Violin Concerto

As the work of a maverick figure who belonged to no particular tradition and wasn’t interested in the time-honoured structural forms of composition, Delius’ Violin Concerto is unsurprisingly a piece that stands outside the norms of 19th- and early-20th-century concerto writing. Completed in 1916, in the middle of world war, it’s a thing of extended melodic flow, conceived in a single movement although with discernible sections framed by an introduction and coda. And from that introduction come all the main ideas, developed through a process of constant growth. There’s no standalone cadenza, no brilliant finale and the expected sense of combat between soloist and orchestra that typifies concerto style is softened by a shared, cooperative lyricism—all of which have kept the piece at the margins of the repertoire until fairly recently, when champions like the violinist Tasmin Little have encouraged audiences to listen beyond its lack of fireworks and defining architecture, surrendering to the rhapsodic beauty of a highly original mind. A highly active mind, as well, because analysis reveals that there’s actually more organised thought going on beneath the surface of the piece, to sustain and support the flow, than might appear. Written for and with practical assistance from Albert Sammons, one of the leading British players of the time, the Concerto is gradually finding its way into the favour of modern virtuosi who no longer judge it by comparison with its more conventionally successful peers and take it on its own terms.