5.0 out of 5 stars
What's in a name?, December 18, 2009
I recently watched a marvelous film by Ken Russell, entitled "Delius - Song of Summer". It is on Eric Fenby's 1936 memoir 'Delius as I knew him', which traces the last years of Frederick Delius, and and how Fenby helped the blind, paralysed composer complete the unfinished scores he could hear in his head. In this film, when Fenby mentioned "English" music, Delius asked "What is that?" and got rather upset. This suggests that the composer would not have liked to be categorized, as he generally is, as an "English" composer.
I can now see, as Delius apparently did, to associate music, especially great music, like this, with a Nation, Period, style, genre etc., detracts from its universal or boundless appeal.
I don't think either Delius or Butterworth would be upset if I listed the truly lovely and exceptionally well performed music in this collection under the general heading of "pastoral" -- music inspired by the beauty, order and harmony of Nature. Truly, the music on this album is wonderful, no matter what one calls it!
Delius - Song of Summer ( Delius ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Great Britain ]
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