1928 he was paralysed and blind. There was no return to the prosperity of pre-war years: Delius's medical treatment was an additional expense, his blindness prevented him from composing, and his royalties were curtailed by the lack of continental performances of his music. Beecham gave discreet financial help, and the composer and musical benefactor H. Balfour Gardiner bought

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