Frederick Delius (1862-1934)
Eine Messe des Lebens (A Mass of Life) RT II/4 (1899-1905)
Roderick Williams (baritone – Zarathustra), Gemma Summerfield (soprano), Claudia Huckle (contralto), Bror Magnus Tødenes (tenor)
Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Edvard Grieg Kor, Collegium Musicum Choir
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/ Sir Mark Elder
rec. 2022 Grieghallen, Bergen, Norway
LAWO Classics LWC1265 [2 CDs: 94]
Ask one hundred classical music aficionados – including experienced orchestral professionals – to describe the music of Frederick Delius in a single word and I doubt any would suggest “energetic”, “virile” or “exultant”. Yet here lies the dilemma; so pervasive is the impression that Delius resides in some rapturous summer garden listening to impressionistic cuckoos. Clichés reinforced by the dominant image of the late-life, syphilis-ravaged, blind and wheelchair bound composer evoked so powerfully in Ken Russell’s 1968 Song of Summer that anything else seems the exception not the rule. Many orchestral players will roll their eyes at the prospect of playing a major score by this composer. And with some justification because it is quite easy to play Delius badly. His scores are not like some major works which are pretty much bullet-proof in performance. Play at the right notes in all the right places in The Rite of Spring and it will have a powerful impact. The same is not true of Delius – above and beyond textual accuracy interpreters need to have a profound understanding of what lies behind and beyond the notes. Which in turn relies on orchestras being led by conductors who have such insights. Consider for a moment the main Delius conductors on disc of the last half century or so. Beecham, Sargent, Barbirolli, Groves, Meredith Davies, Fenby, Hickox, Handley, Mackerras. Del Mar, Lloyd Jones; all dead. Of living conductors I can only think of Andrew Davies and Bo Holten alongside Mark Elder on this new set as having any significant Delius discography. Without more Delius specialists, these wonderful scores will fall even further off the performing radar with the few remaining performances unlikely to achieve the insights that were previously revealed.
What can be achieved is triumphantly proven in this sensational new performance of Eine Messe des Leben from Mark Elder and his massed Norwegian forces from Bergen. Listen to the opening bars; “Oh my will! You turning point of all need” to hear music brimming over with dynamic thrilling energy and confidence. To my mind this remains one of the most exciting choral openings to any work. But even here Delius can be his own worst enemy. The choral writing is brutal. Here and throughout the work he needs the choral sopranos to ping out high C’s (2 octaves above middle) with not just secure pitch but a sense of exhilarating ease. The solo writing is likewise compelling for the listener but rarely grateful for the performer. In many ways this is Delius’ most Straussian score. Not just in the scale of the orchestration; triple wind with bass oboe, contrabassoon, six horns, two harps and the like but also in his use of Nietzsche’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra” as the textual source. As an aside – Delius further did not help himself by calling the work a “Mass” since it has nothing do with any kind of Christian message. The same is true of his later Requiem which the devout Eric Fenby strongly disliked because of its non-Christian stance.
In the recording studio this work has actually fared well – albeit fairly infrequently. Beecham led the way with the LPO in 1952/3. Nearly twenty years passed until the LPO returned with Sir Charles Groves in 1971 for EMI/Warner. Jump forward another quarter century until Chandos in Bournemouth made a version with Richard Hickox in 1996. A mere fifteen year break saw Naxos back in Bournemouth with David Hill in 2011. At which point we arrive with this 2022 recording in Bergen. There are two ‘live’ performances to mention – Sargent at the Proms in 1966 never commercially released which can be heard on YouTube and Norman Del Mar’s thrilling version with the BBC SO also from 1971. Except for the Sargent all of these versions are sung in the original German (slightly belying note writer Andrew Mellor’s statement that the work is only now “gravitating back to its original German”). Delius collectors are likely to know – and enjoy – most if not all of those pre-existing versions as they bring different strengths and insights to this sprawling epic score. My favourite is probably the Del Mar live account. For sure the off-air recording has limitations, the live performance takes risks that do not always pay off with occasional lapses of ensemble and accuracy but in return there is a dynamic sense of discovery, a visionary elation that is surely central to Delius’ intention at this time.
Favourite that is until now and this new performance from Elder. It is not that Elder is “better” than other versions but his is the most consistently impressive across every single department from playing, singing – solo or choral, engineering and of course interpretation. According to the liner this performance is Elder’s first of the work but his understanding and insight into the Delian soundworld goes back many years. For some time he has expressed reservations over the degree to which Beecham edited Delius’s original scores and Elder is quoted in the liner as follows; “Beecham made many decisions made many decisions for us in his editions, but I feel some of these are gilding the lily. I found myself stripping back, taking away expression markings…. going for something more transparent and simple….. I try to make… the quiet passages really tender and beautifully sustained, combined with aggression and drama where possible”. I remember Elder saying much the same in a documentary several years ago apropos Sea Drift.
I have to say I find Elder wholly successful. This simple or unvarnished version of the score is surely true to the original aesthetic of Nietzsche where beauty is admired and celebrated but not sentimentalised. Again a common misconception about Delius is that his is “soft” music and this in turn can lead to a certain style of performance which emphasises the lushness that his use of harmony and instrumental resources does allow but without the sinew and musical backbone it also contains. Elder galvanises a performance that is strong not only in the passages of thrilling power and elemental drive but also in the many reflective pages of still rapt concentration. This is where the engineering is a genuine triumph – easily the best afforded this work. Bergen’s Grieghallen has proved itself to be an excellent recording venue for a series of labels in recent years and so it is again here. The soundstage is wide and deep (Elder places his violins antiphonally) but detail registers in a way I have never heard before. There is a gloriously deep tam-tam for example, the pair of harps glitter and the rich-toned bass oboe has a distinctive place in the wind choir to name but three of many. One tiny performance/production quibble – the remarkable Introduction to Part II of the work features strings and gentle timpani over widely spaced horn calls. Each pair of calls consists of a ‘near’ horn and a distant horn marked “echo” in the score. Elder’s accompanying strings are magical but the first calls are a little literal and the echoes not that distant. To be fair there is nothing in the score that indicates a spatial change as opposed to simply a dynamic one. However, Del Mar achieves a real moment of performance theatre here with his echo horns in the far distance. After all this movement is named – in Del Mar’s performance at least – In the Mountains which of course are Delius’ beloved Norwegian rugged landscape that he captured in another masterpiece Song of the High Hills.
I have deliberately made little comment regarding the choral and solo elements so far. All are excellent. Delius requires a hardworking double chorus to back up the ‘traditional’ four soloists with the major role going to the baritone. Elder has Roderick Williams in this pivotal role and he is in supreme voice. Of course there are many fine baritones singing today but Williams has made himself pre-eminent especially in British 20th Century repertoire. On disc he faces stiff competition with Benjamin Luxon wonderfully characterful for Groves and the inimical John Shirley-Quirk in his absolute prime for Del Mar. Perhaps both of those singers have more of a bass resonance in their voices than Williams but he can stand and deliver heroically with the best. Also, Williams’ particular strength is in the lyrical ‘inner’ passages where he captures to perfection Elder’s ideal of tender sustained singing. The other three soloists have smaller but significant roles. All three sing very well indeed even if their names are not as familiar as Roderick Williams. Soprano Gemma Summerfield is preferable to Hill’s Janice Watson who is rather squally but she has to cede the crown of supremacy to a very young Kiri Te Kanawa singing for Del Mar. Sargent’s soloists are a rather stellar line-up for the time with Heather Harper and Yvonne Minton powerful presences. Harper reprised the role for Groves. Tenor Bror Magnus Tødenes has a suitably ardent youthful tone that again is exactly right for the music he sings.
No other choral group achieves the same sense of fearless attack without sacrificing tonal beauty or security of pitch as the combined Norwegian choirs for Elder on this new disc. I love the sheer unfettered energy of Del Mar’s combine BBC Chorus and Choral Society even if that does come at the expense of some polish and accuracy. Hill’s Bach Choir are very well drilled and overcome all of the hurdles Delius throws at them but perhaps at the cost of a little bravura flair. Hickox throughout is well played and recorded with fine singing from all involved but the performance as a whole I do not find as gripping as Elder. Another of Elder’s significant achievements is the way he graduates the choral contributions. There are occasions when the chorus act almost as another instrumental colour and other occasions when they are front and centre. The chorus here clearly understand their role at any given point and sing with great sensitivity and awareness that supports and supplements the text. I cannot imagine that any of these performers had played or perhaps even knew this work before the performances associated with this recording. As such this is a tremendous achievement with a performance which bristles with commitment and conviction from all involved.
Within British music there really is no equivalent choral work with Brain’s Gothic Symphony and Foulds’ World Requiem the nearest in terms of scale and sweep. But the Delius was completed in 1905 (although the closing Paen to Joy was completed in its original form some six years earlier) which makes the music much more revolutionary and experimental than anything else being contemplated let alone written by British and most Continental composers of the time. Worth remembering that Mahler did not start sketching his Symphony No.8 until 1906. Elder’s performance triumphs in underlining the modernisms in the score in a way that I was not aware of previously. No-one – least of all Elder – suggests that this is a flawless masterpiece. Elder points to the work being “often over-scored” and “occasional over-exuberance that can drown out the words” but Delius is reaching for the sky and if he is not always able to achieve the lofty goals he sets himself they are moments of still-glorious (relative) failure. But listen to the closing pages of this mighty work; “Oh happiness, oh pain! Oh break, my heart! Joy wants eternity! Joy wants eternity of all things, wants deep, deep, deep eternity!” Just when you think Delius will conclude the work in one final ecstatic blinding climax, the last eight bars collapse to near silence with the chorus murmuring “eternity” one last time which epitomises Delius’ recurring obsession with transience and loss. In those dozen bars Delius’ artistic creed is heartbreakingly caught – and superbly rendered here.
Hopefully by now it should be clear that I consider this an exceptional performance of an exceptional piece. It should be noted that all the other commercial recordings (except the Beecham) include other major Delius scores as couplings – also in fine performances. Hickox’s version of the Requiem is very very fine and an excellent logical coupling. Del Mar has the same coupling but in a very murky off-air recordings from Liverpool. Hill is good in the main work but does not displace previous versions and the same can be said of his coupling of Prelude and Idyll drawn from his earlier opera Margot le Rouge. Groves’ Mass used to be coupled with the same conductor’s Songs of Sunset and Arabesque in equally vintage EMI analogue sound. So by that measure Elder’s new set of ‘just’ the Mass might seem like short measure but with a performance of this stature such concerns seem irrelevant. The booklet includes Andrew Mellor’s fairly brief but useful note alongside the full text in the original German with an English-only translation as well as the usual artist biographies.
Clearly this is a very fine recording indeed from all the artists and technical team involved. However, the laurels rest with Mark Elder. His is a long and impressive discography with many recordings that have been justly praised. But this might just be one of his very finest achievements – he has galvanised this highly talented group to give a performance of genuine greatness. A slumbering giant awakens.
Nick Barnard
Help us financially by purchasing from
