Brigg Fair

Steeped in nostalgia for a lost past, Brigg Fair atmospherically evokes the promise of a summer morning, the bustle of an ancient country gathering and the hopes of young love—in a set of orchestral variations on a folk song first collected and recorded by Delius’ friend Percy Grainger. Written in 1907 for large forces, including six horns, and lasting about 18 minutes, the Rhapsody follows the narrative of the song, in which a young man gets "up with the lark" to meet his beloved at a horse fair in the Lincolnshire town of Brigg. A slow introduction, suggestive of a lazy August morning gradually opening for business, leads into the main theme of the song: jauntily wistful, introduced by solo oboe but transferring to a flute. Then come the variations in which the excitement of the fair builds and subsides, leaving the oboe to supply a final, haunting reminiscence of the song. According to the song’s originating text, these lovers will stay constant, but perhaps the melancholic close of Delius’ adaptation suggests otherwise.