Delius: The Song of the High Hills by Olivia Robinson, Christopher Bowen, Andrew Davis

Frederick Delius (1862-1934)
The Song of the High Hills (arr. T. Beecham)
In ruhigem fliessendem Tempo, Tranquillo - Very quietly but not dragging, With vigour
Very slow (The wide far distance, The great solitude), Slow and solemnly, Very quietly, Slow and very legato
Tempo I, Piu mosso ma tranquillo, With exultation (not hurried). Maestoso, Tempo I, Very slow
Olivia Robinson, soprano
Christopher Bowen, tenor
BBC Symphony Chorus (Stephen Jackson, chorus master)
BBC Symphony Orchestra (Stephen Bryant, leader)
Conducted by Andrew Davis
2011
_
version conducted by Eric Fenby: • Video

[@ianr8218]

What a piece of music. I was a music performance major for my first two years of college and somehow Delius slipped through the cracks. The more I hear of his work, the more I absolutely love it. This is on par with the pure romanticism and complexity of Ricard Strauss. Absolutely gorgeous and inspiring!

[@mranferr]

Intimo sussurro della natura nella sublime quiete dello spirito.

[@Hobert-x3i]

Many rockers and poppers of today never have heard of Delius in their short life existence!! This is totally new to them!!!

[@Hobert-x3i]

By the way traditional choir voice and classical music is new to short living rock and poppers!!

[@Hobert-x3i]

The string section is trying to portray the waterfalls and wind!!

[@Hobert-x3i]

Generation x new tunes to them!!

[@markparry6076]

This is one of the most sublime masterpieces of the 20th century rarely played rarely heard which shows the lack of insight of concert promoters and broadcast planners his time will come

[@peterstevens7271]

But Fenby is better for the climax at twenty minutes. My favourite piece of music of all time.

[@markparry6076]

Peter Stevens I agree he measures the climax perfectly There's a very good recording by Bo Holten and the Aarhus Orchestra There's a great spiritual beauty in this work

[@renetoby234]

You probably dont care at all but does anyone know of a tool to get back into an Instagram account..? I was stupid lost the account password. I would love any help you can give me.

[@fletcherdominic5931]

@Rene Toby Instablaster =)

[@renetoby234]

@Fletcher Dominic i really appreciate your reply. I got to the site through google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff now. Takes quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@JamesVaughan]

Fantastic, dreamy music! Amazing that such a marvellous work should be so under-recorded - as far as I know, there have been only a handful of recordings of "High Hills", and in my opinion this one by Sir Andrew transcends both the Beecham and Fenby recordings (which are the only other two I know) - the quality of the recorded sound is as awesome as the work itself!

[@patrickcrosby3824]

Seems as though Davis has succeeded in moving beyond Beecham's influence (i.e. figured out which marking in Beeecham's version of the score need to be outright disobeyed). In addition to that he has givin it the transparency it needs at long last. Evidently digital sound recording has advanced greatly too since Fenby's recording of the 1980s where too much seems to get too muffled too often. To a work such as this that is fatal. Soon as I finish this posting I will be ordering the CD.

[@freddydiamant]

Patrick Crosby Yes, but isn't it a little on the quick side? Agreed, the Fenby version muffles up a lot of the things not least the opening which is, in some ways, dense (despite the "ruhigem fliessendem" indication but this applies mostly to the tempo, oh well...) I'm talking mostly about the loud parts: generally before number 4 of the Dover score and "Not too slow" (which Davis judiciously isn't) 3 before 9 (4 if you count the 3rd Horn upbeat) Fenby has a better pacing; the music seems to fall into place with him in this work. Some people might think that he's a wee-bit on the wallowing side (Very Slow, "The wide far distance - the great solitude" or number 30 - chorus alone) but I still think his tempi bring out the subtelties of this particular music. Kudos for this recording for the "L.V." in the two cymbal strokes @ 2 before 15 (Fenby: tres sec, not helped by the way they're notated: quarter notes, see cymbal crash @ end of Piano Concerto) I'm still missing the various Bass Drum "thumps" (ex. number 11, also see Requiem Part 1, beginning, there are a couple of uploads of the relatively recent Hickox recording) Anyway....

[@freddydiamant]

Yet Beecham is considerably quicker, but it's still pretty clear and flows quite nicely!

[@patrickcrosby3824]

Alexis Diamant I think this is going to be the reference standard for some time to come. It wouldn't be his sort of music at all, but a Boulez interpretation would have been most interesting. But I think this is very close to what Boulez would have given us. Perhaps Boulez would have been slower though.

[@markparry6076]

I agree Peter my favourite too

[@boojay111]

AT about 4 onwards does anyone know the title of the painting? Visited Norway and went the whole length, the further North the further I found it interesting. It was more bleak , far less humans and all their rubbish, till all you saw really was reindeer moss and rocks. Wonderful

[@cerval41]

Where you drunk during your trip+