Frederick Delius: The Song of the High Hills [Eric Fenby]

[@charlierumoldboi3939]

This music takes me back to being a young man and in love with a beautiful girl. I listened to this when thinking of her, on dark lonely nights. She died of breast cancer at 24. I listen now and the sadness of the music reminds me of the love we once had.

[@steveschein6935]

So sorry about your loss.

[@b.j.c.]

How lovely

[@notmyworld44]

I'm extremely sad for your loss, Charlie. Placing one's complete trust in the God of the bible is a comfort when the pain is too much. (I too am an avid lover of this man's wonderful music.)

[@musicvisualizations-jazzrockf]

Thank you for posting this. It was very moving.

[@bertramgoatcabin7376]

I got to know Eric Fenby a few weeks after the recording of this work. It was released on LP by Unicorn Kanchana. He told me the intention was to place the Requiem on the second side. But the lack of money prevented the whole thing. Fenby had an exquisite touch in dynamics and phrasing. The time has come for this music. It’s full of human love and consolation.

[@MegaCirse]

Cette musique est enthousiasmante.... Richesse du discours mélodique, harmonies à couper le souffle, orchestration sans cesse renouvelée dans l’utilisation des timbres des instruments. En onze mots comme en cent, une babylonienne architecture sonore érigée par un impétueux compositeur !

[@Hobert-v4s]

Been forgotten by older gens that are more into pop and rock today,s young however include these music's in their meditations how a nice rediscovery!!!

[@dr.maryllishughes1214]

Keep the beautiful music of Delius alive & thanks for the ethereal paintings; Delius loved Norway & friendship with composer Grieg..

[@barbaragaona7785]

Being of Norwegian heritage, and having been blessed to travel there this music is so special to me Mr Fenby always captures the essence of Delius' works. This last year I have become enamored of his music. At 70 years old, it speaks to my soul as I reflect on my life.

[@Hobert-v4s]

All the way from the Atlantic from England or France to Florida! What a miracle like God sent him to us and Floridas nature deserves this!!

[@charlesflett2818]

I recommend song of summer. Shortish movie by Ken Russel. He did a wonderful job allowing us a brief window into delius’s later life. Of course without fenby it may never have reached our ears. Found on KZbin. Thanks for this upload.

[@notmyworld44]

Wonderful film, but so very sad too.

[@jockmoron]

There is an etherial and inchoate quality to Delius's music, , yet at the same time you know the skill and effort that went in to his compositions - you only have to hear a few bars to know he was the composer. He was truly a unique voice in classical music, and we're so lucky to have his music so readily available.

[@stillstanding6031]

Something expertly done always (looks) sounds easy. I agree,there's a liminal quality his music that I adore. The fact the some his best pieces capture an American idiom (African American) makes it all the more engaging. Delius is for those of us who enjoy Wagner, Mahler ,etc, and want to give our ears a rest and our souls some succor.

[@c.o.jones3752]

As a kid, I knew little about classical music but being born in Florida , I bought the album( Florida Suite )because of the name , having never even heard of Delius and soon fell in love with the music....I have over the years heard works by Delius but his Florida Suite (esp.On The River ) will always be my favorite ...This however is also wonderful...Love the choir voices.....

[@notmyworld44]

I think you and I exchanged thoughts under another video recently because I recognize your name. I am 77 and a life-long devotee of classical music, and I find the Florida Suite to be the most sublime music ever written. It grasps for an unseen world which I long for. By the way, I was born in Tampa but raised in Houston. I fled from the city to the Ozarks of Arkansas in 1984. Life is imperfect wherever on earth you go, but my longings for Heaven are perfectly expressed in much of Delius's music, which makes it even stranger to me that he was a militant atheist. That's sad.

[@Marsha730]

On The River is also my favorite piece in this suite! I remember thinking and identifying it as something that Alexander Glazunov wrote on a guessing game and was shocked that I was wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@aprilsigns4175]

Tears flowing....so beautiful!!!!!

[@Poeme340]

Yes, just now, me too

[@fabricelacroix749]

Délius est un compositeur très mal connu, et pourtant extraordinaire. Sa musique est belle, lyrique, magique, évocatrice, innovante. L'orchestration est limpide et pourtant complexe par la forme. Je suis un fan de Délius.

[@williamphillips6247]

What a wonderful Delius work-showing off his impressionistic sounds and colors...

[@captdavec590]

A breathtaking score executed flawlessly by Mr. Fenby. Probably one of the finest examples of Delius' unique genius!

[@andynew2]

No less a musician than Sir Andrew Davis described this music as totally overwhelming in places. Delius' chordal richness is wonderful!

[@charlesflett2818]

That word overwhelming is so appropriate.

[@robertcohn8858]

A weird and wonderful album. I love how the choir is melded into the score. Thanks for posting this.

[@Sprangleweed]

This is a very fine rendering of Delius. Fenby was truly in tune with the composer and interpreted the score sympathetically, with at times quite breathtaking beauty. Thank you for uploading this masterpiece.

[@maartenbrandt3618]

Due to the lack of phantasy (and knowledge!) of by far the most of our artistic directors and/ or administrators beautiful scores like this are almost never performed. A bloody shame!

[@henrygingercat]

It's certainly one of his better pieces, similar as they tend to be (the odd allegro wouldn't hurt), but his choral writing is extremely difficult for even a professional chorus - very chromatic and high-lying - and that hardly helps boost the number of performances.

[@markparry6076]

You are right in my opinion they have no courage and give the public the safe option or no option how can they ignore such a sublime work as this

[@Hobert-v4s]

Some sounds are identical to Debussy's works!! How amazingly beautiful and quite romantic! Besides the strings blend sound so similar to Debussy!!

[@remixuereb]

De vraies phrases musicales , beaucoup de belles notations , et voici donc une musique qui grandit l'âme parce que c'est de la grande musique qui n'a pas de frontière et pour moi ce musicien est un des grands maîtres du XX°s. moins connu qu'Elgar , mais ses harmoniques sont subtiles et très élégantes , car cet artiste a toujours semble t-il été à l'écoute des grands courants européens et américains de son temps . La musique de Delius n'a pas pris de ride . Il se peut même qu'en prenant de l'âge , comme cela est pour beaucoup d'oeuvres majeures , celles ci se bonifient , et qu'elles trouvent naturellement leur place dans le , entre guillemets "panthéon " des artistes et des oeuvres qui dépassent le classicisme et l'académisme par leur inventivité ..

[@mattyregelmaessig8654]

Le Debussy anglais . . .

[@Hobert-v4s]

Like watching a still shot movie how neat!!

[@alanwitton5039]

Beautiful

[@td3993]

This piece.... It's almost too abstract for me, but also very intriguing, and the choir bit really gets me. Surprising and different. ...And so many lush harmonies. Definitely has turn-of-the-century elements of modernism to it.

[@markparry6076]

I had the same response to it when I heard it many years ago and now it's my favourite Delius piece

[@td3993]

​@@markparry6076 ya, I love it now, but also find it extremely haunting. Now that I've familiarized myself with it, though, it doesn't seem so abstract or random, but does flow together.

[@Hobert-v4s]

The flute running water sound! You cant hear this in any other composer comp!!

[@gerardbegni2806]

This score is more ambitious than most of those that we hear most often - even here on KZbin. We should pay attention not to reduce Delius to an aquarellist, painting idyllic landscapes in the spring or summer. There is a stronger inspiration in Delius' art, which we can hear here. The language is not so different, but the intensity of the evocation is indeed greater. We need to hear such scores to have a comprehensive vision of the genius of Delius.

[@markparry6076]

Gérard Begni I totally agree We tend to think of Delius as the composer of The walk to the Paradise Garden and The first cuckoo instead of focusing on the bigger works This is a masterpiece which deserves to be heard regularly This is man's music showing Delius strength iron resolution and vision

[@gerardbegni2806]

Mark I am pleased to read that you share my point of view. The concertos are also a good example of ample conceptions by Delius.

[@markparry6076]

Gérard Begni Percy Grainger wrote of Delius after he had died "It seems to me as if Delius is the first composer to give us nature music on the grand scale......it is as if nature music dwarfed or childishly undeveloped before- has grown to man's estate for the first time in the music of Frederick Delius " I believe he was speaking of the larger conceptions such as Brigg Fair Appalachia North Country Sketches etc and not such smaller scaled works that the general public are familiar

[@andynew2]

Certainly agree with your comments. Delius, to me, is certainly up there with the very best and sometimes his harmonies are so lush as to bring one to tears without realising why,. A true genius!

[@markparry6076]

Gérard Begni Although the concertos are not written in conventional form they have an inner logic to them which becomes apparent with repeated hearing and is difficult to conceive of them any other way

[@boojay111]

Being a watercolourist you do not have to look at the images here to evoke your own interpretation of the music, to me it's landscapes, whether looking deep into a river or movements of ice or a mountain pass, beautiful

[@notmyworld44]

Yes! Delius' wife, Jelke Rosen, was a watercolorist, and Delius was obviously emotionally affected by Jelke's art because he composed a set of lovely miniature works called Aquarelles to celebrate them.

[@Hobert-v4s]

As said by an Englander a bloody this and and a bloody that!!

[@charlesflett2818]

42 thousand views in 8 years. Says it all about our declining cultural existence. Mind you the bbc aren’t much better. Very rarely heard. Yelka would have agreed.

[@charlierumoleboi3578]

This work is one of Delius's masterpieces. Although an orgiastic out pouring of pagan nature worship I find it utterly depressing. The ecstasy is tainted by the Delius's knowledge that "nature alone endures". Man's place in the drama is transitory, hence the inherent sadness and melancholy which haunts this work. If you understand Delius, his motivations and philosophy, you cannot helped be moved by his ability to translate this into musical form. Genius of the highest stature.

[@andrewpearson1903]

@poewhite Fear God

[@andrewpearson1903]

@poewhite You're right to be concerned for the second, but I don't know if you've thought thru the implications of "man as only a part of nature." How much of the rest of nature is a human being worth? If offered the choice between killing a person or killing a certain amount of animal or plant life, what amount of non-human life is that human life worth to you? A hundred pigs to one person? A hundred thousand acres of rainforest? The whole Earth?

[@984francis]

​@@andrewpearson1903 That's sick. The idea that God is to be feared is so perverse, the idea of a creator who expects/demands that his/hers/it's creations fear him/her/it. Think, for fucks sake THINK. Can't you see how perverse this is? And worse, far worse, children are indoctrinated in this crap. That's child abuse.

[@charlierumoldboi3939]

@poewhite you may be right in what you say in the first paragraph. But don't go telling me what my reaction is and by definition, what I am,, I find it insulting and you are wrong.

[@Hobert-x3i]

Need a very silent place to hear this Appalatia!!!

[@johnstag1391]

Great

[@Hobert-x3i]

Must have come0 across a bad recording worked harder finally can hear some music!!!

[@Hobert-x3i]

I think Delius or someone composing the music on Appalatia could have done better because when I tune into this piece of art I don't hear much music at all!! All I hear is mostly silence!!!

[@ausmiku]

What a garbage recording, typical of many classical CDs. Where were the audio engineers ears ? The dynamics are too extreme. Sometimes you have to turn up the volume, sometimes you have to turn it down. It's ridiculous that everyone thought CDs would be great for sound quality with their dynamic range. They're a disaster.

[@Hobert-v4s]

The flute running water sound! You cant hear this in any other composer comp!!