2 Pieces

Two magically evocative tone poems in miniature, these pieces sound to many ears like quintessential English Romanticism—so it may be surprising to know that they were first published and premiered in Germany, with German titles; they make use of Norwegian folk song, and they are almost certainly inspired by the landscape of rural France, where Delius lived when he wrote them in 1911-12. So much for national identity in music! On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is the better known, probably because the harmonic language is more conventional and easier to absorb. Lasting no more than seven minutes, it opens with the cuckoo calling on the oboe—and becoming more insistent until a second theme (the Norwegian melody, which came to Delius’ attention through use by his friend Grieg) arrives on the strings. Summer Night on the River is a harmonically more advanced, almost Debussyan, reverie, dominated by soft woodwind colouring but with a haunting cello solo. The river is almost certainly the one that ran by Delius’ garden at his home in Grez-sur-Loing, 50 miles south of Paris.